Friday, January 28, 2011

Borax recommended for use against bugs

In the New York Daily News, a letter by Howard Scott Pearlman extols Borax:

"Borax has the ability to get on insects' skin and then suck the moisture out of their bodies. If you do laundry with borax soap powder, your clothes and sheets get a borax residue on them. Unsuspecting bedbugs pick up that residue and take it back to their nests, where all their nasty little friends meet Mr. Borax, dry out and die. Borax soap powder can also be sprinkled on carpeting and left for days, providing you do not have small children or pets that will eat it."

27 January, 2011.

It may or may not work, I would assume that they would get hungrier (or thirstier...) and go for more blood...on average adults eat once a week. They can fast for over a year.

Vaguely I recall borax being illegal to use in New York as a powdered bug deterrent, but I am not sure. But this is worth knowing about. My own flat has seen a decrease in the bugs, which I attribute to more use of ziploc bags and therefore loss of habitat.

Also, is this a free ad for a product - or is it reality? I wonder if it only makes the critters hungry, and rather than dry out and die, they just go for more blood. At least Mr. Pearlman is not selling us on DDT.