Juxtaroberto;4804318; said:
Ok, what do you burn them in?
Are you still in the house??
How bad is the smell?
How effective is this method?
How long do they have to burn?
How long after before doing another treatment?
Fill in any gaps, please..
Fogging the house with tanks..
- Thread starter fishmamma
- Start date
Ok, what do you burn them in?
Are you still in the house??
How bad is the smell?
How effective is this method?
How long do they have to burn?
How long after before doing another treatment?
Fill in any gaps, please..
fishmamma;4804353; said:
Last time we did it on an old pan we were gonna throw out. It can honestly be any kind of scrap metal. We took two small pieces of wood, placed the pan on top (this was so we didn't burn the linoleum with the heat of the pan), put the serrano peppers in the pan, and lit them. Since they are dry, they catch fire pretty easily, but burn slowly, so it lasts.
We were still in the house, we simply did one or two rooms at a time (it's not a terribly big house). The smell will make your eyes water, and you'll feel the back of your throat burning, and I expect a small amount of CO is released, but even one room over it wasn't too noticeable. Bugs hate it though. If I remember correctly, it was a bed bug problem (gross!). After that day, no more bed bugs (and they are notoriously hard to get rid of).
We let them burn out by themselves, which took about 20 minutes or so, and we let the smoke permeate the room, fill every nook and cranny for about an hour and a half. The smoke was pretty thick, too. After an hour and a half, we just opened all the doors and windows to that room and let it air out for another hour or so, and by then the pepper smell was completely gone.
We only had to do the pepper burning once. I expect if bugs are a seasonal thing in Texas, then maybe once a year.
Juxtaroberto;4804449; said:
Def gonna keep in mind, sounds hispanic.. lol which I'm comfortable with!!
LMAO yeah! My dad's Mexican and my mom's Guatemalan. I guess you could call them "Latino folk remedies."
Just asked my mom, and she said they weren't serrano peppers, but Chile de Arbol peppers. In case you can't find any, they're closely related to cayenne peppers, which should also do the trick.
Juxtaroberto;4805932; said:
Luckly I hadn't tried it yet!!!!
Ok, no one answered about turning off the air pumps.. good or bad??
I think it depends on how heavily stocked you are...
Although...... you could go out and buy many, many, many feet of airline tubing, and have your air pumps outside the house, plugged in with extension cables, or something, pumping clean air through the tank (and therefore pushing any smoky air, or foggy air, if you use foggers, away from the tank). Cover all openings with saran wrap, except for some small corner, through which the air from the pumps will escape, and keep the smoky/foggy air out.
Although...... you could go out and buy many, many, many feet of airline tubing, and have your air pumps outside the house, plugged in with extension cables, or something, pumping clean air through the tank (and therefore pushing any smoky air, or foggy air, if you use foggers, away from the tank). Cover all openings with saran wrap, except for some small corner, through which the air from the pumps will escape, and keep the smoky/foggy air out.
I sprinkle boric acid around the tops of cabinets, and under the sinks (hidden behind cabinets, so the animals can't get to it/ingest it. It seems to work well. I use boric acid for a lot of things, they even suggest using it (very diluted) as an eyewash for pink eye. Very useful stuff. Kills bugs by dessicating their exoskeleton anywhere it touches. They rub up against it, and rub up against their buddies, they all die.
Got to home depot....Get a roll of thick painters plastic and drape it over all of the tanks. bunch the bottom up and use tape to keep the plastic tight around the bottom of the stand. Leave the filters running, but no air pumps....Turn off all ceiling fans, air conditioners, heaters, and anything else that moves air. Fog, spray or whatever....When you come back, leave the tanks covered for at least the rest of the day so no residual particles can get in.
Remember to remove all of your fish stuff from the house... nets, buckets, hoses, pumps, extra decorations, ALL OF IT.
I've done this many times when I had the town house in Oklahomo.. You will need to wipe down any surfaces where fish food prep goes on, and anything that you might touch while messing with your tanks. Its a tedious process, but its worth it when you have such a ridiculous amount of money tied up in tanks as I do.......
Remember to remove all of your fish stuff from the house... nets, buckets, hoses, pumps, extra decorations, ALL OF IT.
I've done this many times when I had the town house in Oklahomo.. You will need to wipe down any surfaces where fish food prep goes on, and anything that you might touch while messing with your tanks. Its a tedious process, but its worth it when you have such a ridiculous amount of money tied up in tanks as I do.......
If your really worried, maybe lower the water level in the tank, take a piece of cardboard/styrofoam as long as the width of your tank, put it over the side of your tank and tape it securely. put your air pump on top of cardboard and then cover the top in plastic wrap (you would have to tape securely around the powercords coming out of plastic wrap, from filters, air pump, heaters... You could skip the cardboard airpump mounting system if you have a powerhead with an aerator. I've never done it, but it works in my head.
Honestly lowering water and covering in plastic wrap should be fine for a few hours though.
Honestly lowering water and covering in plastic wrap should be fine for a few hours though.
