Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 5lb with Powder Duster Included in The Bag, OMRI Listed Approved for Organic Use

WARNING: graphic depictions of roach infestation. (But a happy ending!) "Diatomaceous earth powder is abrasive, and breaks down the waxy layer of the cockroach’s hard exoskeleton, killing it through dehydration. When they walk through diatomaceous earth, roaches carry away some of the DE that clings to the tiny hairs on their legs. They typically die later, back at their nest." I was skeptical. We had a really bad roach problem in our building. REALLY bad. They were in the apartments, the laundry room, the lobby, the hallways... The HOA is too cheap to provide any pest control, and just tells us tenants to pay for it out of pocket. I priced exterminators, and they were expensive- and with the magnitude of our infestation, would be REALLY expensive. It was time to DIY the roach battle. I have two cats, and like to avoid toxins as much as I can, so I wasn't about to set off insecticide bombs that leave a poisonous residue. I searched for an alternative answer to use to fight the infestation, and read that diatomaceous earth is effective at banishing roaches. This product, Harris Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth, got good reviews, and was really inexpensive, so I ordered a bag. Diatomaceous earth has the consistency and appearance of whole-wheat flour. It's not good to inhale it, so I wore a particle mask and put the cats in a different closed room when I treated the apartment with it. (But if the cats ran through it and licked their paws, it would not poison them.) The accordion-squeeze-thing-with-the-spout applicator bottle (included with the diatomaceous earth) made it easy (and actually fun) to distribute the earth. I squirted it everywhere- under all the sinks, along all the baseboards, under the bed, in the closets, behind the refrigerator and the stove- I applied it the way a priest would throw holy water around in a severely haunted house. (In hindsight, I probably used too much, because the problem was as bad as it was. You can apply just a dusting of it, and they will walk through it, and that will be enough. I re-apply just a very light amount about once a month.) And- sorry to be graphic- the roach problem was-- bad. As in they were crawling across the ceiling above your head in broad daylight bad. As in finding six of them drowned in the cat's water bowl in the morning bad. As in don't turn your back on your sandwich bad- or leave your coffee alone for too long bad. :/ This was even with us putting all the food away immediately, making sure the garbage can was always completely sealed, wiping all of the surfaces in the kitchen down constantly, getting the cat food bowls off of the floor immediately after they were done eating, and vacuuming constantly for crumbs. It didn't matter; they were positively everywhere. They had set up shop in this building (and especially, it seemed, in our apartment) and weren't going anywhere. I admit- the problem was so bad, I had my doubts that anything would clear it up. Maybe a constant bombardment of every surface by gamma or cosmic rays, something like that, might help. A substance that resembled flour didn't appear to be capable of an being effective weapon, let alone a lethal one. I did watch "what happens to roaches when they encounter diatomaceous earth" videos on YouTube, which were reassuring. But when they are crawling all over the place, you want something immediate. I did have a spray can of essential-oil based pet safe roach killer I attacked them constantly with, so that helped make it feel like something was killing them right away. I shouldn't have worried. After about three or four days- we started to notice that there weren't so many roaches around. (Again- this was after an infestation so bad it seemed like the roaches had rented the apartment- not us.) Every hour, and especially every day, there were fewer and fewer roaches, until it got to the point where we weren't seeing them at all. If you opened a cabinet, you might see one skitter away, or one would run across the kitchen floor. That was within the first three or four days after treatment. But they no longer "decorated" the walls and ceilings, or crawled across your feet as you sat working (yeah- it was that bad.) First only one in the morning, then none, and no more, was found drowned in the cat water bowl. Slowly but surely, the DT was working its silent magic. Every now and then I would apply a fresh squirt of DT using the handy-dandy squeezebox applicator- around the refrigerator and stove, along the baseboards in the kitchen. But I really didn't need to. Within a week, maybe nine days at most- they were ALL COMPLETELY GONE. Nada. Zilch. Oh-nay oches-ray. It was amazing! It all felt too suspiciously easy, and too good to be true, we thought. There must be some secret bivouac full of them somewhere, silently plotting their revenge, biding their time until they flooded the apartment triumphantly with their squadrons once more. But no- they were really and truly gone. (Oh, I know they are still around somewhere- probably every apartment building has some level of roach population. But the roaches in THIS building have come to learn that, unless they are wearing tiny hazmat suits, this is a completely hostile environment for them, and it WILL kill them. ) This bag of white flour-like stuff was one of the best investments we have ever made in terms of value for money. It would have cost a fortune to get an exterminator in here, for what would have needed to be multiple visits in a month, repeating for months. Instead- a sprinkle of (magic!) Harris' powder- and the vermin are no more. This product is, needless to say, HIGHLY recommended! By the way- it's been months since I treated the apartment with the earth, and the roaches are STILL gone. Also, the bag is still over half-full, and the amount I use once a month as a reinforcement sprinkle is negligible. Talk about economical! It's such a blessing to know this stuff works- that we have a reliable weapon in the roach wars- especially when it felt we were never going to be rid of those disgusting critters. We are, and remain, happily roach-free. :)

