Chinese insecticidal chalk kills ants fast, and it’s effective for a long time. It claims to use boric acid as its only active ingredient and to be harmless to humans and animals, but I heard it contains DDT! What’s really in this stuff?
I don’t know what’s in it, but I’d sure like to get some more of it, it really works! Know where I can get any?
I got the chalk from a neighbor who says she bought it in Oakland (CA) Chinatown and the Berkeley flea market.
Google turned up a bunch of pages. Here is one excerpt from http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail/html-home/29-html/0220.html :
“…three samples of a product labeled “Miraculous Insecticide Chalk” were analyzed by DPR last month. Two contained the insecticide deltamethrin; the third contained the insecticide cypermethrin.”
Also said the stuff is illegal in the U.S.
- Gray
I think it’s just illegal because they aren’t packaged in accordance with US laws. Pyrethrins are about the safest pesticides around. Certainly it’s not anywhere near as dangerous as stuff I used to spray on the job when I was a kid, stuff like 2,4,5-T or DDVP.