A Better Way To Catch Coackroaches

Occassionally, I get a cockroach as guest in the house. My normal reaction is to take out that can of Baygon to attack it.

Baygon is a great way to kill a cockroach ( unlucky little fella ) but you need to do it right without flooding the house with Baygon which is actually bad for humans and pets like all insecticides do.

The trick is to spray just the right amount at the belly of the cockroach, where there is no protection from its wings. Then wait a minute or two for the insecticide to take effect. Then scoop up the dead roach with some newspaper and dispose of it.

Note that I say scoop up, that is you use a piece of paper as a scoop and another as a dustpan. This avoid crushing the dead cockroach and creating an ugly mess.

However despite this efficient killing, there is still the residue smell and some residue insecticide on the floor, counter top, kitchen sink etc where ever the cockroach might be when you strike.

This problem provided insight into catching a cockroach without using insecticide but at the same time leaves little chance for the cockroach to escape. You cannot use a cockroach trap here as you can just sit around waiting for the cockroach to get into the trap.

The solution is to use a vacuum clean with a long suction hose. Remove the normal floor mop attachement and just use the hose itself. You can really attacked the cockroach from afar and suck it into the abyse of the vacuume cleaner.

An improvement would be to make an attachment that could be attached to the vaouum cleaner hose and trap the cockroach inside. This can then be removed and discarded. This would be ideal as you dont way to use an expensive vacuum cleaner dustbag just to catch a cockroach.

Watch this space for design ideas for a coackroach catcher vacuum cleaner attachement.