We suffer from the spread of ants and roaches at home. Is it permissible to use insecticides? We are afraid to disobey the Prophet (PBUH) and hence we blocked the ants' holes, but still we need to use insecticides for the other insects and this might kill also the ants. So what is the best solution?

In the Name of Allah, The All-Merciful, The Ever-Merciful.

Praise be to Allah; Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon the Messenger, his household and his companions.

There is no restriction in killing the harmful of these insects with the available insecticides. This is based on the Prophetic hadith, "Five are the vicious and harmful things which should be killed even within the precincts of Haram: rat, scorpion, crow. kite and voracious dog." And in another authentic narration, the snake is mentioned. [Sahih Muslim]. This indicates that the killing of the aforementioned things is lawful. Likely is the killing of other harmful creatures such as ants, roaches, mosquitos, flies and the beasts of prey to shove away their harm. Non harmful ants should not be killed because the Prophet (PBUH) forbade the killing of the ant, the bee, the hoopoe and the shrike as long as they do not cause harm. But if they inflict harm, they are treated as the vicious five mentioned in the hadith but not to burn them with fire as it is forbidden.

And Allah, Glorified be He knows best.