Based on my earlier research (to combat a termite problem), Boric acid is commonly sold in the form of two compounds (there may be others): Orthopedic Acid ("Borid" is one brand of this compound) and Disodium Octoborate Tetrahydrate which is a water soluble inorganic borate salt ("Timbor" is one brand of this compound). As far as I know, these two boric acid compounds are similar in pesticidal/fungicidal effectiveness and other properties.
I bought my supply of Timbor online at ePestSupply.com:
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Search their site for Timbor, Borid, or simply "boric acid". Lots of options available.
You can read the product information at:
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They also have the MSDS and other info for these and many other chemicals at:
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Btw, this company is a great source of pesticidal chemicals and supplies that are normally only available to licensed professionals. Standard disclaimer: I have no interest in this company; just a happy customer.
I have read that equal parts of oat meal and plaster of paris mixed together will do them in. (leave out the water) The idea is they eat this mixture and it sets up in their stomach. They can't eat or drink and die.
Well, the BEST Place I have found is in the laundry section of your local food supermarket. Look for boxes of
20 Mule Team Borax. NOTE: you do not want "BORAXO"...that includes detergent. It is not only a great insecticide, but, will clean and freshen your laundry. I deal with ant problems by mixing a little honey into some borax, just enough to make a thick paste, and putting dollops of it in areas where the ants appear. They love it, and, hoover it down...then, take it back to the nest, where they feed it to the OTHER ants. It is not quick (It can take a week or so), but, it is VERY effective. Regards Dave Mundt
The thing about getting stung is that people are not inclined to take chances...
I recently googled some info about getting rid of a wasp nest (because it was in a doorway)-- it's worth noting that some species are more aggressive than others, and most people don't bother to distinguish between them.
I'm perfectly willing to let them be -- if they'll let *me* be. However, when a bunch of wasps built a nest just under the eves of the house, just outside a bedroom window, and any vibration of the window would result in a "tick, tick, tick" as the wasps took turns dive-bombing the window surface at about half-second intervals, I decided that these were just too bad-tempered to leave right outside the window. (The window screen was not even in the right position, so we
*couldn't* open that window until they were dealt with.
Bees, I will let settle on my hand. The same with larger, more gentle wasps. But these were the insect equivalent of concentrated habeñero sauce. :-)
I have a long term peace treaty with the wasps that hang around my stacks of Stuff.
I can be working in the shop, surrounded by a dozen wasps critiquing my work, and as long as I think either neutral or happy thoughts, they simply go about their business. Others have come over, been afraid of them, and will get chased or hassled.
They dont bother me, I dont bother them, and they do a fair job keeping the lace wings off the grapes and the aphids off the roses.
Gunner
"Considering the events of recent years, the world has a long way to go to regain its credibility and reputation with the US." unknown
I need to put a screen in my unused fireplace insert. Over the past week or so, I've had to escort 3 wasps/yellowjackets outside as they flew through my living room. One flew out on his own today, but the other 2 I had to get between a jar and card, then release outside.
I hate the things but am no longer afraid of them. I was packed in ice and hit with adrenaline shots until my head damnear blew off as a kid, so I'm much more afraid of those bloody med techs and doctors than I am the insect who stung me 4 times under the arm and 3 times in the side of the ribcage that one time.
True, and they eat a lion's share of those pesky skeeters!
--- Annoy a politician: Be trustworthy, faithful, and honest! ---
I lost the orig. post but have this to add; I was in an oriental 99 cents store and picked up some chalk like sticks that when rubbed around baseboards, drawers, cabinets, etc., killed ALL roaches. This is in an immigrant apartment building, the chalk was applied 5 years ago, and 1 year after. NO reinfestation since. Safe for pets, humans, etc. Promably boric acic in a binder. I'm not being racist, - I live here! The exterminator told me the other residents apparently have never seen a broom or trash can. I turn the exterminator away now. My small spiders clean it up and go away until more food appears.
Ok, call me ignorant, but I don't understand how a cockroach can get inside a microwave or refrigerator. Ants I can understand, but how does a larger insect fit in the vent holes?
If you can't find the plain stuff, you can make it by adding acid (muriatic is a good choice) to borax. (Borax alone also works.) Boric acid is insoluble and precipitates, filter and rinse and there 'ya go.
FYI, boric acid and borax are both "poisonous" to the tune of 200mg/kg, meaning a leathal dose of around 16 grams (salt's LD50 is 4000mg/kg), which is also around the LD50 of acetylsalicylic acid (asprin).
Tim
-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:
I walked through a swarming group of yellowjackets some years ago. I immediately recognized the "cloud" of them as a swarming colony, and just walked right through it, with the bees bouncing off me like raindrops. Kind of a surreal experience. There were several women shrieking hysterically and flailing wildly at the bees. They must have thought I was totally crazy.
