Ridding your home of roaches

By the Mother Earth News editors

The perfect homestead cow, raspberry bush rescues and a recipe for whitewash.
Conquering the Invincible

Can you suggest a safe and effective way to get rid of roaches in my otherwise clean apartment?

JOEL
New York, New York

Cockroaches are one of the oldest and most successful organisms on earth. They've been around some 350 million years and have survived several global catastrophes - including whatever killed the dinosaurs. Their evolutionary tenacity is directly attributable to their appetite: Roaches will eat any organic matter - from dried up wallpaper paste to fresh pizza crumbs. Our revulsion toward them seems to be as deeply ingrained as their ability to survive, and with good reason: They carry mites and disease, and their droppings rank second only to those of dust mites as a cause of asthma. Incidentally, asthma has recently been recognized as epidemic among inner-city children.

Cockroach complaints are common among New Yorkers because the underground conduits for trains, storm water and sewage, natural gas, fresh water and wiring of all types connect the city's apartment buildings. These subterranean networks also teem with several species of cockroach.

Some roaches prefer damp places, like bathrooms, and others like it dry. But all roaches are attracted by anything they find edible, so obsessive cleanliness will get you only so far. Roaches can survive, even thrive, on specks of leather that flake off your shoes and the dust that falls from natural-fiber clothes. When it comes to fighting roaches, the best offense is a strong defense: Caulk your home.

Get a $25 air-powered gun and use an air compressor ($300, or $50 a day to rent). Use 100% inorganic caulk; most brands are comprised of the same gypsum that goes into drywall board, and even cockroaches won't eat it. Avoid any brand that might contain a binder based on natural gum. You may find a caulk that contains boric acid, a mild but effective cockroach toxin.

Then, seal yourself in. Fill every crack in the walls and ceiling, between adjoining walls, walls and ceiling and floor, and around doors and windows. Also, plug up every hole carrying wires and plumbing. Remove and caulk wiring entrances of wall and ceiling electric outlets, switches and light fixtures, TV and computer cables and telephone outlets. Stuff roach- (and mouse-) repelling steel wool into cavities too large to caulk, and tack pieces of aluminum flashing or thin plywood over large holes and caulk around them. Install fine screen in a caulking gasket behind the outlet fixture of all air vents. If the apartment gets stale from insufficient air exchange, crack a bedroom window or two at the top, but screen the opening and seal up every crack inside the window casing, and blow boric acid into the cavities all around as follows.

To kill the roaches that still manage to squeeze in, get some powdered boric acid and a good dustblower (you can get preloaded plastic roach-dusters at hardware stores). Be sure the dust contains nothing but boric acid and perhaps a desiccant to keep it dry. Empty a prefilled duster bellows to no more than 2/3 full. (To keep dust in the bellows fine and airborne, include a few marbles, small rocks, washers or pennies.) Puff gently to finely coat surfaces at roach entry points. You'll also need to cover some spots that are hard for you to reach, but easy for them: Drill holes down the centers and at the corners of backs and closed floors of cabinets and puff powder in. Apply the boric acid powder so thinly that it is barely visible. Wipe it up and reapply frequently to keep it from absorbing moisture and losing effectiveness. The powder must be bone-dry so the roaches pick it up on their feet, then ingest it and die. Never apply boric acid onto countertops or other exposed surfaces, especially those used to prepare food. Any visible residues should be wiped off with a damp cloth.

Boric Acid Boric acid is a white, inorganic powder chemically derived from water and boron, which is mined from vast mineral deposits in the ground and used in consumer products such as laundry additives, toothpaste and mouthwash. Deadly to cockroaches, boric acid is low in toxicity to people and pets, and is even used as an eyewash. It is also odorless and contains no volatile solvents. Boric acid has been a favorite weapon against roaches for more than a century, and is one of the most effective cockroach control agents ever developed, provided that it is used correctly.

