I've Never Had a Cockroach in My Kitchen in 60 Years — The Old Japanese Trick My Mother Swore By

🍡 My mother's Ho-san Dango from Osaka: five kitchen things, one old bowl, and sixty years without a single cockroach in my kitchen. The whole recipe is below 👇 I'm Sachiko, and I learned this from my mother in a tiny wooden kitchen in Osaka. In 1970 I brought it to America. Here is everything: the recipe, where to put the balls, why they work, the one mistake that ruins them, and how to keep children and pets safe. HO-SAN DANGO (boric acid bait balls) Makes about 30 small balls 1/2 cup boric acid powder (about 100 g) 1/3 cup plain flour 3 tablespoons sugar 1/2 onion, grated, with its juice 2 to 3 tablespoons milk Method: 1. Put on gloves. Use one old bowl that will never be used for food again. 2. Grate half an onion into the bowl and keep the juice. 3. Add the powder, the flour and the sugar. Mix with a spoon until it looks like sand. 4. Add the milk one spoon at a time until it feels soft, like clay. 5. Roll small balls, the size of a small grape. Press each one flat on the bottom. 6. Dry them for 3 days in the shade on paper. Wet balls get moldy. 7. Put each ball in a bottle cap, along the walls: under the sink, behind the fridge, under the stove, behind the rice cooker, next to the trash, in cabinet corners and where a pipe comes in. What to expect: the first week you may see one or two more. That is a good sign. Then less and less. The one mistake: never spray insecticide near the balls. They smell it and stay away. Every night: a dry sink, rice in a jar with a lid, trash closed or outside, the dish towel hung up to dry. Cardboard boxes go straight outside. Make new balls in spring and in autumn. ⚠️ SAFETY: boric acid is a poison. Keep the balls and the powder where children and pets cannot reach, never on the counter and never near food. Wear gloves and wash your hands after. If a child or a pet eats one, call your doctor, your vet or poison control right away. CHAPTERS 0:00 The kitchen light at night 1:13 Sixty years without a cockroach 1:48 What you will learn 2:13 Osaka, my mother's kitchen 3:27 The rainy season 3:46 The recipe: five kitchen things 5:02 Making the little balls 6:10 Three days in the shade 6:30 Where to put them 7:59 Why it works 8:23 What happens week by week 9:21 The one mistake 10:08 Keep it safe for kids and pets 11:03 Four habits every night 12:18 Cheaper than a spray can 13:00 America, 1970 13:53 The whole recipe again 14:23 Tell me your grandmother's trick Archive footage: Early home movie, Kyoto · Prelinger Archives (Internet Archive) · Public domain "Cockroach at night, Tokyo" by Nesnad · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Did your grandmother have an old trick for bugs? Tell me in the comments. I read every one. Sachiko is a character. This video uses AI-generated visuals and voice.