Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 5lb with Powder Duster Included in The Bag

WARNING: graphic depictions of roach infestation. (But a happy ending!)"Diatomaceous earth powder is abrasive, and breaks down the waxy layer of the cockroach’s hard exoskeleton, killing it through dehydration. When they walk through diatomaceous earth, roaches carry away some of the DE that clings to the tiny hairs on their legs. They typically die later, back at their nest."I was skeptical.We had a really bad roach problem in our building. REALLY bad. They were in the apartments, the laundry room, the lobby, the hallways... The HOA is too cheap to provide any pest control, and just tells us tenants to pay for it out of pocket. I priced exterminators, and they were expensive- and with the magnitude of our infestation, would be REALLY expensive. It was time to DIY the roach battle.I have two cats, and like to avoid toxins as much as I can, so I wasn't about to set off insecticide bombs that leave a poisonous residue. I searched for an alternative answer to use to fight the infestation, and read that diatomaceous earth is effective at banishing roaches. This product, Harris Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth, got good reviews, and was really inexpensive, so I ordered a bag.Diatomaceous earth has the consistency and appearance of whole-wheat flour. It's not good to inhale it, so I wore a particle mask and put the cats in a different closed room when I treated the apartment with it. (But if the cats ran through it and licked their paws, it would not poison them.) The accordion-squeeze-thing-with-the-spout applicator bottle (included with the diatomaceous earth) made it easy (and actually fun) to distribute the earth. I squirted it everywhere- under all the sinks, along all the baseboards, under the bed, in the closets, behind the refrigerator and the stove- I applied it the way a priest would throw holy water around in a severely haunted house. (In hindsight, I probably used too much, because the problem was as bad as it was. You can apply just a dusting of it, and they will walk through it, and that will be enough. I re-apply just a very light amount about once a month.)And- sorry to be graphic- the roach problem was-- bad. As in they were crawling across the ceiling above your head in broad daylight bad. As in finding six of them drowned in the cat's water bowl in the morning bad. As in don't turn your back on your sandwich bad- or leave your coffee alone for too long bad. :/ This was even with us putting all the food away immediately, making sure the garbage can was always completely sealed, wiping all of the surfaces in the kitchen down constantly, getting the cat food bowls off of the floor immediately after they were done eating, and vacuuming constantly for crumbs. It didn't matter; they were positively everywhere. They had set up shop in this building (and especially, it seemed, in our apartment) and weren't going anywhere.I admit- the problem was so bad, I had my doubts that anything would clear it up. Maybe a constant bombardment of every surface by gamma or cosmic rays, something like that, might help. A substance that resembled flour didn't appear to be capable of an being effective weapon, let alone a lethal one. I did watch "what happens to roaches when they encounter diatomaceous earth" videos on YouTube, which were reassuring. But when they are crawling all over the place, you want something immediate. I did have a spray can of essential-oil based pet safe roach killer I attacked them constantly with, so that helped make it feel like something was killing them right away.I shouldn't have worried.After about three or four days- we started to notice that there weren't so many roaches around. (Again- this was after an infestation so bad it seemed like the roaches had rented the apartment- not us.) Every hour, and especially every day, there were fewer and fewer roaches, until it got to the point where we weren't seeing them at all. If you opened a cabinet, you might see one skitter away, or one would run across the kitchen floor. That was within the first three or four days after treatment. But they no longer "decorated" the walls and ceilings, or crawled across your feet as you sat working (yeah- it was that bad.) First only one in the morning, then none, and no more, was found drowned in the cat water bowl. Slowly but surely, the DT was working its silent magic. Every now and then I would apply a fresh squirt of DT using the handy-dandy squeezebox applicator- around the refrigerator and stove, along the baseboards in the kitchen. But I really didn't need to.Within a week, maybe nine days at most- they were ALL COMPLETELY GONE. Nada. Zilch. Oh-nay oches-ray. It was amazing! It all felt too suspiciously easy, and too good to be true, we thought. There must be some secret bivouac full of them somewhere, silently plotting their revenge, biding their time until they flooded the apartment triumphantly with their squadrons once more. But no- they were really and truly gone. (Oh, I know they are still around somewhere- probably every apartment building has some level of roach population. But the roaches in THIS building have come to learn that, unless they are wearing tiny hazmat suits, this is a completely hostile environment for them, and it WILL kill them. )This bag of white flour-like stuff was one of the best investments we have ever made in terms of value for money. It would have cost a fortune to get an exterminator in here, for what would have needed to be multiple visits in a month, repeating for months. Instead- a sprinkle of (magic!) Harris' powder- and the vermin are no more. This product is, needless to say, HIGHLY recommended!By the way- it's been months since I treated the apartment with the earth, and the roaches are STILL gone. Also, the bag is still over half-full, and the amount I use once a month as a reinforcement sprinkle is negligible. Talk about economical!It's such a blessing to know this stuff works- that we have a reliable weapon in the roach wars- especially when it felt we were never going to be rid of those disgusting critters. We are, and remain, happily roach-free. :)

