1. Make an all-purpose cleaning spray. To create an all-purpose spray, dissolve 2 teaspoons of borax into 4 cups of hot water, then mix with 1 teaspoon of dish soap and 4 tablespoons of vinegar. Use this to clean countertops, appliances, windows, and more.
Start by using a cheese grater—whatever you have, be it a box grater or a cheese plane—to shave down the bar soap into flecks. While many recipes call for castile soap, any unscented variety does the trick. Next, combine about 1 tablespoon of grated soap with 1 tablespoon of borax in a bowl.
While the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies borax as being noncarcinogenic, it does pose some risks, including: skin, eye, and respiratory irritation. digestive problems. infertility.
Borax has long been recognized for its disinfectant and deodorizing properties. Mix a 1/2 cup of Borax into 1 gallon of hot water or undiluted vinegar and clean with this solution.
First, make sure to keep it away from children's reach. Second, avoid using it as a cosmetic product and handle it with care at all times. This usually means wearing a mask and gloves when using it. Finally, do NOT mix Borax with any boric acid products, such as pesticides.
Don't mix it with acids or store it with acids. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's really very good indeed. It's quite safe if used correctly, it's effective and it's fairly cheap.
A roach that steps in borax won't die instantly. Instead, they'll go back to their hiding place before eating the borax dust their legs picked up. You might not see the dead bugs lying around out in the open but you should notice a drop in their numbers in a week or two.
Borax, also known as sodium tetraborate, is a mineral that naturally occurs when a lake bed evaporates. While generally considered non-toxic in the form of borax (not to be confused with boric acid), it is recommended you avoid eye contact, ingestion or prolonged skin contact.
Borax is a powdery white substance, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate. It's widely used as a household cleaner and a booster for laundry detergent. It's a combination of boron, sodium, and oxygen.
A: We do not recommend mixing any Pine-Sol® product with other cleaning products or chemicals. Mixing cleaners can result in the release of hazardous gases.
6. Keep pests away from your house. Keep pesky bugs away by sprinkling Borax around your home. Borax can be an effective way to keep pests away from your house because it acts as a natural insecticide.
Borax is a natural salt, an essential trace element needed in human physiology. We use it in our castile soap towards the end of the process as a buffer solution, neutralising any remaining lye that has not saponified.
“Vinegar is a good cleaner because it's acidic, but when you add dishwashing liquid/dish soap to it (which is a base or neutral) - you neutralise the vinegar. You take away the very thing that makes it work well. “The dishwashing liquid works that well on its own. Adding the vinegar is a pointless step.”
Shower cleaner – Borax can be used like Comet. Sprinkle it on a damp sponge and scrub down your bathtub and shower. Soft Scrub – Mix 2 parts borax to 1 part dish soap, and you've got homemade soft scrub!
WebMD (here) says the chemical compound, Borax, which is most recognized as a household cleanser “can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if you ingest it by itself, and large amounts can lead to shock and kidney failure.” It says the compound is banned in U.S. food products. A bath with borax can be harmful.
As blogger Julia from Simply Living Well explains, borax can be a safe yet powerful natural laundry booster (as long as you're not planning to eat or inhale the powder while washing your clothes). It can also be used for other cleaning.
However, it's worth noting that borax can be lethal when ingested. Toxic levels for children are 5-6 grams—or roughly a half teaspoon; for adults, the toxic dose is 10-25 grams.
Sprinkle boric acid in areas the roaches frequent; when they walk through it, it sticks to them. They later ingest the boric acid, which then kills them. When using boric acid, be sure to limit your exposure; don't place it anywhere that children or pets might find it, as it's toxic when ingested.
Your best bet is to combine baking soda with another granulated attractant, like sugar. Mix equal parts baking soda and sugar in a small dish and apply it to kitchen cabinets, baseboards, crevices, water sources, and other places roaches like to hide.
Roach Repellents
Peppermint oil, cedarwood oil, and cypress oil are essential oils that effectively keep cockroaches at bay. Additionally, these insects hate the smell of crushed bay leaves and steer clear of coffee grounds. If you want to try a natural way to kill them, combine powdered sugar and boric acid.
Borax (sodium tetraborate) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) aren't the same thing. They're both salts, and they're both popular as “green” household cleaning agents, but borax has a pH of 9.5, compared to baking soda's pH of 8. This makes borax considerably more alkaline than baking soda.
As she zooms in on the ants gathering around the solution, she says, "Did you know that if you mix borax and honey and put it out where you have an ant infestation, all of the ants will come to drink the delicious honey. And then it will kill them, solving your problem."
Make homemade insecticide—Mix together borax and sugar in equal parts. You'll want to avoid inhaling the mixture, so wear a face mask at all times. Apply the powder along baseboards, in cracks, and under sinks.