In the beginning, there were no roaches. My wife and I are fastidious cleaners. We're tidy people We enjoy cleaning. We had friends over one night and a roach crawled out of their backpack. He got away before we could smash him. That roach, that single, solitary ruiner of domestic bliss, who came intent on starting an empire, turned our world upside down. He was like Genghis Khan. We didn't know what to do...we tried everything. We fought MANY battles in vain before discovering DE. For about 6 months. 6 months of emptying our kitchen and putting things back...6 months of repetitious frustration...6 months of thinking we've finally won, and having the roaches resurge. I got two words for you...diatomaceous earth. There are irrefutable reasons DE works. Indestructible reasons. As with everything else in this life/world, you need a plan, a strategy, a curiosity, a desire to beat your opponent, a need to finish the victor, so your insanity becomes a blossom of accomplishment with the utter and final elimination OF ROACHES. Can you tell that we suffered?! Lol. Diatomaceous earth. Anyone who says it doesn't work didn't use it intelligently. I mean, ANYBODY can use something poorly, without strategy or common sense, and find fault. Some things just never work for people because they give up after the first try. These are the same people who complain incessantly but never get their hands dirty. Or they don't get their hands dirty LONG ENOUGH. To eliminate a roach infestation, you're going to get your hands dirty (or dusty). Otherwise, you're the family on the block with a tent around your house while you're in a hotel for ? # days. My wife and were not going that route...we were gonna win. How can I be so uncompromisingly confident? Roaches can't survive DE. It cuts them up inside and out. If they make contact with the dust, they can't survive. If you dust in their hiding places, they won't have a place to nest, so they run. They try to escape with dust on them. They cannot/will not survive that. To clear up a common misconception... some people say DE doesn't work because after using it, they see increased bug activity. An uptick. Hello, McFly, any ideas why that might happen? Anybody home McFly??? If my puns are lost on you, at least borrow some common sense. You've disturbed them from their hiding places. They are looking for new places... they're panicking, on the run! You will have to deal with them as they emerge. Have a fly swatter or flip flop ready. Practice your aim and repeat strike speed. You think this is a game people?! Lol. This is war. A few PRO tips (yes, we're pros. No certifications, just an average American couple who eliminated a full infestation without any professional help OH YEAH! I got four letter words for those motherfornicators. Can I say that?) So a few pro tips... Dust heavily with included duster behind/under/around the fridge, stove, dishwasher and sink, gaps between cabinets and walls. Use sink plugs and wipe out your sink at night. They follow water and the more desperate they are for it, the more they target your sink. Stop leaving food, water or dirty dishes in the sink. It makes a huge difference. Make a shot spray: In a large spray bottle, mix 5-10 drops each of Peppermint oil, Rosemary oil, Orange oil and Cedarwood oil. Squeeze in a big glob of castille soap as a bonding agent for the oils. This spray will kill any roach within 10 seconds of contact. This our homemade recipe. Roaches hate peppermint and rosemary. Orange oil dissolves their soft tissue. Cedarwood oil attacks their central nervous system. Keep this spray in a black bottle or store under sink. Light will destroy the efficacy of the spray in only a day or two. Spray stored away from light can maintain efficacy indefinitely. As a comparison, we tested Ortho Home Defense against our spray. With the Ortho, we had to spray the roaches repeatedly because after about 30 seconds they started moving again. Our spray kills them in 10 seconds flat. But OHD does have some good qualities, which is the next paragraph. Spray around cabinets and baseboards with Ortho Home Defense. This is a poison. It leaves a film. Roaches eat it and die. This will not eradicate an infestation. It says so on the bottle. It's great used in tandem with DE, which is best used (heavily) in hidden areas ..out of sight areas. DE works best dry. We tried doing the spray but the sprayer gets clogged. After multiple mixtures we gave up. If you only use it behind and around your appliances, sink and cabinetry gaps, roaches won't have a nesting place in your kitchen. If they don't have access to your kitchen, they'll leave your house. DE will kill most and render escape difficult for the survivors. Another approach is the plugin frequency emitters. They have improved in the last few years. Use these in conjunction with the DE and our spray. This eliminates the need for spraying the insecticides. Roaches need water. They survived the dinosaurs, but they'll die after a few days without water. It was amazing watching dust covered roaches, so desperate for water, because the DE was drying them out. Leave an angular glass of water out and if that's the only water available to them, they'll climb in and drown. Roaches need warmth. They love to enter the vents of dishwashers and coffee makers and they will nest there. In our dishwasher, we found a nest under the circuit board (inside the button module). I had to remove and disassemble the entire front panel to clean it out. Make a thick slurry with DE and apply with q-tips in these places. You can't dust and spray is hard to control. A slurry will harden and turn into razor blades for roaches. They will leave your dishwasher. Coffee makers are tricky. They vent on the bottom for easy access and are convenient for roaches. Coffee makers always have moisture inside. It may be best to use a french press until you stop seeing roaches. The frequency emitters are great deterrents after doing a scorched earth campaign with the DE. DE made the difference. We won the war because of it. About a month after dusting, with a couple repeat applications, the last few survivors either left, were smashed or died of dehydration. Other approaches help in unison, but only DE is 100% effective. Read about the White House. That's what inspired us. We were so beyond fed up and we're so grateful to DE and the Harris company for their product. They made our home a home again. Copy/paste and utilize this information. Win the war!!!

