Cockroaches can damage your furniture and insulation by making holes in them. If roaches get into electronics, the circuitry can burn out. There are many ways to get rid of roaches at home. But does alcohol kill cockroaches and their eggs?
Yes, rubbing alcohol can kill cockroaches to some extent but it’s not most effective. This is because alcohol is not a pesticide by nature and is not toxic to them.
| Facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Effectiveness | Alcohol can kill cockroaches on direct contact but is not a reliable pesticide. |
| Attraction | Cockroaches are attracted to alcoholic beverages like beer due to their sugar content. |
| Application Methods | Using bowls of alcohol to trap cockroaches or spraying them directly can be effective. |
| Safety Concerns | Boric acid is effective in killing cockroach eggs. |
| Alternative Solutions | Boric acid is effective for killing cockroach eggs. |
Alcohol and Its Types
There are four kinds of alcohol: rubbing, denatured, isopropyl, and ethyl. Ethyl alcohol, often known as grain alcohol or ethanol, is the type most people are familiar with.
Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing alcohol is a common household item used in many ways, from cleaning your blinds to removing those annoying permanent stains.
Rubbing alcohol naturally kills bacteria, but it doesn’t always stop them from growing. Alcohol is also effective against fungi and viruses.
You can clean things like scissors, temperature sensors, and other surfaces with alcohol. But alcohol isn’t always good enough to use as a hospital-grade cleaner.
Denatured Alcohol
Denatured alcohol, also known as “pungent alcohol,” is a mixture of chemicals that make it unpleasant to drink.
Most of the time, 5 -10 per cent methanol is used to denature alcohol. When ingested in large quantities, methanol is highly poisonous.
Denatured alcohol is used primarily as a disinfectant, for cleaning windows, for sterilizing medical equipment, and for many other purposes. When diluted to approximately 65-70 percent, it is used as rubbing alcohol.
Isopropyl Alcohol
Isopropyl alcohol is a flammable organic compound, has no colour, and smells strongly of alcohol.
Mixing isopropyl alcohol with water makes antiseptic rubbing alcohol. It’s used in hand lotions, aftershave lotions, and other beauty products. It’s also used to change the chemical structure of ethanol.
Ingesting even a small amount of isopropyl alcohol can cause severe pain and damage to the delicate tissue that lines and protects the throat and airway. When taken in large amounts, it can even cause seizures, a drop in blood pressure, and a heart attack.
Ethyl Alcohol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, is a flammable liquid, has no colour, and tastes terrible. When yeasts ferment sugar, they naturally make ethyl alcohol. In addition to being used in alcoholic drinks, it is also used as an antiseptic and disinfectant in medicine.
Ethyl alcohol is frequently added to gasoline and other types of motor fuel. More than 98% of gasoline in the United States contains ethyl alcohol.
Are Roaches Attracted To Alcohol?
Alcohol use in beverages affects attracting cockroaches. It won’t scare them away. Alcohol is cockroaches’ favourite beverage, and they are frequently drawn to it as a source of food and sugar.
Entomologists think that roaches are drawn to alcohol because it has a lot of sugar. Cockroaches are only attracted to alcoholic drinks like beer, not other types of alcoho,l because they have a lot of sugar in them. Entomologists also say that hop extract is another thing that makes cockroaches like alcohol.
On the other hand, other types of alcohol smell bad to cockroaches and can kill them quickly. For whatever reason, alcohol is toxic to roaches and can kill them if they come into contact with it. You can put alcohol in a spray bottle to kill any roaches you see or the area where you think they are hiding.
What Effect Does Alcohol Have on Different Types of Cockroaches?
The American cockroach, the brown-banded cockroach, the German cockroach, and the Oriental cockroach are the most common types of cockroaches found in the United States
| Type Of Cockroaches | Effect Of Alcohol |
American cockroach | There are a variety of ways in which alcohol might impact American cockroaches. When cockroaches consume alcohol, it makes them sleepy and clumsy because it makes them drunk. They are in a more vulnerable state when confronted by predators. Additionally, it hinders the cockroaches’ capacity to generate offspring. |
Brown-banded cockroach | It is most uncertain whether or not alcohol affects brown-banded cockroaches. On the other hand, alcohol consumption is likely to harm their growth, behavior, and lifespan. Brown-banded roaches can’t live in alcohol because it has a neurotoxin that can kill them. |
German cockroach | The German cockroach is susceptible to being poisoned by alcohol. When cockroaches are exposed to low to moderate amounts of alcohol, they move more slowly and can’t move around as much. Cockroaches are unable to survive prolonged or high doses of exposure. This is because alcohol causes the insects to lose water from their bodies. |
Oriental cockroach | Alcohol can hurt Oriental cockroaches in many ways. First, it may cause them to become lightheaded and disoriented, leaving them more vulnerable to predator attacks. In addition, alcohol can cause damage to the reproductive organs and wings of these insects. |
How To Use Alcohol To Kill Cockroaches?
