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On the problematic side, the cheap boric acid solution (pun!) will likely be the most used. And this will be bad. 1) Boric acid will kill any insect that inge
by keenerd 15y ago
On the problematic side, the cheap boric acid solution (pun!) will likely be the most used. And this will be bad.
1) Boric acid will kill any insect that ingests it.
2) If you leave rotting fruit out, every nectar lover will drink it. From experience, this will be at least 50% honeybees.
So yeah, it will crash native honeybee populations too. If you are curious and want to see how effective it would be, mix up some bait without the poison. After a few hours, enough for every bug to find it, sit next to it for ten minutes. Count bees vs mosquitoes, you'll probably be disappointed.
- eavc 15y agoHoneybees are much larger than mosquitoes. Could you simply screen the honeybees out?
- burgerbrain 15y agoThat's so low tech, it's genius.
- guelo 15y agoAccording to the EPA "technical boric acid is practically nontoxic to birds, fish and aquatic invertebrates, and relatively nontoxic to beneficial insects." http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/0024fact.pdf http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/0024fact.pdf
- goombastic 15y agoI thought about this as well. I am going to leave boric acid laced juice socks out at night. BTW this has worked as a solution for cockroaches terrifically well at my place for the last 20 years.
- sk5t 15y agoWhat is a 'juice sock'? Is it like a windsock? A size-12 tube sock soaked in Borax?
- nunb 15y agoIt's an open container filled with toxic nectar suspended inside a tube sock which is in turn suspended from a hook. A wick is added so that the contents of the container are pulled up by capillary action and suffuse the sock.