How to Naturally Get Rid of Roaches Outside

Outdoor cockroaches provide food for wildlife and recycle nutrients, but sometimes they become a nuisance when their numbers grow too large or they enter the home. Natural methods for controlling cockroaches include removing sources of food and water, setting cockroach traps and decluttering the yard. Cockroaches carry diseases, and some people are allergic to cockroach excretions. Wear gloves, a long-sleeved shirt and long pants when working in areas infested by cockroaches.

Removing sources of food and water controls cockroaches or encourages them to move on. Trash, pet food and general debris provide food for cockroaches, and they drink from puddles and other areas of standing water.

Seal trash bags tightly before putting them outside, and don't leave pet food and water bowls outdoors overnight. Clean kennels, sheds and other outdoor areas where debris collects. Remove objects that catch rainwater, such as tires and cans, and fill in puddles and other standing water with soil or sand. Water plants in containers in the morning so that water around their bases dries up by nightfall.

Cockroaches mostly move and feed at night, which makes catching them difficult, but traps capture cockroaches while you sleep. Glue boards for mouse control and other large commercial sticky traps catch cockroaches and are useful for finding out where they travel. You can make your own glue traps by spreading petroleum jelly on squares of thick construction paper. Mixing 1 quart of corn syrup and 1 quart of water, and boiling the solution until it forms a sticky paste, makes another effective glue. Crush cockroaches caught on sticky traps, and put the traps in the trash.

Traps made from jars with slanted shoulders catch large numbers of cockroaches. Spread thin layers of petroleum jelly around the inner slanted area at the top of clean glass jars. Cockroaches can climb into the jars but they can't climb out over the jelly. Place a 2-inch piece of banana peel at the bottom of the jars, and place the jars where cockroaches have been seen. Place them on their sides on the ground, or dig a shallow holes and lay the jars in them, so that the mouth of the jar lies on the soil surface.

Jar traps for cockroaches should be checked regularly. If the traps fill up, the cockroaches can climb over each other to escape. The petroleum jelly can also become covered in a film of dust and debris, which provides a grip for escaping cockroaches.

Check the jar traps every day in the morning. Seal trapped cockroaches in the jars by screwing on their lids, and put the jars in a freezer for four or five hours. Unscrew the lids, and tip out the dead cockroaches into the trash. Wash the jars in hot, soapy water before setting the traps again in the evening.

Dark, damp areas of the garden provide places for cockroaches to hide and breed. Piles of cardboard, newspaper, lumber piles, mulches and tree holes are some favorite cockroach hiding places.

Don't leave cardboard boxes or piles of newspapers outside. Take them to a recycling center or put them in the trash. Large outdoor cockroaches breed in pine straw and other mulches, and cockroaches also infest dead palm branches. Rake up organic mulches, and remove fallen palm branches other plant debris. You can replace organic mulch with 1 to 2 inches of gravel, which cockroaches dislike. Raise piles of lumber off the ground, and fill tree holes with cement.