"Spray It": Housekeeper Mbali Nhlapo Shares DIY Cockroach Hack Using Cloves and Bicarbonate of Soda

• Mbali Nhlapo, a South African housekeeper and CEO, shared a DIY cockroach remedy that caught people's attention
• She used two common kitchen ingredients to create a natural spray that she says drives cockroaches away
• South Africans flooded her comments with reactions ranging from laughter to genuinely useful tips of their own

A South African housekeeper turned her kitchen into a classroom and the internet could not get enough of it.

Mbali S Nhlapo Nhlapho, a housekeeper and CEO of Sisters at Work Training, posted a short video responding to a viewer who had asked for her cockroach remedy. Filming in her modern kitchen, she walked her followers through a natural, budget-friendly solution using two ingredients most South Africans already have at home: cloves and bicarbonate of soda.

How the DIY cockroach remedy works

Mbali kept the method simple. She explained that cloves alone can be placed in the corners of kitchen cupboards to repel cockroaches, noting that the strong scent does double duty as a pleasant fragrance. For a more powerful spray, she boiled cloves with bicarbonate of soda until the mixture turned a deep brownish colour, then allowed it to cool before pouring it into a spray bottle. The finishing step was spraying from left to right and top to bottom across affected surfaces.

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Why South Africans are listening

Cockroaches are a persistent problem in many South African homes. The German cockroach, which breeds rapidly in warm kitchens and bathrooms, and the larger American cockroach, which moves indoors during heavy rains via municipal drains, are among the most common culprits. Beyond being a nuisance, cockroaches carry bacteria such as Salmonella and are known to trigger asthma in children through their shed skins and droppings.

For many households, Mbali's remedy offers a practical, affordable alternative to commercial pesticides.

Mzansi debates the hack

South Africans in the comments on Mbali's Facebook reel were entertained and helpful in equal measure:

@Carol Goodwin shared:

"Just take peanut butter, put some bicarb inside, close it, put it in a plastic bag. You can put it in the ceiling or under a kitchen cupboard. They eat it and run out looking for water and die outside."

@Olatubosun Oje joked:

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"Any homemade remedy for poverty?"

@Sontaga Mothokoa Kgobe asked:

"For snakes and scorpions?"

@Bj MukwAti laughed:

"Oh! Getting rid of them, not cooking them. That was close."

See the Facebook clip below:

More on hacks and roaches

• Briefly News recently reported on a South African woman's cockroach-infested Pretoria apartment that left Mzansi lost for words, though she still chose to document the whole move-in journey.
• Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk lost 8.5kg in 17 days as he refused to end his hunger strike over an exam leak scandal.
• Mbali Nhlapo shared another simple cleaning hack, this time showing how she gets dirty electrical plugs sparkling white using just two kitchen ingredients.

Source: Briefly News