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DDVP question, again
(6 posts)-
soscared
newbite
Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 113
Posted 2 weeks ago
Mon Nov 2 2009 13:06:12
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Sorry to keep bringing DDVP up. I know it's very dangerous. RIght now it's hanging in our (attached) garage and i've opened all the car windows, hoping it can work in there in a couple of weeks. I keep the door to the garage closed, and go in there only a few times a day to do laundry.
My question is this - I think we keep getting bitten on our lazboy. What if we wrap it in plastic so it's airtight with a DDVP/Vapona strip in there? Will that work? How quickly? Will it leave residues on the lazboy? What if we put it outside while it's getting treated in this manner, just to avoid the fumes?
Thanks a lot for any advice.
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meremortal
newbite
Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 41
Posted 2 weeks ago
Mon Nov 2 2009 19:28:02
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You'd probably be safer and have better luck steaming it instead...
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soscared
newbite
Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 113
Posted 2 weeks ago
Mon Nov 2 2009 22:15:43
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They steamed it twice. It's super plush and thick. And every time people who react to bites sit in it, we get bitten.
Maybe one day when my husband is not home i will toss it and when he gets home I'll pretend I don't know where it went. :) -
Bugbitten Meg
junior member
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 59
Posted 2 weeks ago
Mon Nov 2 2009 22:36:17
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Steam isn't guaranteed because the bugs may retreat deeper in the sofa than the heat treatment reaches.
I'd be afraid that a sofa would be too dense for the DDVP fumes to penetrate it quickly, which makes it difficult to estimate how long the treatment would need to last. I'm sure it would work eventually -- and a lot faster than 18 months -- but exact time?
I have a similar problem from a rolled up rug that I put into storage, unprotected, months ago. I'm bagging and pest-stripping everything in the storage room before it goes home (then leaving it on the porch to air out for at least a day, after I rotate the pest strips into the next bags.) Most stuff I'm leaving for a week and a half or two weeks; I figure the rug will be there for at least two 'cycles,' possibly I'll end up keeping it in for three. It may be overkill, but for me it's better than finding out I re-introduced a bug into the house.
I do not have much chemical expertise, but after scanning a bunch of the stuff available about it online it looks to me like DDVP may deposit some residues -- not so much you couldn't sit on it, but enough that you might want to wash your hands (after sitting with your hands on the armrests) before you touched any food. What residue there is breaks down fairly quickly in the presence of moisture, so a steam cleaning after treatment might be useful.
If you have room in the attached garage, and you decide to DDVP the couch, that might be a good space for it; I expect that the colder the treatment area, the longer it takes for the DDVP to work well. (The bugs' metabolisms are temperature dependent -- they breathe more when it's warmer.)
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soscared
newbite
Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 113
Posted 2 weeks ago
Tue Nov 3 2009 0:52:33
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THanks, Bugbitten Meg. Uh oh, if it leaves a residue, then I am now worried about opening up all the windows in the car to expose it to the DDVP in the strip in the garage. We have the baby's car seat in the car. GRRRR i am so tired of this. Is it ever going to end???
Now I just want to throw the chair out. I don't see how they can cross any pesticide barriers if all they have to do to feed is emerge from some deep recess of the chair into a slightly less deep recess of the chair. -
Bugbitten Meg
junior member
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 59
Posted 2 weeks ago
Tue Nov 3 2009 6:39:47
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Many child car seats have a removable layer of padding/cushion on top of the plastic framework. I'd say, treat it and then wash to remove residues.
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