Illustration of a dead cockroach in front of a spoonful of peanut butter
Yield: 12 Peanut Butter Cockroach Baits

Homemade Roach Bait with Peanut Butter

Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Cockroaches are no match for this deadly, easy-to-make boric acid and peanut butter roach killer.

Derived from borax, boric acid is a powder that kills roaches when ingested but poses little danger to humans. When combined with peanut butter, roaches become attracted to the poison, eat it, and eventually die.

In this "Roach-free recipe," you'll mix up a batch of boric acid and peanut butter bait for roaches, and distribute tiny portions around your home.

Materials

Tools

  • Mixing bowl and spoon
  • Latex gloves
  • Work area away from where food is prepared
  • 12 Bottle caps

Instructions

  1. Slip on a pair of latex gloves. While boric acid is generally safe for humans, it could irritate your skin.
  2. Combine peanut butter and boric acid powder in a bowl and mix.
  3. Press the mixture into bottle caps and transfer to a container like a pie tin for easy transporting.
  4. Place filled bottle caps in areas that roaches have been seen or are suspected to frequent, taking care to push them back where pets and kids can't reach them. Possible areas to include are: under and behind the fridge, stove, and dishwasher, under sink areas, and inside cabinets.
  5. Be sure to wipe down your work area, wash your bowl and mixing spoon, clean up any mixture left behind, and wash your hands if they've come into contact with the powder.

Notes

  • Be patient. Boric acid is an effective but slow-acting roach killer. It can take up to 72 hours after ingestion before a cockroach dies.
  • Use remaining boric acid as a light dust near areas of infestation. Roaches don't just die from ingesting boric acid, but from walking through it, too.
  • While powerful, peanut butter cockroach baits are unlikely to resolve serious cockroach problems by themselves. See other recipes for more aggressive pest control strategies.

12 Comments

    • Andrew

      Yes, the boric acid isn’t going to go bad. But the peanut butter may lose some of its scent.

    • Andrew

      The boric acid won’t lose it’s effectiveness, but the peanut butter will become less tempting as it dries and gets old. You may want to freshen up the mixture every few weeks or so.

  1. I put my peanut butter into a Zip Loc bag. Then you can carefully pour the powder in to minimize the dust. Then zip it up and mix away. I didn’t need any gloves, masks, or ventilation for this step.

    Super safe.

    • Awesome tip. I am going to use this tip and also store the unused portion in the bag to keep the mixture fresh as I only will need to put out a couple of traps and will use the remainder to refresh every week until my cock roaches problem goes away.

  2. I found a a solution for adults and nests to mix with water. It was very effective over time.This would help in an apartment where you have common walls but you’d have to use it regularly/weekly? unless you can seal off the apartment. Not good around animals.

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