Stopping Bugs

[mtarbert]

Does anyone know if I sprayed my wood with a Solution of TSP and water would it help to control bugs ?

 

[Coyoterun]

Tempo is going to be way more effective and safer.

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[TonyC1]

Try a mixture of cedar oil ..... Look up on www

You can get a 16 oz can...for making wood furniture smell like cedar....mix with water or rubbing alcohol...spray on pile. Will smell good and keeps bugs away. Try it on your hat brim to keep gnats away

 

[Jeffm1]

I'll throw in my two cents worth for diatomaceous earth.

 

[mtarbert]

Tempo is going to be way more effective and safer.

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"Safer" how so ??

 

[Coyoterun]

"Safer" how so ??

Burning sodium phosphate is going be a lot more corrosive to the stove than hydrocarbon compounds.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

What is tsp

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I could be wrong, but I believe when wood has dried to near 20%, the majority of bugs are gone from the wood.

 

[mtarbert]

What is tsp

TSP....is Tri Sodium Phosphate and is the ingredient (main) is the logs you can buy that when burned Helps to clean creosote from chimneys

 

[Woodsplitter67]

TSP....is Tri Sodium Phosphate and is the ingredient (main) is the logs you can buy that when burned Helps to clean creosote from chimneys

I dont know abouts its property's as anti creosote. But i can say that is not a great idea to spray your wood with an insecticide as handling and bringing it in your home as well as breathing in any toxic fumes from burning could cause you harm. If you feel your having an insect issue spray the area around your wood. You can get control that way.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I don't breathe in anything when my wood is burning. The smoke goes up the flue.

Likely much more toxic to breathe in the 2 stroke gas and oil mixture when you are cutting the wood.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I don't breathe in anything when my wood is burning. The smoke goes up the flue.

Likely much more toxic to breathe in the 2 stroke gas and oil mixture when you are cutting the wood.

Wow thats super funny
But when your outside and the wind is blowing in your direction or in the direction of your neighbor someone will inhale it. Not to mention the fact if smoke xscapes or the stove back puffs.. its just not a bright idea

 

[Oldman47]

TSP is simply a high pH detergent. In water chemistry regimes for boilers it is used to raise the pH of the circulating water because it is cheap and has few adverse side effects. If you buy a concrete driveway cleaning product, the active ingredient is likely to be TSP. The old desire to remove phosphates from laundry detergent was a desire to get rid of TSP because it makes phosphorus readily available in the waste stream and that promoted the growth of algae. It will not harm anything you use in your wood burning process. I take exception to what @Coyoterun said because it is simply wrong. TSP will do nothing to harm you but is undesirable in water runoff due to its fertilizer effects. When it comes to insecticide, I have no idea if it will work and will always resist using any insecticide where I may end up breathing the fumes later. Not all of them are toxic to mammals but why take a chance?

 

[English BoB]

What bugs are we talking about and how many ?

bob

 

[Coyoterun]

TSP is simply a high pH detergent. In water chemistry regimes for boilers it is used to raise the pH of the circulating water because it is cheap and has few adverse side effects. If you buy a concrete driveway cleaning product, the active ingredient is likely to be TSP. The old desire to remove phosphates from laundry detergent was a desire to get rid of TSP because it makes phosphorus readily available in the waste stream and that promoted the growth of algae. It will not harm anything you use in your wood burning process. I take exception to what @Coyoterun said because it is simply wrong. TSP will do nothing to harm you but is undesirable in water runoff due to its fertilizer effects. When it comes to insecticide, I have no idea if it will work and will always resist using any insecticide where I may end up breathing the fumes later. Not all of them are toxic to mammals but why take a chance?

High pH yes. As in caustic soda high pH. If it has any insecticidal properties at all, it would be only in solutions strong enough to be caustic. Like a strong cleaning strength. That will be corrosive to iron and human skin. The reason it's "safe" in boilers is because it's extremely dilute in that application. As with everything, the dose makes the poison and a given dose of TSP is going to have similar effects on human and insects.

It's purpose in "anti-creosote logs" is to release caustic (high pH) fumes to neutralize the acidity of the creosote. Using too much TSP (a lot more than is needed to counteract the acidity) could corrode the iron of the stove more than the creosote itself. But if someone soaked all their firewood with enough TSP to repel insects they might possibly get that to that level. (I'm not sure exactly where the tip-over point would be, but why take the chance?

Where as beta-cyfluthrin (Tempo) is primarily carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. The same elements as the wood you're already burning.

 

[firefighterjake]

What bugs are we talking about and how many ?

bob

This is my best guess.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Wow thats super funny
But when your outside and the wind is blowing in your direction or in the direction of your neighbor someone will inhale it. Not to mention the fact if smoke xscapes or the stove back puffs.. its just not a bright idea

Yes..and anything lightly sprayed on wood would be so diluted by all of that air it is mixed up with 18' up the flue, then mixed with more air once it gets outside...it would be completely harmless.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Yes..and anything lightly sprayed on wood would be so diluted by all of that air it is mixed up with 18' up the flue, then mixed with more air once it gets outside...it would be completely harmless.