I watched a YouTube video on how this stuff is supposed to be the best for crawling insects. It’s supposed to take 48 hrs up to 7 days. I did a light dusting around my place and in less than 14 hrs everything was gone. No ants no beetles no spiders. Highly recommend.

I picked up the Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade mainly to help with an ant problem around my home. The bag is a generous size, and I like that it comes with the powder duster — that makes applying it a lot less messy and helps spread it evenly where I need it. While it did cut down on the ants outdoors, I still noticed some making their way into the house even after a few applications. It’s definitely useful as part of a larger pest control plan, but not a complete solution on its own. Overall, I think it’s a good value and I appreciate that it’s safe for organic use, but for stubborn infestations I’d recommend pairing it with other methods.

TLDR edition: For anyone who could be dealing with a Bed Bug (BB) situation, Diatomaceous earth (DE) powder isn't a "quick fix." However, it will provide a long term solution that is truly cost efficient; especially after having over a hundred bites in a month span. It's also time efficient to use which is important since it's best to follow BB controls for up to 1 year after having them. I slept in the room with a moderate amount of DE powder lying around everywhere (I moved the pillow at least 6 inches away from the headboard; all the green dots represent where I dusted DE powder). I still do this tbh and it's been over 4 weeks. Also, because reviews warned about the zipper lock not working, I purposely only cut 1/3 of the top of the bag open. To close it, I used duct tape. On my third use of DE, I was able to successfully push close the zip lock. Detailed version: I, unfortunately, was dealing with a BB crisis. It took a few months to realize it but it looks like it came from an airbandb I had stayed at, four weeks prior to my first of hundreds of "breakfast, lunch, and dinner" bites. It took a week for me to realize the bites weren't from mosquitos. For a few weeks (June 1st through June 24th) , I was using a handheld steamer to steam my *clean/non-contaminated* mattress bag/bed, carpet, pj's, clothes, etc. That got super tiring - I was spending an extra 1.5-2 hrs at night "preparing" for bed. Never mind the extra time I had to put towards steaming my outfits before getting dressed or when I got home, constant hot water hand-washing laundry sessions, bug spray, etc. I was beyond exhausted. I read somewhere I could get something to put under the legs but tbh, I didn't want to have bowls of collections of BB. Plus they may not be going into my bed that way... and so I needed something else that I could be sure about. After about 3 weeks in misery, I read somewhere that DE powder could kill BB at any stage, just not their eggs and that food grade was ideal. Feeling defeated after all my efforts at that point, I wondered if this power really could help. I decided to buy a 5 lb bag because it seemed more cost efficient per pound. About 3.5 weeks after the start of the bites galores, I had a trip scheduled to fly out of state for 5 days. I was so excited to finally be able to sleep in a BB free place but I also wanted to make sure I wouldn't return to a BB filled room (at this moment in time, only my bedroom was affected and no other rooms). The day of my flight, I threw so many items into garbage bags with the intention that I would do "hot" laundry when I returned. I vacuumed using a shop-vac then placed a duty bag at the mouth of the hose/tubing and placed a rubberband around it (in case if any eggs hatch inside the filter/vacuum, they wouldn't be able to climb out). I put on a mask and some nitrile gloves, and used the duster tool provided to spray the DE powder at the following areas (after using a shop-vac): *On 3 of the 4 legs of the bed *All over my allergen mattress bag *Headboard - front, and whatever I could reach in the back *Perimeter of my area rug *Bookshelf (shelves that are the closest to my bed - see the green dots in the image) *On my two chairs, one of which is a computer chair *Wall behind my bed frame (whatever I could reach without moving the bed due to being short on time) *Area around the radiator/heater The whole room was in clouds. I was doing this in 97 deg Fahrenheit and the only window for the bedroom had an A/C in. I worked fast then exited the room for good until I returned from my trip. I hopped in the shower immediately. I regret not wearing goggles though... My eyes were burning in the shower for a whole 5 minutes. I left the powder in that room Weds June 25th. I returned Sunday June 