20 Hydrogen Peroxide Hacks That Kill Roaches, Ants & Mice - The Southern Way

00:00 There is a brown bottle of hydrogen

00:01 peroxide sitting on the shelf over my

00:03 kitchen sink. It cost a dollar and nine

00:05 cents at the drugstore in town.

00:08 That one bottle has done more to keep

00:10 roaches out of this house than every can

00:12 of spray I ever carried home.

00:14 And I have not paid a man to come out

00:15 and spray this place since 1979.

00:18 It will not fog a room.

00:20 It will not leave a poison strip behind

00:22 the stove for the dog to find.

00:24 And I am going to tell you something

00:26 flat right here at the front because I

00:28 am not going to lie to you just to keep

00:29 you sitting there.

00:31 Nothing in that bottle will kill a grown

00:33 mouse.

00:34 Nothing in that bottle will kill a grown

00:36 roach that is running from you across

00:37 the floor.

00:39 Anybody who tells you it will is selling

00:41 you something.

00:42 It does one thing.

00:44 It takes away the reason they came.

00:46 And the reason they came is the whole

00:48 ball game.

00:50 My name is Titus Freeman.

00:52 I farmed 40 acres in Alabama's Black

00:54 Belt, the same 40 my grandfather bought

00:57 1919.

00:58 And I have kept a house clean of

01:00 roaches, ants, and mice on almost no

01:02 money for 51 years.

01:05 But here is the part that ought to

01:06 bother you, and I will come back to it.

01:09 There are 20 things I do with that

01:10 dollar bottle. You are going to get all

01:12 20 in the order I do them, what each one

01:15 costs, and where exactly to put it. Not

01:19 clean your kitchen.

01:20 I mean the four inches that matter.

01:22 The seam behind the stove, the two feet

01:25 of sill outside the door.

01:27 Some of these 20 kill something. Most of

01:30 them do not kill anything at all. And

01:32 those are the ones that work best, and I

01:34 will tell you which is which every

01:36 single time.

01:37 Then, about two-thirds of the way

01:39 through this, I'm going to tell you why

01:41 the company that made the can you bought

01:43 last spring has known every one of these

01:45 20 for 40 years and will never print a

01:48 single one of them on the label.

01:50 That is the part that ought to bother

01:51 you.

01:52 The whole year of it costs under $9.

01:55 Now, most folks have this backwards, and

01:58 it is not their fault because they were

02:00 taught it backwards on purpose.

02:02 You think you have a bug problem. You do

02:04 not.

02:05 You have a food problem and a map

02:07 problem, and the bugs are just the

02:10 receipt.

02:11 A roach does not come in your house

02:13 because your house is there.

02:15 It comes because there is a film of

02:16 grease behind your stove about the

02:18 thickness of a coat of paint, and that

02:20 film is a meal to him.

02:23 An ant does not wander in.

02:25 She follows a chemical line another ant

02:27 laid down on your counter the way you

02:29 would follow a road that is already cut.

02:31 A mouse does not explore.

02:33 He runs the same 8 in of baseboard every

02:36 night of his life, and he knows it by

02:38 the smell of his own grease on the wall.

02:41 So, when you spray, what are you doing?

02:43 You are killing the ones you can see,

02:45 and you are leaving the food, and you

02:47 are leaving the map.

02:49 The film is still there. The line is

02:51 still there.

02:52 The wall still smells like him. So, next

02:55 month there is another one, and you buy

02:57 another can, and the man who sold you

03:00 that can has built himself a customer

03:02 for life.

03:03 Take away the food. Erase the map. That

03:06 is the whole thing right there.

03:08 And that is exactly what peroxide is

03:10 good for because of what it is.

03:13 It is water with one extra oxygen atom

03:15 stuck on that will not stay stuck. That

03:18 is all. It comes apart the second it

03:21 touches grease or grime. That is the

03:23 fizz you see, and what is left on your

03:25 counter afterward is water.

03:27 That is why it lifts a scent trail when

03:29 a wet rag will not.

03:31 A wet rag pushes the trail around.

03:34 Peroxide takes the trail apart

03:35 chemically and leaves nothing behind for

03:38 them to read.

03:39 Two things before I start counting, and

03:41 I need you to hear them both.

03:43 Do not ever mix it with vinegar in the

03:45 same bottle.

03:46 People do it because both are cheap, and

03:48 both are on the shelf.

03:50 What you make is not a stronger cleaner.

03:53 It is something else, and it will eat at

03:55 you.

03:55 One or the other. Never together and

03:58 never anywhere near bleach.

04:00 Second, keep it in the brown bottle it

04:03 came in.

