From: us279764@mmm.serc.3m.com (Philip . Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Re: ROACHES !
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:13:24 GMT
Organization: 3M Company

Disclaimer:  This is about roaches, not beer.  I couldn't post to
alt.rec.roaches so I posted it here :-) :-) :-)


> A little boric acid (available at many hardware stores) sprinkled
> on the floor around the perimeter of the room will deter the little
> buggers.  As they walk across it, dragging their little bodies behind,
> it gets into their breathing apparatus and they suffocate.  This
> insecticidic method is more mechanical than chemical, and there's less
> risk of contaminating nearby foodstuffs

Another post claimed that boric acid ate their legs off.


I don't believe the former (otherwise talcum powder or confectionery
sugar would work just as well and I've never heard of anyone putting out
confectionery sugar to KILL roaches ;-), and I'm skeptical of the
latter as well.  (I doubt the acidic reaction that etches/dissolves
things occurs very fast when the acid is in the solid state and as far
as I know, roaches' legs don't sweat...)

The story I've always heard is that when the roaches crawl through
boric acid, it coats there legs and antennae.  When the roaches
subsequently clean themselves (imagine a cat with chitin cleaning
it's whiskers which are the length of its body) they ingest the boric
acid.  Now, is the boric acid (once ingested) a poison, or does it
simply eat away the inner workings of the roach?  I seem to recall that
boric acid isn't instantly fatal which makes me think that it works
by etching their innards.

Well, whatever.  The point is that boric acid WORKS!.  I lived in an
apartment building in Connecticut and a family moved into one of the
units from Florida and brought some Floridian-type roaches with them.
(They were HUGE!)

The landlord had an exterminator come out several times to _attempt_ to
kill the roaches.  Finally, the exterminator's laid down boric
acid in the basement and around the pipes under everyone's sink.
They were reluctant to do so earlier because there were children
in the building and I suppose boric acid looks a lot like sugar.  At any
rate, boric acid did the trick.

I can't remember if the exterminators ever came to clean up the boric
acid -- they had to leave it there long enough for the current batch
of roach eggs to hatch, grow up, and walk through the boric acid (to
die).  Also, it probably wouldn't be very effective to just pour boric
acid around the perimeter of your kitchen and around the pipes under
your sink.  While you might kill YOUR roaches, your neighbors roaches
will be happy to move into your kitchen (for awhile anyway).*  I think
you'd need to treat the whole house/building.


*  Sounds like a great diffusion problem:  The Jones' kitchen is a
source of roaches which migrate following a classical random walk.
The Smiths' kitchen is a roach sink (no pun intended).  What is the
concentration profile of roaches in the apartment building?  Yeetch!



Phil Miller       "My problem with most athletic challenges is training.
pmiller@mmm.co     I'm lazy and find that workouts cut into my drinking
		   time."            from _A Wolverine is Eating My Leg_
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing