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pesticide warning my stupidity
(16 posts)-
lynnee82
junior member
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 66
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 11:26:02
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I had a small area to spray before going to work, couldn't find the respirator, so just sprayed cynora with no mask. Within 5 min I was gasping and dry heaving. I thought how awful to have to call an ambulance and have to explain why all my stuff is in plastic bags and I have white powder along all the walls! After running outside to breathe, i am okay now. I will never try that again. Just a warning to anyone not to spray a pesticide without a respirator. Mine cost $20 at walmart.
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bitten123
member
Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 326
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 11:35:52
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Oh lynnee, that is so scarry! I remember a few years back some pro football player died after a reaction of spraying his yard ( I don't remember story very clearly but that is gist of it).
Pesticides are really dangerous, and you reminded us all to be very cautious!
I'm glad your okay and I am glad to have a reminder to be very cautious with any pesticide.
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Marixpress
member
Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 305
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 11:40:38
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Just curious, what were you spraying? Thanks for the words of caution!!
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lynnee82
junior member
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 66
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 17:40:34
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I was spraying cyonara 9.7 that I got from doyourownpestcontol.com. What a mistake I made!
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spideyjg
oldtimer
Joined: Jul '08
Posts: 1,405
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 18:29:57
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You must read and heed the safety section on the MSDS sheet of any chemical!
I know doyourownpestcontrol has them linked right under the pictures.
MSDS sheets are for your safety, MSDS = Material Safety Data Sheet.
The hazards are why many potent products are for the professionals who are trained.
Jim
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lynnee82,
Thank you for posting this. It is a good reminder for others. Pesticides can be dangerous.
It is also possible to make your bed bug problems worse by misapplying or overapplying them. For these reasons, I don't recommend do-it-yourself treatment.
(Before anyone jumps on that statement, yes -- I do understand the costs involved, and I know there isn't always a choice of hiring a pro, but I'd recommend that people who have to self-treat look into dry vapor steam -- applied while wearing a mask per our FAQ on steam, and DE, again used with care. It can take much longer than getting a pro in right away, and takes research to do properly, so I still don't think this is for everyone.)
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Bugged_in_MD
junior member
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 40
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 19:48:53
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I learned the hard way too, I bought a gallon sized pump sprayer from lowe's, and decided to do my own spraying, I did something wrong because I went to remove the lid and the pressure had some how built up and the concentrate splashed me all over my face and chest. My eyes burned long after washing them out. I will never do that again.!
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lynnee82
junior member
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 66
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 6 2008 20:28:26
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To nobugsonme: how would I make the problem worse by misapplying the chemical? I don't want it to get worse! But I cannot find anyone to do the job. Terminix and Cook's don't treat here. I have called many and none treat bed bugs. Thanks for your advice.
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I am not a PCO and can't give advice on how to use pesticides. But as an example, I have heard that overapplying pesticides, or using certain products in certain ways, can have a repellent effect on bed bugs. "Repellent" might sound nice but is not what you want with bed bugs (repelling them into the walls, for example, only makes the problem harder to treat.) Other things can go wrong, and of course, it can be dangerous to overapply or misuse pesticides.
Since you told me in a PM that you live in a fairly major US city, I am fairly certain there are providers treating for bed bugs there. You won't be the only one with bed bugs there.
I am really surprised that Terminix told you they do not treat for bed bugs there. They do treat for bed bugs elsewhere.
You might try calling some more of the established local pest control companies you have heard of who deal with other pests, and ask if they have bed bug experience. Since Orkin has claimed in the media to have done bed bug work in all 50 states, they may be an option too. If the local companies don't treat for bed bugs, I would be surprised if they could not name a local company that does, if you ask.
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ScaredyetHopeful
newbite
Joined: Mar '09
Posts: 7
Posted 7 months ago
Tue Mar 31 2009 15:01:21
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To Nobugsonme or anyone who is an OLDTIMER on here -- here is my question : IS THERE ANY WAY TO GET RID OF THE BB PROBLEM ? I have been reading everything on this site for a couple months and you have a negative spin on things... you don't give a lot of hope for folks that are really desperate and a lot of times not financially able to have all these PCO visits and these thermal treatments. I am at wits end and I have been severly traumatized. Some may laugh but I have literally been in tears some days. It's not funny and its not a game. You can't discuss this problem with friends for fear of being judged, its really hard.
I guess all am I asking for is honesty from someone without an alterior motive -- these websites with these products are sickening. I don't know what to use or what to trust.please can someone offer some hope, a suggestion for a product. I don't know how much more I can take .
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Adele
senior member
Joined: May '08
Posts: 556
Posted 7 months ago
Tue Mar 31 2009 17:15:58
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HI Scaredyethopeful
first - no one is going to laugh at this matter and we don't think it is a game - we've all been traumized by these things at one time or another
we are not negative becasue we want to be - it is just that these things are very difficult to get rid of and there is a lot of misinformation and fear out in the public
To answer your questions, the first thing you should do is to check your local laws or your tenant lease because it may be your landlord's responsibility to hire the PCO's to get rid of your problem - you may be stressing for no reason. if it is your landlord's responsiblity - then you need to get on stick and start pressing for a PCO to inspect and treat
I understand the site's and Nobugs position regarding not treating the problem yourself - these monsters are not overly conducive to self-treatment and they can be VERY resistant to chemicals certainly anything that can be bought over the counter.
You've just read posting from people that nearly choked themselves wih pesticide. I can tell you that I had many adverse reactions to self treatment as well - in general i am not a fan of chemical treatments as I haven't found them to work all that well or effectively
If you read the site as you claim you have - you will also read many many success stories - so the state of despair you are in right now has to change to motivation to get to work and get the probelm solved
Personally I have done a lot of self-treatment and had mixed results. I found that vacuuming, steaming and dusts to help the most.
if you MUST self-treat - exhausting the legal route to force your landlord to do it - you should think about buying a Packtite, a good dry vapor steamer, DE powder and a good respirator, and caulk to seal up your place.
these things will cost money - but they are the best tools that I found to self treat
also read all that you can about about to dust effectively and where to caulk
there are a lot of pros here to help you as well
for you to win this war - your despair must change to determination and you must swing into action
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 7 months ago
Tue Mar 31 2009 18:20:25
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Scardey,
What Adele said is spot on. And that's the thing. If you add up how much you would spend on a dry vapor steamer, a packtite, and the respirator/mask plus DE, you'd have paid for a thermal treatment on a small place.
First step for you to take: find out what the local laws regarding the requirement for landlords to treat are. It's entirely possible that it is not your financial responsibility to treat if you rent.
Additionally, if you rent, adjacent units also need to be inspected to make sure that the bugs didn't originate there or migrate there from your place, otherwise all the work in the world won't get rid of the infestation in your place.
If you don't rent, then sit down and figure out how much it would reasonably cost to self-treat, keeping in mind that since there is such a steep learning curve, self-treatment often takes longer.
When we advocate getting a professional in to treat it's not because we don't understand that some months there's only $6 left in the bank account for the last week of the month. We do so because having been through this many of us find that spending more for a pro treatment up front saves money in the long run.
And yes, some people have more resources than others in terms of being able to tap into credit or a network of friends and family, and others are just in a hard place and don't have those resources. I don't have a solution for that partly because the resources for assistance are going to vary by city and state. All I can do is tell you that I get it. Had I gotten bed bugs this month, I would have had no money to treat them. As a society, we need to figure out a solution for this so that people don't feel so hopeless about it.
But the first step is to find out who pays for treatment in your city. You may be pleasantly surprised by the answer.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 5,547
Posted 7 months ago
Tue Mar 31 2009 22:40:32
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ScaredyetHopeful,
In suggesting you don't self-treat, I am not trying to be negative. It can be dangerous, it can make your problem worse.
It can be done. It can even be done safely. But it takes a lot of research (and as others have noted, some products which may not necessarily be cheap anyway).
buggyinsocal and Adele gave really good advice just now, so I won't repeat it. You are in the right place and we do understand how you feel. We have been there too.
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spideyjg
oldtimer
Joined: Jul '08
Posts: 1,405
Posted 7 months ago
Tue Mar 31 2009 23:53:29
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Everything Adele and Buggy said!
Open your eyes because people win this war. There are tons of success stories you just need to find them. Many folks move on after victory so what are in more evidence here are the newly afflicted struggling up that steep learning curve.
Been there, done that, bought the T shirt.
Read this again......
If you don't rent, then sit down and figure out how much it would reasonably cost to self-treat, keeping in mind that since there is such a steep learning curve, self-treatment often takes longer.
When we advocate getting a professional in to treat it's not because we don't understand that some months there's only $6 left in the bank account for the last week of the month. We do so because having been through this many of us find that spending more for a pro treatment up front saves money in the long run.
I spent more time than I care to count reading every SCIENTIFIC thing I could find on bugs. You scan the frakkin internet and find tons of bogus stuff from hucksters selling "Magic Alaskan Volcano Anti-bedbug Pixie Dust" (tm) fer Pete's sake some other pseudo science, or some old wives tale of bug killing voodoo.
OK well Kate's Hungarian BB curse was priceless. :) But I digress.
You can pay a pro or spend time studying your ass off, pesticide application, safety, bug biology and habits, digest it all, look around your home and get in the bugs head to locate them. Then buying all the gear go on an annihilation mission. A give no quarter, take no prisoners, leave nothing alive in your wake mission of seek and destroy!
Watch this for an idea of what you have to do to hunt them down and this isn't even touching on the bed....
[+] Embed the video Get the Video Player Find them, kill them, kill their eggs, poison the harborage. Cut them off from food, seal them in death chambers, dust them with poofy death (tm) but leave no survivors. The amount of work I did post PCO took weeks of nights coming home at 6 after work and working until 10-midnight on bug remediation, but I have no bugs.
BBs are not roaches that you poison and kill enough to stop seeing them, ya gotta kill every single one.
Bottom line getting a qualified pro is the easy way. If you have to self treat get some 91% alcohol to use as a contact killer and get studying.
Jim
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 7 months ago
Wed Apr 1 2009 11:24:40
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And a quick ps.
(First off, I was rushed yesterday, so I thought your name was ScardeyandHopeful, and shortened it. I didn't realize it was ScaredYetHopeful, so apologies for calling you Scaredy.)
Secondly, remember that the boards suffer from what statisticians would call a sample selection bias. Many people get rid of bed bug infestations with professional treatment after two or three visits, something which is often included in the price of treatment in the first place since standard protocol for many PCOs involves two or three visits.
On the boards, we don't hear as much from those people. And we hear even less from people who bring in a PCO to do thermal or Vikane and do them properly and get rid of the bugs with one visit. For most people, bed bugs are something that you hire a PCO to take care of and then you move on.
In the forums, we get a disproportionate number of people with really stubborn infestations because the people with the hardest, most difficult to get rid of problems that go on for the longest are the people who need to most info and help. It's sort of like the problem with RateMyProfessor dot com. Only the students who hated a teacher and loved a teacher take the time to comment. The average middle of the road student doesn't really bother, so so you get students who hate and students who love having their voices better represented. Most people who are long past infestations don't hang around. A handful of us do, but you get the most posts from people in the middle of a bad infestation who are also freaking out.
I distinctly remember reading the forums during days I spent sobbing over feeling hopeless. Even when my PCO assured me that the bugs weren't in anyone else's apartment and wouldn't spread because of thermal treatment, visions of months spent not sleeping and feeling invaded in my own home loomed large and felt far more real than anything the PCOs said. It's awful. And everyone here who's been through it sympathizes with you. And yes, there's a chance that that will happen to you, but there's also a chance that it won't.
Everyone here told me that I would feel better once I had specific work to do: PCOs to call, laundry to do. I didn't believe them because I'm not sure I'd ever been so depressed and stressed. But once I started, I did feel better. A lot better.
Take those first few steps. After that, you'll probably have more questions. Come back with those questions once you have them. It will get better. Hang in there.
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buggyinsocal - 4 minutes ago »
Everyone here told me that I would feel better once I had specific work to do: PCOs to call, laundry to do. I didn't believe them because I'm not sure I'd ever been so depressed and stressed. But once I started, I did feel better. A lot better.
Take those first few steps. After that, you'll probably have more questions. Come back with those questions once you have them. It will get better. Hang in there.This is so true. I was a mess (and still get overwhelmed) when this first came up about a month or so ago. I thought I was going to have to get rid of everything-- everything I owned-- or store it, or something, and that I'd never get rid of this, and it was hopeless, and how could this happen, and I'm never sleeping again. Etc. Etc. And then the laundry seemed neverending, even with my own machines and countless trips to the laundromat. And then you get everything home, and everything else you owned bagged, and your house looks like... something you never thought it would.
All that seems ridiculously overwhelming, but once it's done, you get used to it. You continue on, living out of clear bags, appreciating your clothes all over again (which I kind of love as a by-product) and continuing on the fight. And then it'll be over. So I hear. I'm not there yet, but I understand it's a very real possibility, and I'm generally okay for now until I get there. And we will all get there. :)
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