I’m well aware that’s the theory. I just don’t know how true that is. Having gone through a round of bed bugs back when I lived in Brooklyn, as did many of my friends. Those who tried to rely on diatomaceous earth, ended up spending months repeatedly trying to remove the infestation. And the better exterminators we dealt with explained that the stuff doesn’t really impact the population and it doesn’t prevent them from breeding. The bed bugs feed to get enough energy to reproduce, and they do not live in the bed, or furniture. But in the walls and other tight crevices.
Diatomaceous earth in little dishes or a line around the bed and certain other furniture would prevent the bed bugs from traveling out of there nests and over to a human, but couldn’t remove the infestation. But the overal strategy was to first depopulate, then prevent newly hatch bugs from feeding so they couldn’t breed. Causing the infestation to come back.
And a similar thing with roaches. That it could be used to keep roaches from entering a home and getting established. But couldn’t remove a population once it was established.
Personally I (and several of those exterminators) suspect that may be because it’s not as good at killing things as we’re told. But it could be because without something to bait the bugs (like the sleeping human) too few of the critters will Wade through it.
Borax is great stuff. It can be used as a barrier as well. Or to quickly knock out flea infestations. You basically sprinkle it on carpets and furniture leave it for a bit and vacuum it up. Apparently it’s not terrible effective against bed bugs though.
My experience with ants is that it doesn’t kill, but acts as a barrier. Sort of like embedding broken glass on the tops of wall to discourage large endoskeletal pests.
Most roach species live in a nest until adulthood. Baits work because the poison remains in the adults’ frass (insect for shit), and the roach kids eat their parents frass. A bomb only effects the few adults who wander out onto exposed surfaces. Boric acid and other standard chemicals will kill anything that eats it, but often not be passed to the next generation which controls the population more than killing the colony.
We had a roach infestation at work a few years ago, which was a major problem since I work on insects and cared more about keeping my guys alive than killing the roaches. What worked well was a combination of putting bait into the walls where the roaches lived plus using a deterent chemical along the room edges
But I found they are good for getting rid of flea infestations in rugs. My cats got infested and it spread throughout the house. After a pair of flea baths and expensive medications, the cats were in the clear. A bunch of bug bombs later and the house was safe for people as well.
A bit of pedantry. Insects do continuously groom their legs to keep the hairs clean, but for most only the forelimbs are groomed by the mouth. The middle and hind limbs are groomed by rubbing them or flicking off dirt. This matters for roaches because roaches run only on their hind legs, meaning that if a roach runs across a line of DA (or borax) its unlikely to get ingested.
Can confirm. I had a bad neighbor bring roaches into the building this past summer.
My reading suggests that roaches also feed on other dead roaches? So slow acting poison has a cumulative effect. I used borax for the windows and set out a ton of poison traps everywhere I had spotted a bug.
Yes- Advion
Advion
Advion.
That stuff works, & according to online research by folks who actually study this stuff scientifically and 2 pest control pros Advion & Gentrol igr work together to kill them as quickly & effectively ( like all of them dead eventually) better than anything else. I do renovations & maintenance in apartments that have had roaches for years & the combination of Advion & Gentrol is killing them off steadily. I write the date in Advion on the back of the fridge when I treat an apartment & when I come back I can see how much has been consumed & when it was treated.
Our veterinarian told me that DE has the same effects as calcium and I looked into it. The source for DE are small shells, fresh and salt water alike. The shells relate to DE as does biomass to petroleum. One of my Felines must be on a mineral reduced diet. That includes DE.
It has its drawbacks via the inhalation potential. People with Asthma should not inhale it. Although I have always imagined that its micro-abrasive properties would do some ‘peeling’ in the bronchial and lung tissue. I also liked to believe that when I went out to where the Lava meets the Ocean.
I had applied the DE into the conduit. And around the inside perimeter. As a last resort for a little fire ant invasion. It would be interesting to see how it kills them, but they are so tiny that a microscope would be required and I don’t have that. When the invasion has stopped - as I am somehow convinced that the collective figures out where all its individuals get lost. It’s a one way street after they march through the dust. Now, DE is a strong desiccant and may simply dehydrate the little bastards. I have been bitten too many times in the yard. It really smarts as hell.
That is cute. I still have the newspaper from Hawai’i Tribune Herald, where a picture of a Scolopendra being the size of the newspaper was. The ones I met where much larger and while I love them, I got bitten and it’s not funny.
Ants communicate by leaving scent and pheromone trails where ever they go. “Scout” ants travel out ahead of the group laying down stink and searching out resources. When they find things they double back, leading more ants to it. Laying down heavier bands of stink. Basically creating branching networks of ant roads. More heavily travelled paths become like arterial highways, with scouts breaking off to cut new smaller paths.
Since any ant that dies will die along a marked path they’re easily found, and most species will carry the dead back to the nest as food.
Boric acid works extremely well. They walk through it, eat it off their feet, and it eats them from the inside. Might be problematic if you have pets though.
Interesting. I only thought of it as a filtering agent, as breweries use it to filter beer before filling. It replaced asbestos for that purpose, and the way it’s used is that it’s mixed into a batter with water, which is added into the pressurised beer as it flows into a sieve tower thingy. Then through a paper filter to remove any DE that passed the sieve.
So, yeah, not a good thing to breathe in. Working around the DE required wearing masks and protective eyewear at all times.