04:04 Light takes it apart. If you pour it in

04:06 a clear spray bottle and set it on a

04:08 sunny window sill, in 2 weeks you have a

04:10 bottle of water, and you will swear the

04:12 method did not work. Buy a cheap trigger

04:14 sprayer and screw it right onto the

04:16 brown bottle. Now, here is where we

04:17 start. Number one is the seam behind

04:20 your stove. Pull the stove out. I know.

04:22 Pull it out anyway. There is a strip of

04:24 floor and a strip of wall back there

04:26 with a brown film on it that has been

04:28 building since you moved in, and that is

04:30 a pantry to a roach. Wet it with

04:32 peroxide until it fizzes. Wait a minute,

04:34 then wipe it with a rag you are willing

04:36 to throw away. If it does not fizz, you

04:38 got it all. If it fizzes again next

04:41 month, you did not. Number two is under

04:43 the refrigerator and the pan under the

04:45 coils. That pan holds water and dust,

04:48 and it is the wettest, darkest, warmest

04:50 square foot in your whole house, which

04:52 is the exact address a roach is looking

04:54 for. Pull the pan, wash it, peroxide it,

04:57 dry it, put it back. Twice a year is

04:59 enough. Number three is the kitchen

05:01 drain, and this is the one people skip.

05:03 Roaches breed in the grime ring inside

05:05 the drain and in the overflow hole of

05:07 the sink. Last thing at night, pour a

05:09 cup of peroxide down the drain and a

05:11 good splash in the overflow hole and go

05:13 to bed. Nothing runs water on it for 8

05:16 hours, so it sits on that ring all

05:18 night. Number four is the rubber gasket

05:20 on the dishwasher. Fold it back with

05:22 your finger. What is in that fold is

05:23 food, and it is dark, and it is warm

05:26 every night. Wipe it out. Costs you 2

05:28 minutes. Number five is the collar where

05:30 the pipe goes into the wall under the

05:32 sink. That is a door and a water

05:34 fountain at the same time. Peroxide it

05:36 clean, dry it, and if there is a gap

05:38 around the pipe you can see daylight

05:40 through, stuff it with steel wool and

05:41 copper mesh. That is not peroxide. That

05:44 is 50 cents of wire, and it is worth

05:46 more than any spray in the aisle. Number

05:48 six is the trash can, not the bag, the

05:51 can. The rim and the underside of the

05:53 lid where it sits because that is where

05:55 the seal is and that is where the

05:56 sweetness collects. Wipe the rim and

05:59 wipe the lid seam. Do it Sunday night.

06:01 Number seven is every crumb tray you

06:03 own, the toaster tray, the coffee maker

06:05 drip tray, the seam where the microwave

06:08 floor meets the wall of it. Empty it,

06:10 wipe it, dry it. Number eight is the one

06:12 that actually kills something. So,

06:14 listen close. When you find an egg case,

06:16 a little brown thing like a bean glued

06:18 in a corner, in a cabinet hinge, on the

06:20 back edge of a drawer, soak it. Peroxide

06:23 will not blow it up, but it works into

06:25 the glue in the seams and it will finish

06:27 what is soft inside it and the case

06:29 comes loose so you can pick it up and

06:31 burn it or flush it. A case has 30 or 40

06:34 in it. Eight is the one hack on this

06:35 list where you are killing a whole

06:37 generation instead of one bug and it

06:40 costs you a teaspoon. And there is one

06:42 more piece to this that I will show you

06:43 in about three minutes because it is the

06:45 reason people do all eight of these and

06:48 still have roaches. Number nine is not

06:50 peroxide at all and I am counting it

06:52 anyway. Get the cardboard out of your

06:54 house. Grocery boxes, shipping boxes,

06:57 the flat under the sink you have been

06:58 meaning to move. Corrugated cardboard is

07:01 glued with starch and the flutes inside

07:03 it are a roach hotel with the heat

07:05 already on. There is no wipe for that.

07:07 Take it out to the burn pile. That is

07:09 number nine and it is free. Now, here is

07:12 why not one of those nine will ever be

07:14 printed on the back of a can. A can of

07:16 spray is a repeat sale. It has to be or

07:19 there is no business there. A man does

07:21 not build a plant and a truck fleet and

07:23 a whole sales route on something you do

07:25 one time in October and are done. He

07:27 builds it on something that runs out.

07:29 Peroxide does not run out on you in the

07:31 way that matters. You do number one and

07:33 number two right and the film is gone

07:35 and there is nothing to come back to.