In the beginning, there were no roaches. My wife and I are fastidious cleaners. We're tidy peopleWe enjoy cleaning. We had friends over one night and a roach crawled out of their backpack. He got away before we could smash him. That roach, that single, solitary ruiner of domestic bliss, who came intent on starting an empire, turned our world upside down. He was like Genghis Khan. We didn't know what to do...we tried everything.We fought MANY battles in vain before discovering DE. For about 6 months. 6 months of emptying our kitchen and putting things back...6 months of repetitious frustration...6 months of thinking we've finally won, and having the roaches resurge. I got two words for you...diatomaceous earth.There are irrefutable reasons DE works. Indestructible reasons. As with everything else in this life/world, you need a plan, a strategy, a curiosity, a desire to beat your opponent, a need to finish the victor, so your insanity becomes a blossom of accomplishment with the utter and final elimination OF ROACHES. Can you tell that we suffered?! Lol.Diatomaceous earth. Anyone who says it doesn't work didn't use it intelligently. I mean, ANYBODY can use something poorly, without strategy or common sense, and find fault. Some things just never work for people because they give up after the first try. These are the same people who complain incessantly but never get their hands dirty. Or they don't get their hands dirty LONG ENOUGH. To eliminate a roach infestation, you're going to get your hands dirty (or dusty). Otherwise, you're the family on the block with a tent around your house while you're in a hotel for ? # days. My wife and were not going that route...we were gonna win.How can I be so uncompromisingly confident? Roaches can't survive DE. It cuts them up inside and out. If they make contact with the dust, they can't survive. If you dust in their hiding places, they won't have a place to nest, so they run. They try to escape with dust on them. They cannot/will not survive that.To clear up a common misconception... some people say DE doesn't work because after using it, they see increased bug activity. An uptick. Hello, McFly, any ideas why that might happen? Anybody home McFly??? If my puns are lost on you, at least borrow some common sense. You've disturbed them from their hiding places. They are looking for new places... they're panicking, on the run! You will have to deal with them as they emerge. Have a fly swatter or flip flop ready. Practice your aim and repeat strike speed. You think this is a game people?! Lol. This is war.A few PRO tips (yes, we're pros. No certifications, just an average American couple who eliminated a full infestation without any professional help OH YEAH! I got four letter words for those motherfornicators. Can I say that?)So a few pro tips...Dust heavily with included duster behind/under/around the fridge, stove, dishwasher and sink, gaps between cabinets and walls.Use sink plugs and wipe out your sink at night. They follow water and the more desperate they are for it, the more they target your sink.Stop leaving food, water or dirty dishes in the sink. It makes a huge difference.Make a shot spray:In a large spray bottle, mix 5-10 drops each of Peppermint oil, Rosemary oil, Orange oil and Cedarwood oil. Squeeze in a big glob of castille soap as a bonding agent for the oils. This spray will kill any roach within 10 seconds of contact. This our homemade recipe. Roaches hate peppermint and rosemary. Orange oil dissolves their soft tissue. Cedarwood oil attacks their central nervous system. Keep this spray in a black bottle or store under sink. Light will destroy the efficacy of the spray in only a day or two. Spray stored away from light can maintain efficacy indefinitely. As a comparison, we tested Ortho Home Defense against our spray. With the Ortho, we had to spray the roaches repeatedly because after about 30 seconds they started moving again. Our spray kills them in 10 seconds flat. But OHD does have some good qualities, which is the next paragraph.Spray around cabinets and baseboards with Ortho Home Defense. This is a poison. It leaves a film. Roaches eat it and die. This will not eradicate an infestation. It says so on the bottle. It's great used in tandem with DE, which is best used (heavily) in hidden areas..out of sight areas.DE works best dry. We tried doing the spray but the sprayer gets clogged. After multiple mixtures we gave up. If you only use it behind and around your appliances, sink and cabinetry gaps, roaches won't have a nesting place in your kitchen. If they don't have access to your kitchen, they'll leave your house. DE will kill most and render escape difficult for the survivors.Another approach is the plugin frequency emitters. They have improved in the last few years. Use these in conjunction with the DE and our spray. This eliminates the need for spraying the insecticides.Roaches need water. They survived the dinosaurs, but they'll die after a few days without water. It was amazing watching dust covered roaches, so desperate for water, because the DE was drying them out. Leave an angular glass of water out and if that's the only water available to them, they'll climb in and drown.Roaches need warmth. They love to enter the vents of dishwashers and coffee makers and they will nest there. In our dishwasher, we found a nest under the circuit board (inside the button module). I had to remove and disassemble the entire front panel to clean it out. Make a thick slurry with DE and apply with q-tips in these places. You can't dust and spray is hard to control. A slurry will harden and turn into razor blades for roaches. They will leave your dishwasher.Coffee makers are tricky. They vent on the bottom for easy access and are convenient for roaches. Coffee makers always have moisture inside. It may be best to use a french press until you stop seeing roaches. The frequency emitters are great deterrents after doing a scorched earth campaign with the DE.DE made the difference. We won the war because of it. About a month after dusting, with a couple repeat applications, the last few survivors either left, were smashed or died of dehydration.Other approaches help in unison, but only DE is 100% effective. Read about the White House. That's what inspired us. We were so beyond fed up and we're so grateful to DE and the Harris company for their product. They made our home a home again.Copy/paste and utilize this information. Win the war!!!