29th. During my trip, new bites would show up but I knew they weren't "new" because it takes up to 14 days for them to appear. On Sunday the 29th, all I did was use the shop-vac vacuum to suck up the excess powder, put the plastic bag back on the tubing with a rubber band to seal it in place, then left the room again. I used my pj's and items from my carry-on to "stay/sleep" on the couch for a couple more days. I was legit too scared. I didn't know if the DE powder worked. I was already feeling defeated and was scared to face another defeat. Nevertheless, between Sunday June 29th through Tuesday July 1st, I gradually used a wet microfiber towel to rinse off the powder on critical areas like my allergen mattress bag and my chairs. I also had to wipe off the tops of my TV, desk, products, etc since the clouds of powder had settled on everything! I was covered in bites from my collarbone to my ankles smh. All of my back, both arms, thighs, etc. Since they don't do anything to eggs, I understood that I needed to wait for eggs to hatch for the new generation to get exposed. I also read that It is encouraged to sleep in the same room as food grade only because BBs only come out when they sense CO2 levels rise from when humans sleep. So I needed to stay as human bait... On Wednesday, July 2nd, I slept in my bed for the first time since before putting the DE powder. I put the very same fitted sheet I just washed (hot wash and hot dry). I was still seeing "new bites" show up but I had no real idea if they were showing up 14 days later or literally new. With no other option, I kept sleeping in my room but I purposely slept in one corner of the bed, towards the bottom of the bed (the blue square shows where I curled my body into to sleep, using a pillow about 6+ inches aware from the headboard). I did not want my pillow touching the headboard and I slept far away from the side of my bed that borders a bookshelf. After a few days, I decided to take some powder and spray/dust it on the top part of my fitted sheet as well as the edge of the side of the bed I was avoiding sleeping near (see image... all the green dots represent where I dusted the DE powder). I figured, if any BB makes it past the powder on the floors then they won't make it through to me on the bed. Exactly two weeks after the date of my flight and going forward, no new bites. In fact, my skin was beginning to heal and has transformed so much since then. Now that it has been over a month since using DE, I felt comfortable writing this review of my experience. This product really went a long way to save me. I am so thankful. I mopped off the old DE powder on July 26th, a month after it's been laying there, vacuumed, and put fresh powder down again. I am better at the tool and so clouds of powder no longer fill the room. I leave the door open for it to vent out for about 20 minutes before I come in to stay. My lungs and health have maintained itself through this process (fortunately). My only warnings are that, if you put it on your bedding like I did, be prepared for some color change. Some areas with powder turned yellow-ish and some have no color change. Idk why but that is why I have been sticking to fitted sheets only for now to keep it simple while I tackle these vampires. Also, I really didn't need 5 lb at all. I actually don't even need 2 lb! But I was so desperate for it to work that I thought I would need so much. In reality, less is more! So unless you have other purposes for this like putting them in plant pots, etc, stick to a smaller bag. Lastly, I plan to continue this unfortunate and tedious process for about a year since that is how long BB's survive without a blood meal.

You want to get rid of bugs??? This is what we've been using for years! It has to be food grade! It gets rid of ant, bed bugs, roaches and whatever crawling bugs you might have! It takes several days but it really does the job. It's not hamful to pets at all, I have 4 dogs at home and I've been using it for years. Try it out, it must stay dry to work properly though.

I somehow carried in a bed bug into my home. I suspect from a small electronic device purchased off of FB Marketplace. The diatomaceous earth is very very effective in controlling, eliminating and getting rid of this awful pest. I never experienced a skin irritation from this product. But you must take care to not inhale the product wearing a face mask even one that you get from a doctor's office is very helpful.

Great product, works as expected. We put this under our dog's bowls inside and outside to deter ants and other Critters. A small amount can be added to the dog's food also to facilitate in worming. This bag will go a very long way.