The OP has other options than to spray the wood. There is no such thing as spraying it lightly and it is the law to mix and follow the directions of the lable. It is more than obvious that you are not licensed and if you are than irresponsible one at best. To post a statment of it would be completely harmless is a joke, as you have no idea of what this person intends to apply, or the rate of application to get the control he needs, and what pest he plans to target. As i posted previously, its not that bright of an idea and from your replys, Your not getting it.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Where as beta-cyfluthrin (Tempo) is primarily carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. The same elements as the wood you're already burning.

Wow, that sounds really organic and safe! Just carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.

I guess carbon monoxide won't kill you either since it's composed of harmless carbon and oxygen. Strychnine must be pretty safe too since it's composed of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. But, alas, we live in a nanny state with an over-reaching government who prohibits even tiny amounts of strychnine from being allowed in our drinking water and who regulates carbon monoxide as if it might kill you! Somebody should let the government know that both these substances are made up of harmless elements!

 

[Hasufel]

Wow, that sounds really organic and safe! Just carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.

I guess carbon monoxide won't kill you either since it's composed of harmless carbon and oxygen. Strychnine must be pretty safe too since it's composed of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. But, alas, we live in a nanny state with an over-reaching government who prohibits even tiny amounts of strychnine from being allowed in our drinking water and who regulates carbon monoxide as if it might kill you! Somebody should let the government know that both these substances are made up of harmless elements!

You are correct--it's not just the constituent elements that determine the toxicity but also how they are combined.

Tempo is a pyrethroid insecticide, which means it's a synthetic version of the pyrethrins that occur naturally in chrysanthemums. As a result, its mammalian toxicity is fairly low. Everything has some toxicity--it's all in the dose. From an environmental standpoint, however, there are other serious considerations; it's toxic to fish and highly toxic to bees. So it's not something I'd spray willy-nilly around my house.

 

[Coyoterun]

Does anyone know if I sprayed my wood with a Solution of TSP and water would it help to control bugs ?

Maybe a simpler answer to the OP would be better:

Short answer: No. TSP is not labeled as an insecticide because at human-safe concentrations it has no significant insecticidal properties.

Long answer: TSP might act as a wood preservative if you soaked the wood in a caustically strong solution of it. But the solution would be dangerous to handle, toxic to fish if any runoff water went into a stream or pond, and could be bad for your stove when you burned the wood.

So it's probably a bad idea.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I spray around the wood pile off the shelf pesticides like Home Defense. Keeps it to a minimum so it is not a spider factory when I need to get my wood in the fall.

 

[Oldman47]

High pH yes. As in caustic soda high pH. If it has any insecticidal properties at all, it would be only in solutions strong enough to be caustic. Like a strong cleaning strength. That will be corrosive to iron and human skin. The reason it's "safe" in boilers is because it's extremely dilute in that application. As with everything, the dose makes the poison and a given dose of TSP is going to have similar effects on human and insects.

It's purpose in "anti-creosote logs" is to release caustic (high pH) fumes to neutralize the acidity of the creosote. Using too much TSP (a lot more than is needed to counteract the acidity) could corrode the iron of the stove more than the creosote itself. But if someone soaked all their firewood with enough TSP to repel insects they might possibly get that to that level. (I'm not sure exactly where the tip-over point would be, but why take the chance?

Where as beta-cyfluthrin (Tempo) is primarily carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. The same elements as the wood you're already burning.

TSP in solution at almost any concentration will carry a pH less than 10.0, much less than NaOH. It is not at all corrosive, you have that part backward. Low pH like H2SO4 or other acids will cause metals to waste away although they can be used to overcome the ionic bonds in common rust and remove rust from metal. If you use anything acidic to clean metal you need to neutralize or rinse it right away to prevent damage to the metal itself. I would not want to drink a concentrated solution of any chemical even one as benign as ascorbic acid. As far as organic acids that may be present in creosote, I know almost nothing about wood combustion products aside form the obvious CO2, H2O from the carbon and the hydrogen in any hydrocarbon. There is also likely to be nitrites and nitrates present due to the high combustion temperatures and those will form nitrous and nitric acids respectively but in small quantities that should not stick to your hot chimney. Unfortunately none of the combustion products I just mentioned form creosote, they are products that will go up the stack even when you are doing a very smoky burn that is laying down the creosote.
TSP is not a liquid and will not form a gas that is easily transported through your chimney to affect anything in it so unless there is some other ingredient that the TSP interacts with to form a gas (fumes) you are probably going to be sweeping raw TSP from the stove after you use one of those dubious snake oil products.
As far as common chemicals present in a stove burning carbon in the presence of air and thus benign, consider the 2 most abundant chemicals in the stove, carbon and the 80% of air that is nitrogen. A direct reaction between those chemicals makes cyanide, CN. I know how dumbed down some arguments of "natural food advocates and tree huggers" has become but just because the components are shared with something in your stove does not mean I want to be exposed to it, even in low concentrations.

 

[Jay106n]

I'll throw in my two cents worth for diatomaceous earth.

This is what I use for my pool filter, and I have a ton of it. How can it be used for bug control? Never heard of it used that way.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

This is what I use for my pool filter, and I have a ton of it. How can it be used for bug control? Never heard of it used that way.

Diatomaceous earth is a fine abrasive. It abrades the joints of insect wings and legs I believe. It's fairly benign in humans until you breath the dust. Then it's very bad. I can't see how it would be very useful to control insects around a woodpile.