If you ever see a tomato hornworm (giant caterpillar) that has little black appendages hanging out of it, leave it alone. Parasitic wasps have laid eggs in it, and when they hatch, bye-bye caterpillar - and a new generation of wasps to watch over your crops.
Do you really have to ask? I mean...they are roaches!
(Heck, one night in the basement I saw a small centipede crawling by. About
1 1/2" long, the kind with the spider looking legs. So I dropped a flat bottomed can on it to squash it. I lifted up and off it went. So I squashed it again. Still not dead! Geez, there was like 1/32" space left there!)
Tim
-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:
I moved into a place that had sat vacant for several months in the spring - Must have been about mid-july, if memory serves.
The back of the house had a concrete slab with a tin awning - both ran the full length of the house, and about 12 feet out from it. We thought that was great, and were starting to move in when one of us decided that something needed to go in through the back door, under the awning.
That decision changed abruptly when it was discovered (by two of us taking several stings each) that the underside of the tin awning was coated with paper-wasp nests. Not huge ones, but *LOTS* of them - I'd estimate something like 6 per square foot, each tended by about half a dozen to a dozen adult wasps, all of whom were somewhat less than pleased by othe traffic of our moving in.
We cured the problem easily enough - A can of right-gard spray and a Bic lighter make a more-than-passable short-to-medium range flamethrower...
Wasps don't seem to survive very well when engulfed in a fireball. Or at the very least, they don't sting...
(and before you folks with the "But wasps/bees are such wonderful creatures" attitude get going, yes, I know they are - I'm a beekeeper by hobby, and usually work my hives in nothing more protective than T-shirt and blue-jeans. Wasps are OK, too - unless they're causing problems, don't bother wasps. But when they're stinging me for no offense greater than trying to enter the house while toting a washing machine, they are, by definition, causing problems)
Yellowjackets ARE NOT bees, and DO NOT swarm in the manner of bees. PLEASE keep that straight... It's hard enough convincing the general public that "not everything that goes "buzzzzz" is a bee"! Your next paragraph tells me you should know better than this!
Been there, done that - Horseback ride (I was the guide for a rent-a-horse outfit) in the desert of Arizona, near Phoenix, with something like 15 tourists mounted behind me. Heard this droning roar that started out small, then rapidly got louder and louder. Looking around for the source spotted this HUGE cloud moving rapidly towards us. Horses were unconcerned, but the people on them were getting spooked when I realized it was a honeybee swarm. Sang out a quick "proper procedure" lecture ("They're looking for a new home, they're not likely to sting unless you swat at them, if they land on you, just puff them away with your breath", etc), and we continued on, with many exclamations, eeks, little shrieks, and so on, but nobody stung when it passed. One lady who had been particularly vocal in her "oh shit! We're gonna die in this bee attack" type commentary before I got the lecture out came out the other side admiring several of the bees that had settled on her arm on the way by - none trying to sting, just settled there for a brief rest - and made the comment that "they're kinda cute when you get to looking at them, and Hey! They tickle!" I couldn't help but chuckle.
Yup... I've forgotten the name of the wasp, but there's a specific one that preys exclusively on the tomato worms.
Side note: Catch one of the tomato worms (without the "appendages") and park it in a quart (or larger) sized mayonaise jar with some holes in the lid. Keep it fed (on tomato clippings, obviously - As far as I've ever been able to find out, that's all they'll eat) until it "gets restless" - pacing around and around the jar like it's looking for something, ignoring fresh tomato clippings, and so on. When it starts doing that, slowly add about 3 inches of soil - For purposes of visibility, sand is best, but plain old garden dirt will work fine. It'll rapidly burrow to the bottom of the jar and spin its cocoon. Now wait, keeping the lid on the jar. Anywhere from two weeks to a month later, one of the prettiest moths you're ever likely to see will emerge. The one I did as a youngster was almost 4 inches across, and had the prettiest "face" pattern on its wings in shades of brown and red, with yellow highlights. (It took me four tries to figure out that it wasn't like the monarch caterpillars I'd done before - They wanted to spin their cocoon on the underside of the jar lid, or on a tiwg in the jar - They went "up" - The tomato worm wanted to burrow, and my first three apparently wore themselves out searching for a way to do so - They just wasted away running laps around the jar)
I've never seen this done anywhere else, but there was a female (?) oak tree in town that would drop these knarly apple thing (oak apples, I was told) and my mother would get a box full every year, section them, and put them in closets and such. The roaches stayed away, for some reason, and any more than that I don't know. Maybe someone else has heard of this or can fill in the blanks of how this works.
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