Most people assume you need harsh chemicals or professional exterminators to deal with rats and cockroaches, but rice-based mixtures can quietly turn the tide. For roaches, cooked rice combined with sugar and boric acid becomes a deadly lure: the sweetness draws them in, the rice feels like food, and the boric acid slowly shuts their systems down. Shaped into small balls and tucked under sinks, behind appliances, and in dark corners, these baits work best when refreshed every few days and kept away from food-prep areas and children’s reach.

Rats respond more to uncooked rice. Blended with plaster of Paris and a bit of sugar or cocoa, the grains become a fatal meal once the animal drinks water and the mixture hardens inside. A gentler option uses uncooked rice, sugar, and baking soda, which reacts with stomach acid to create gas rats can’t expel. Paired with natural repellents like bay leaves, mint oil, cucumber peels, and garlic paste, these simple recipes offer an eco-friendlier, low-cost way to reclaim your home and quietly end an infestation without drenching your living space in toxins.