You can use alcohol to get rid of roaches in one of the two following ways:
| Method 1 | Method 2 |
| The first way is to put them in a bowl with alcohol and let them drown. Divide an alcoholic beverage bottle between two or three cups or small bowls. They are more active at night, so put the alcohol in bowls where you want it to be overnight. When you check on the bowl the following day, the cockroaches will be dead and drowned. | The second way is to spray them with alcohol. Get a spray bottle and put rubbing alcohol in it. Make sure the spray is on the splashing bottle. Find roaches and spray them down one by one. Hit the roach’s spiracle so that it blocks the hole and dies from suffocation. |
Is It Safe To Kill Roaches With Alcohol?
Alcohol is technically an efficient roach killer because it is low-cost, easily accessible, kills roaches quickly, leaves no residue, and doesn’t harm the environment. But there are still better choices.
Alcohol could hurt other animals. It is mainly used to kill germs and remove sticky things, so it is naturally corrosive and poisonous. Alcohol can make a person’s skin, eyes, nose, mouth, and throat itch. If you breathe in its fumes, you might also have trouble breathing.
Alcohol is very flammable. Spraying it on plug outlets, lights, or any other place where a fire could start would be easy. In the end, although isopropyl alcohol can be used to kill roaches, this method is not recommended.
What Makes Alcohol an Effective Cockroach Killer?
Several sources say that the parts of alcohol called ethanol and methanol are to blame for how quickly roaches die.
Many alcoholic drinks, such as whisky, beer, wine, and others, contain these two ingredients. Alcohol is a strong solvent that can dissolve the waxy cuticle that covers a roach’s exoskeleton.
As a result, the roach loses its moisture and eventually dies. When cockroaches consume ethanol or methanol, their nervous systems are messed up, and they die almost immediately.
Does 70% Alcohol Kill Roaches?
Yes, 70% of alcohol kills cockroaches. Cockroaches have hard shells called exoskeletons kept flexible by oils they make inside their bodies. This oily skeleton is also how they keep water inside their bodies.
Alcohol removes these oils, making the skeleton brittle and letting moisture leave until it dries up. If you spray the roach with enough isopropyl alcohol, it will kill it. But you have to spread the roach and cover it with enough alcohol to make it suffocate.
Can Ethyl Alcohol Kill Cockroach?
Yes, ethyl alcohol kills cockroaches. Ethyl alcohol can only be tolerated in small amounts, while large quantities are deadly. Ethanol is poisonous to insects, but cockroaches are especially sensitive to it, and even a small amount is enough to kill them.
Most of the time, the best general killing and preserving agent is ethanol mixed with water and between 70 and 80 per cent alcohol.
A simple spray bottle full of ethanol to spray roaches as they crawl across your floor can be a great way to weaken and kill these pests.
Summing Up
Cockroaches are a potential health hazard in addition to being an annoyance. But you can get rid of these pests for good with the help of alcohol. Different kinds of alcohol can kill cockroaches, but using alcohol as a pesticide also has many other benefits.
As a pesticide, alcohol can kill cockroaches. Cockroaches of different kinds can be filled with different kinds of alcohol. There are many good things about using alcohol as a pesticide: it is cheap, easy to get, kills quickly, doesn’t leave anything behind, and doesn’t hurt the environment.
FAQs
References
Okaru AO, Lachenmeier DW. Margin of Exposure Analyses and Overall Toxic Effects of Alcohol with Special Consideration of Carcinogenicity. Nutrients. 2021; 13(11):3785.
Smuga-Kogut M, Bychto L, Walendzik B, Cielecka-Piontek J, Marecik R, Kobus-Cisowska J, Grajek K, Szymanowska-Powałowska D. Use of Buckwheat Straw to Produce Ethyl Alcohol Using Ionic Liquids. Energies. 2019; 12(10):2014.
American Addiction Center
AUTHOR=Venturi Michela, Bruzziches Francesco, Orlandi Catuscia, Altini Mattia, Rubegni Pietro, Melandri Davide, TITLE=Economic Burden of Denatured Alcohol-Induced Burns: A 20-Year Retrospective Study, JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine, VOLUME=9, YEAR=2022
Price, L., Gozdzielewska, L., Alejandre, J.C. et al. Systematic review on factors influencing the effectiveness of alcohol-based hand rubbing in healthcare. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 11, 16 (2022)