07:37 The company knows it. The chemist in

07:39 that building know exactly what I just

07:40 told you about that grease film. Because

07:43 sanitation is the first thing in every

07:45 pest control book ever written, and they

07:47 wrote some of them. They know the film

07:49 is the problem and the can is the

07:51 symptom. So, they put a picture of a

07:52 dead roach on the front, and they put

07:54 nothing on the back about the 4 in

07:56 behind your stove. Hold on to that. I am

07:59 not done with it. Now, let us take the

08:01 ants, because ants are a different

08:03 animal in the same fix. Number 10, when

08:06 you see a line of ants on the counter,

08:08 do not kill the line. That is the

08:10 mistake. Follow the line with your eye

08:13 all the way to where it disappears, the

08:15 corner, the gap by the backsplash, the

08:17 crack under the window, and wipe the

08:19 whole run with peroxide ending at the

08:22 hole. You have just erased their road.

08:24 The scouts come back out and there is

08:26 nothing to walk on, and they wander like

08:28 a man in a fog. Number 11, and this is

08:31 the half nobody does. Go outside, find

08:35 where that same line is coming from, the

08:37 sill, the threshold, the mortar joint,

08:40 and wipe 2 ft of it out there, too.

08:42 Inside only buys you a day. 2 ft outside

08:45 buys you the summer. Number 12 is the

08:47 ring under the pet bowl. Pick it up

08:49 right now and look. That halo of dried

08:51 food is a standing invitation. Peroxide

08:54 it every time you wash the bowl. Number

08:56 13 is every jar in your pantry on the

08:59 bottom. Honey, syrup, molasses, jelly.

09:03 There is a ring under two or three of

09:05 them you have never seen, because you

09:06 never pick them up. Wipe the shelf. Wipe

09:09 the jars. Set them back down. Number 14

09:12 actually kills, and this one is for

09:15 anybody with houseplants or seed flats.

09:17 If you have got little gnats coming out

09:19 of the potting soil, mix one part

09:21 peroxide to four parts water and drench

09:23 the soil with it. It kills the larvae in

09:25 the top inch on contact. It fizzes off,

09:28 and the plant does not care. I do my

09:31 seed flats in February with that same

09:33 mix. Now, the mice, and I will say it

09:35 again because it matters. Peroxide does

09:38 not kill a mouse, not one drop of it.

09:41 Everything I am about to tell you is

09:42 about taking away his map and his

09:44 groceries, and that is what actually

09:46 empties a house of them. Number 15 is

09:48 his runway. Take a flashlight and get

09:51 down low along your baseboards, behind

09:53 the stove, under the sink. You are

09:55 looking for a dull gray smear about an

09:57 inch off the floor. That is grease off

09:59 his coat, and he has laid it down a

10:01 thousand times, and it is a lit road

10:03 sign to every mouse that comes after

10:05 him. Peroxide [clears throat] the smear

10:07 off, that whole run, not a spot of it.

10:10 Number 16, where you find droppings, wet

10:13 them down with peroxide first and wipe

10:15 them up. Do not ever sweep them dry, and

10:18 do not vacuum them. Wet, wipe, throw the

10:21 rag out. Number 17 is the pantry shelf

10:24 where a bag has leaked. Cornmeal, flour,

10:27 dog food, rice. Wipe the shelf down to

10:30 bare, and then put every one of those in

10:32 glass or metal with a lid. A mouse goes

10:35 through a paper sack like it is not

10:36 there. Number 18 is the trap itself.

10:39 Wipe it with peroxide before you set it

10:41 and let it dry. You are taking the old

10:44 smell off it and your smell off it both.

10:46 Number 19 is the feed room, and this is

10:49 for those of you on a place. The lip of

10:51 the feed bin, the four feet of floor

10:53 around it. That is where the meal

10:55 spills, and that is what is feeding

10:57 every mouse in your barn, and no trap on

11:00 earth outruns a feed spill. Number 20 is

11:02 the dark corner. Under the porch step,

11:05 the back corner of the shed. Every house

11:07 has three or four places nobody has put

11:09 a rag in 10 years, and that is where the

11:11 smell builds up until it is a beacon.

11:14 Once a year with a bucket and a rag,

11:16 that is 20. Total outlay, if you are

11:18 buying it a bottle at a time like I do,

11:21 is somewhere around $8 a year. Now, let

11:23 me tell you where I learned this,

11:25 because it did not come out of a book.

11:27 My grandmother's kitchen had a plank

11:28 floor with the grain standing up in it,

11:31 and she scoured that floor on her knees

11:33 with sand and lye soap. Saturday, every

11:36 Saturday. And the whole house smelled

11:38 like wet pine for 2 days after.

11:41 There was a pie safe against the north

11:43 wall with punched tin in the doors. And

11:45 the legs of that safe sat in four tin

11:47 cans, and every one of those cans had

11:50 water in it. That was the ant fence. An

11:53 ant cannot cross water. She did not read

11:55 that anywhere. Somebody told her mother.

