Does Bleach Kill Cockroaches?

The ultimate guide on whether or not bleach will actually prove useful in killing off your cockroach infestation.

Cockroaches are known for many things. They’re known for being unhygienic, and they’re known for being gluttons when it comes to food, eating anything and everything in their path! They’re also renowned for their unpleasant smell. Possibly most unfortunately, they’re well known for their survivability, with them being known as nigh on indestructible, even surviving nuclear explosions!

There is a rumour out there, however, that using bleach can kill cockroaches. Is this fact or fiction?

Read on for the ultimate guide which will answer the big question: does bleach kill cockroaches?

Is Bleach a Good Way of Getting Rid of Cockroaches?

You’ll be desperate to know by now. Is bleach really a good way of getting rid of cockroaches?

The answer to the question “does bleach kill cockroaches?” is actually a yes, bleach can kill cockroaches. However, we would argue that there are definitely better ways of driving them out of your home.

Bleach does require careful handling, however, can be favourable to pesticides. This is because it doesn’t leave chemical fumes lingering within the home in the same way as pesticides would.

Using Bleach to Get Rid of Cockroaches: Some Guidelines

If you are going to use bleach in order to get rid of your cockroach infestation, then it’s important you know the ways in which it is likely to have the most impact on the cockroaches. Otherwise trying it out is simply, a waste of time.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Cockroaches Drinking the Bleach

It won’t surprise you to hear, that like with all living creatures, swallowing and drinking bleach will actually kill the cockroach efficiently.

Now, this might sound like a good solution in theory, but there are some issues with this. Unfortunately, while it would be great if they were, cockroaches aren’t stupid, and they won’t be tempted into drinking the bleach. Therefore leaving cups of bleach around the site of the cockroach nest, or even soaking certain foods in bleach and leaving them there strategically will not work. The aroma of the bleach will be immediately off putting for them.

If you were to use bleach in this way in a family home, it could prove dangerous – even fatal – to children and pets too, so it’s worth avoiding it altogether.

Cockroaches Drowning in the Bleach

It is, of course, entirely possible to drown the cockroach to death in the bleach. Again, this is fairly unsurprising.

This is best done either with a pure bleach solution, or using a combination of bleach and water mixed together.

It’s possible that you may have seen or read somewhere that mixing bleach with pine – sol makes for a good roach killer – but you should absolutely NOT do this. Mixing these two chemicals should never be done, because they can form a poisonous chlorine gas. Leave the science experiments to the experts!

If you do have a bucket of bleach solution – either bleach of bleach and water – handy, however, simply dropping a cockroach into the mixture will be enough to drown and kill it. The main down side to this? You’ll have to catch and drown each cockroach individually, which is pretty gross, and not remotely time efficient either.

In fact, you’d likely be on with this method for days on end.

The Conclusion

Finally, we come to our conclusion.

The answer to the initially asked question is yes, bleach will kill cockroaches when used in certain ways, as stated above.

But would we recommend using these methods? Absolutely not. Call in a professional!

 Thanks for reading!