I think the soap does more than reduce surface tension to help them drown. Soap makes the lungs pucker up, the same as inhaling laundry detergent dries your nose and makes you sneeze.
And bugs “inhale” a lot of their oxygen through their skin, since they have no red blood cells to ship it around the body. So they don’t have to get it in through the mouth, they can just walk on soap and start to “choke” from lack of oxygen.
That’s how borax powder, boric acid, works (the most popular roach killer in the hardware store). And it’s also the main ingredient in many soaps.
FWIW, every book that I’ve read on non-toxic living has a recipe for insecticide made with liquid soap. Basically, it’s one tablespoon of soap and one pint of water in a spray bottle. Not only is this less toxic and greener than any insecticide, but the price savings alone makes it worth trying.
When having problems w/ bees a coupla yrs ago, I consulted Google, found a site
(I don’t recall it’s name), which had numerous suggestions by others on how to get rid of them effectively & cheaply. Most suggested a little soap in a pint/liter
squirt bottle, observe where the nests are by following the critters from a distance
& wait til they’re dormant (dusk or dawn). Blast the area w/ the squirter everyday
for @ 2 weeks & they’re gone! Don’t go hog wild & try to get all the nests; just the ones which affect you most (doorways, windows, etc.). It has worked wonder
fully for me these past 2 summers. Start early, @ late March/early April. Doesen’t
hurt to reinforce those same areas occassionally. Just the other day I immobilized
a fly in the house w/ a swat, dropped a bead of soap on 'im, & he was appendage
up in an hour. Cheap & non-toxic. An aside to those who want to get rid of an
exposed nest: follow the same procedure w/ a can of oven cleaner, which can be
bought for a $1 at a ta…da…Dollar store. The foam will immobilize any bees on
contact, but they take awhile to expire. Leave the nest alone!!! If you remove it,
they will come back to that spot to build again. Once the nests dry, you could per-
haps decorate it for the holidaze, send in a pic to Martha Stewart’s cell, & get pub-
lished! Ahhh, the joys of home ownership. Good luck to all. -fuzznuttz
Any liquid detergent soap ought to work well. Go to a local dollar store first. No
need to go gonzo w/ upplie. As others have said, “Works for me!” Good luck &
keep us “posted”!
Right. Any soap or detergent will do. Even that bottle of dish detergent that you probably already have on the kitchen sink. The best thing about green cleaners is they can be used for more than one thing, but it doesn’t work in reverse–don’t try washing your dishes with Raid.
To get rid of an anthill, heat a gallon of water, add a 1/2 cup of dish detergent, and pour. That will get rid of them suckers.
Fanny May insects don’t have lungs to pucker up. The only respiratory system they have is a series of fine tubes that run from the outside of the body through the insides. These vessels do contain oils that are designed to keep them water free so the air can readily diffuse through them, and it’s possible that the soapy water floods them, but that would not rapidly kill an insect since most can last several hours without oxygen.
Nor do most insects inhale a lot of oxygen through their skins. Insect skin is impressively watertight, and hence airtight.
Watertight is so close to being airtight as to make no practical difference. I’m sure there are some odd instances where some elements of air can pass through a surface that is impermeable to water or vice versa but such instances would be of curiosity value only.
Once you realise that water is a significant component of air and that air can only diffuse across wet membranes in biological systems you will realise why watertight – airtight.
I’ve also killed paper wasps and yellow jackets with window spray and other cleaners (409, etc). One spray of some of these and the bug curls up so tight it breaks its own back. Instant death.
While were on the subject of “green” killing, can someone tell me if they’ve had experience with fabric softener sheets as a mouse repellant? How about those sonar thingies that only rodents can hear…to annoy them the FUCK out of my house?
We bought a new dishwasher eight months ago, and the mice ATE A HOLE THROUGH THE SUMP (the size of a silver dollar!). Needless to say, the water runs out all over my floor as fast as the machine fills.
Aside from the fact that the repair is going to cost half of what I paid for the machine, I’m annoyed by these little bastards. We have cats who do a pretty good job of catching the measily meeces, so we can’t put poison down to kill the little suckers.
The ‘bug’ curls up tight because the manner of death causes the muscles to go tetanic, IOW the death causes the bug to curl up, bot the other way around… Insects don’t have a spine, and hence can’t break their back. They do have a nerve cord, but it’s located in their belly, unlike the human cord which is located on the back. So for an insect to break it’s central nerve cord like that it would in fact need to bend backwards, not forwards.
Basically there is no simple way to control mice. Poisons are best, but if you are absolutely unable to use poisons then you are really restricted to the use of traps. There are arrange of traps available that pose no risk to cats.
And added to that the term ‘break ones back’ refers to a break of the spinal cord or column, nothing else. It’s a specific term with a specific meaning. A person or other vertebrate with even major trauma to the dorsal surface is never described as having a broken back despite the fact that pedantically the back is indeed broken. It doesn’t matter if all the skin, muscles and tendons are torn through and the viscera are spilling out through the hole, if the spinal column is intact the term broken back is never used. The term broken back is reserved exclusively to refer to a break of the spinal chord/column, and will be used to refer to that even if there are no external injuries to the ‘back’ at all. Insects lack a spine and hence can never be said to have a broken back.