good pesticides are getting hard to find

[goraman]

I hate ants and bugs and as a kid my dad kept a stock pile of Chlordane in the big brown glass bottles as well as in white powder,he also had DDT in gallon cans.
He would spray around the house once a month and a couple times a year I would crawl my skinny butt under the house with the big brass hudson spray tank and spray around all the beams and footings.

We never had ants or spiders in our house. I haven't been able to find any Chlordane at flea markets or yard sales for years now.
The good ol days. http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1940's/Black%20Flag%20Super%20Insect%20Spray.htm

What do you use to spray your house that works?
I think all the good stuff has been used up or disposed of because of todays eco friendly generation, wish I could find some old codggers stock pile in an estate sale but no luck.I have been lucky to find enough WWII G I bore cleaner to last me though and yup it still works fantastic after years of sealed storage.
Seems we can't make vacuum tubes,real rifle bore cleaner or something that kills bugs via residuals. I don't want to have to directly soak the bugs as I may as well step on them.
Seems we just aren't allowed to have stuff that works anymore.
Can you buy 100% Tetramethrin in raw powder form in the U.K.? Is it legal to have as it is the active ingredient meany common over the counter bug sprays here?

[Mr Nad]

For ants, use cinnamon powder. They don't like it. I've heard that powdered oats work, too - though they eat that, and it swells in their abdomens.

But you're right. The really effective 'cides are all banned now... I read somewhere that DDT was so effective that in those area where it was used, malaria was virtually wiped out. But because a few humans died from DTT, it was banned.

[goraman]

Lenny, my wife is from Pakistan,trust me if there was a spice that would keep ants out of our kitchen we would be bug free as we have a collection of spices from around the world you would not find in any one store or market. We don't have a spice rack but a massive pantry with labeled mason jars and large 5 gallon buckets full large refill bags of the most common ones we use. Last time I counted we had over 200 jars of individual spices and masalas. and in the summer we still get ants. even though our kitchen has the dusting of pretty much all of them combined worked into all the common cracks and crevices.

When my wife opened the pantry a friend from her work asked her if she was into voodoo!
My Grand mother now 93 said "you actually use all those on food"?

[slate]

saw a program years ago about the WHO DDT program back in the 50's to eradicate malaria. So effective that malaria is still not seen around the mediteranian today.

But some side effects and after usage/mis-usage in India it wasrealised that it was not a Wonder pestiside

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT

[goraman]

Wow, this stuff can be pretty bad.
http://www.chem-tox.com/chlordane/

My Dad never did 1 ounce per gallon. it was more like glug glug glug glug that should do it!
Here son get under there and spray the stem walls,footings,beams and anything else that looks like it needs it. I did ware a paper mask but I remember having to shower after wards as the fog would get on your cloths and skin and it would drip off the beams and drop on you as you sprayed.
I'll bet that house was pickled under it as we did it before every winter and every spring. And the outside walls and garage got sprayed all the time monthly or at least bi monthly because our house was in a field next to a culvert. I'll bet that house has never seen a termite!

[goraman]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredjame/2242059/in/photostream/ LOL Great...

[slate]

I just heard that the owners of http://www.jesperhus.dk/home-en/
got poisoned.
They have some exotic animals and somehow managed to get some tropical cockrouges in their own home... somehow.
A firm was hired to take care of the problem and they moved back in. Then the wife started getting sick. Turned out the firm, by mistake had used a strong product only to used outside.
The house have been stripped of everything, floors, wallpaper, .... but the product can still be measured... the house will have to be torn Down.
The wife will not recover 100%

Edit: cockrouges are not common around here..maybe older parts of Copenhagen.

[goraman]

Strarting to think I'm better off with the bugs.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I once issued a quantity of a particular herbicide for perfectly legitimate purposes, to a colleague who, for reasons I will not share here, decided that he no longer wanted to remain with us.
He knew exactly what he was doing & he drank a pint or so of it.
He was rushed to hospital within an hour of him doing this and despite everyone doing all that they could to help, it took him about 28 hours to die - a particularly horrible death.
I often think about how that must have been for him. I know how it was for his family.

Jeff, you've got a young, playful, inquisitive son. Please take care with these things.

[goraman]

I once issued a quantity of a particular herbicide for perfectly legitimate purposes, to a colleague who, for reasons I will not share here, decided that he no longer wanted to remain with us.
He knew exactly what he was doing & he drank a pint or so of it.
He was rushed to hospital within an hour of him doing this and despite everyone doing all that they could to help, it took him about 28 hours to die - a particularly horrible death.
I often think about how that must have been for him. I know how it was for his family.

Jeff, you've got a young, playful, inquisitive son. Please take care with these things.

I am going with your advise. The more I read about pesticides the less I want to use them.