Cockroaches

n n n If you bought a jar of boric acid for roaches and they are still around, the powder is almost never the problem. Boric acid works, but only as a thin film you can barely see, tucked into the hidden spots roaches actually travel. Pile it on visibly and they walk around it.

If you are standing in the aisle reaching for the best roach spray, here is the honest read from someone who does this for a living: a spray is a spot tool, not a cure. It kills the roach you hit and can knock down a stray fast, which is satisfying. But against a German

The best cockroach gel bait is not a single product, it is a rotation. Buy one indoxacarb-based bait and one fipronil-based bait, place tiny dabs deep in the cracks where roaches actually hide, and switch between the two so the colony never adapts to one flavor. Before you spend anything, cut off food and water

n n n If you are standing in the pesticide aisle trying to pick the best roach killer, the honest answer is that there is not one. The right product depends on where the roaches are and what kind you have, and the can of spray most people grab first is usually the wrong call.

If you keep finding roaches even though your kitchen is clean, the thing pulling them in is almost certainly water, not crumbs. A roach can coast about a month with no food as long as it has water, but it dries out and dies in roughly a week without it. So a dripping pipe under

If roaches keep turning up in your apartment kitchen at night, the frustrating part is that you can keep your unit spotless and still see them, because in a shared-wall building they walk in from next door. You can still win on your side of the wall. Seal the gaps inside your unit and bait