11:59 Meal and flour lived in a metal barrel

12:01 with a lid that latched. Not a sack,

12:03 never a sack.

12:05 Bacon grease went in a can with a lid on

12:07 the back of the stove, and the skillet

12:09 got wiped down before it ever got put

12:11 up. And I did not understand one bit of

12:13 why until I was a grown man with my own

12:16 house and roaches in it. She never

12:18 sprayed anything in her life, not one

12:21 time, and there were no roaches in that

12:23 kitchen.

12:24 Now, I want to be straight with you

12:25 about the other side of it, because

12:27 folks will tell you the old ways always

12:30 beat the new ones, and that is simply

12:31 not true.

12:33 My grandfather kept a tin of white

12:34 powder on a shelf in the shed for

12:36 roaches, and I know now what was in that

12:38 tin, and it should never have been in a

12:40 house with children in it. That part was

12:43 wrong. I am not going to sit here and

12:45 tell you everything they did was right

12:47 just because they were mine. The

12:49 scouring was right. The tin barrel was

12:51 right. The four cans of water were

12:53 right. The powder was wrong, and it took

12:56 a hundred years for anybody to say so

12:58 out loud. Most of the families on our

13:00 road lost their land. We kept ours. Part

13:04 of that was luck. Most of it was not

13:06 owing anybody anything, and that is

13:08 really the thread here. Tonight, before

13:11 you go to bed, pull your stove out and

13:13 look behind it. That is all I am asking.

13:16 Just look. Now, here is the part I

13:18 promised you. Sanitation is the first

13:21 chapter of every pest control manual

13:23 that has ever been written. Not the last

13:26 chapter, not an appendix, the first one.

13:29 Take away food, take away water, take

13:31 away harborage, and the population goes

13:34 down on its own. And every single person

13:36 in that industry with a license on the

13:38 wall learned it that way. So, ask

13:40 yourself why you have never heard it.

13:43 You have never heard it because there is

13:44 no money in it. You cannot put white

13:46 behind your stove on a shelf and ring it

13:48 up. You cannot build a route truck on

13:51 it. The whole business is arranged

13:53 around the one part of the job that has

13:55 to be repeated, and they let you believe

13:57 the can is the cure because a customer

14:00 who believes that comes back four times

14:02 a year for 30 years. Run the arithmetic

14:05 on your own house. Two cans a season, a

14:08 bag of bait, and a fellow out twice a

14:10 year at whatever he charges now. That is

14:12 a couple hundred dollars to hold a

14:14 problem in place against the dollar

14:16 bottle and a rag and a half hour on a

14:18 Sunday. And I will tell you what it

14:20 really costs past the money. It costs

14:23 you the belief that you can handle your

14:25 own house. Every can you buy is one more

14:28 little vote that this is beyond you,

14:30 that it takes a chemist and a truck. It

14:32 is not beyond you. It is behind your

14:34 stove. It has been behind your stove the

14:37 whole time, and there is not a man alive

14:40 with a financial reason to walk in your

14:42 kitchen and point at it. I am not angry

14:44 at the chemist. He made a product. I am

14:47 talking about the arrangement. Here is

14:49 what I want you to have. Come the middle

14:51 of August when it is hot and every

14:54 kitchen on your road has got something

14:55 running across the floor at 11:00 at

14:57 night. You are going to get up for a

14:59 glass of water and cut the light on, and

15:02 there is going to be nothing there. Not

15:04 one. You will stand there a second in

15:06 the quiet with a clean floor under your

15:08 feet, and you will know exactly why.

15:11 Because you did it yourself with a

15:13 dollar bottle and a rag you were going

15:15 to throw out anyway. That is the whole

15:18 return. Under $9 and one Sunday

15:21 afternoon. Tell me in the comments where

15:23 you are, what part of the country, and

15:25 which of the 20 you are going to do

15:26 first. If you have got a fix your

15:28 grandmother used that I did not say, put

15:31 it down and let me read it. I read every

15:33 one of them. Next time out I am going to

15:35 show you that ant fence, the 410 cans of

15:38 water under the pie safe, and how I put

15:40 that same idea on a modern cabinet and a

15:43 chicken feeder both. And there is one

15:45 more piece to it my grandmother did with

15:47 a chalk line that I have never been able

15:49 to fully explain. And I have watched it

15:51 work for 50 years. Until then, pull the

15:54 stove out, look behind it. There is not

15:56 a thing on this earth that cannot be

15:58 handled by somebody willing to get down

16:00 on the floor and see what is actually

16:02 there.