Ambush in the Raspberry Patch

We are having a problem with the new shoots on our eight-year-old raspberry plants. They seem to be under attack by some sort of worm. Right now we are burning the tops of the plants away so that neighboring plants don't get infected. Is there anything else we can do to get rid of the problem, or do we have to get rid of the plants all together?

GEORGE
Rawdon, Quebec

Your berry plants are being attacked by cane borers - probably the larvae of the black and orange raspberry cane borer beetle or of the raspberry crown borer. Both species produce a single generation of offspring each year and have a two-year life cycle: eggs and larvae the first year, adult phase in the second. There is no way to get to larvae once they hatch inside a cane, so you're doing precisely the right thing: breaking off and burning borer-infected canes as soon as you notice damage. Keep it up for the next two years, even if your crop is severely diminished. Your eight-year old plants are close to the end of their ten-year prime.

We'd recommend that you use the established planting to get rid of the borer population and plant any new crops in another location - preferably on raised beds to guarantee good drainage and avoid root rot. You might want to get a copy of The Backyard Berry Book by Stella Otto a useful, hands-on book about growing small fruits in the home garden [$15.95, Chelsea Green, (800) 639-4099]

The Best Homestead Bovine

Where can I buy Saler cows anti at what price?

JAMES
Pretty, Home, Missouri

The Saler (sah-lehr) is an ancient breed, originally from the mountains of France. A distinctive mahogany color, this breed is hardy as an anvil, births easily and is one of the best calf milk-producers of any breed. They all thrive on almost any type of graze and will outlive most cows by several years. In short, Salers are a great homestead cow. They're rare however, so there is no auction market for them and you are on your own, pricewise.

For sturdy, low-mainte nance Salers, try:

Glen Osprey Farm
R.R.#6
Shelburne, Ontario
Canada, LON 1S9
(519) 925-6412
Fax (519) 925-1297
E-mall dpease@salerscattle.com
Web: www.salercattle.com

The Nettles Brothers' Ranch
Rt. 4 Box 1333 (Jack Nettles Road)
Livingston, TX 77351
(936) 327-8768
E-Mall. NettlesRanch@agdomain cam
Web: www.agdomain.com/NettlesBrothersRanch

Calling Tom Sawyer ....

Do you have a simple recipe for whitewash? I want to paint my fence.

CARL
Sparwood, British Columbia

If you crush and superheat any calcium-rich mineral such as limestone, grind it fine and mix it with water, it will heat up into a caustic alkaline soup that will stick to practically anything and quickly firm up in any shape. As it cools, it loses its chemical burning characteristic and cures into a hard, dense material. Mixed with whiting (while clay, corn starch or wheat flour) and/or sand, gravel or rocks, this is the basis of plaster of Paris, stucco, concrete and long-lasting, exterior-grade whitewash.

Lime is sold as mason's lime, quick or teat plain lime m waterproof sacks that hold up to 60 pounds. This lime is bone-dry and bright white - not like the gray and somewhat oily lime used by gardeners to counteract the acidity of soil. Lime can be mixed with water and used right out of the sack, but you're better off using slaked lime. Here's how you make it:

1 Fill a stout wooden or galvanized steel bucket half way with water.

2 Pour in lime, stirring with a wooden rod or paint stirrer, until the water level is within two or three inches of the top. Leave the stirrer resting at the bottom to help break the material out end let it set overnight (but no longer).

3 The next day, pour out the water leaving just enough to cover, and stir up the settled lime

4 Mix up a saline solution - a cup or two of salt per gallon of water - and add this to the lime until it reaches a pancake batter-like consistency. Mix only enough to use in one session. To keep the lime from resettling in the bottom of the bucket and to act as a binder, we like to add in powdered milk or paperhangers wheat paste. Mix them to a thin paste in water before adding.

Apply this solution to your fence with a broad, disposable whitewash brush (which you can find at an old-time country paint or hard goody store). To keep the wash from dabbling on your fence-line petunias, slosh the brush in, pull it up, shake straight down twice and flip the tip up quickly to the work.