Tag Archives: colloidal silver insecticide

Colloidal Silver Water

Fire Ants and Colloidal Silver

Leave a comment

Controlling fire ants with colloidal silver? Did you know there is a patent for spraying colloidal silver on fire ants to eliminate them?

It’s called United States Patent Application 20090017134, and here’s a brief summary from the patent website:

“A silver-containing composition is applied to an area that is infested with fire ants or is threatened by an infestation as a method of controlling fire ants.” After applying the composition, it reduces or eliminates the colony within two to four weeks and prevents re-infestation for about six months to a year.”

Although I haven’t tried it myself, I’m fascinated by it.

As stinging ants, fire ants are known as pests around the world. They feed mainly on young plants and germinating seeds and cause significant crop damage, particularly to grain, fruit, nut, and root crops.

Fire ants arrived in the U.S. from the tropics in the early 1900s and are now found throughout the southeastern United States.

Here’s what the patent says under the subhead “Detailed Description of the Invention”:

This invention is based in part on the surprising discovery that the application of a silver-containing composition to an area infested with fire ants repels the ants for several months after application.

In particular, the inventors discovered that silver particles and ions, or silver nitrate dissolved in water, are effective repellants of fire ants and their entire colonies.

Fire ant control methods such as individual mound treatment and broadcast treatment, whose effectiveness is limited as described elsewhere in this document, can be improved with this invention.

A novel approach to fire ant infestation is described herein that appears to indirectly impact the ants instead of killing them or incapacitating them. It is intended to force ants in a targeted colony to migrate away from the silver-containing composition rather than killing or incapacitating them.

Regardless of the particular theory, it is believed that silver-containing compositions create highly unfavorable living conditions for fire ants by reducing or eliminating their food supply, specifically by affecting the growth or quality of fungi and bacteria in the soil.

Regardless, the inventors have shown that after application of the silver compositions described herein, fire ant colonies either relocate completely to an untreated area or are substantially reduced in size.

A study conducted at Texas A&M University showed that ants given colloidal silver in their drinking water were not harmed by it.

The soil bacteria and fungus that the ants live in harmony within a symbiotic relationship are eliminated when colloidal silver is applied to the ant bed as well as the surrounding soil. So, when the colloidal silver is applied to the ant beds, the ants suddenly become migratory. As a result, they start packing up their bags and leaving.

According to the patent holders, depending on a number of factors, it can take between two weeks and six weeks to see the ant beds go from bustling communities to completely bare when colloidal silver is applied at concentrations ranging from .5 ppm (half a ppm) to 35 ppm.

Additionally, the patent holders wrote:

“Over the course of fifteen (15) months, several tests were conducted at varying concentrations. The treated areas were free of fire ant mounds for approximately six (6) months to one (1) year after an initial reaction period ranging from about 2 to about 4 weeks, during which fire ant activity steadily decreased.

Approximately one year after the initial treatment, a second application of the solution achieved the repellant result within a short period of about 1 to 2 weeks. After the initial application, the areas were regularly maintained (mowed and cleaned).

Here you have it. Colloidal silver can even help eliminate fire ants from your property. Wow, isn’t that amazing?

 

Colloidal Silver Water

Colloidal Silver for Dust Mites

Leave a comment

How to stop dust mite infestations in your bedding with colloidal silver? Your bedding is crawling with millions of microscopic dust mites and unseen bacteria colonies at any given moment, according to scientists?

It is estimated that as much as 10% of the weight of a two-year-old pillow is dead dust mites and their droppings, which many people are allergic to (and wonder why they wake up in the morning with clogged noses, itchy eyes, or even swollen eyelids).

Humans shed dead skin during the night, and dust mites feed on the moisture (sweat) exuded by our bodies, which is absorbed by our bedding. Millions upon millions of dust mites can be found living on bedding at any given time.

What can you do about it?

By washing your bedding frequently (at least once per week, in very hot water), you can reduce dust mite numbers, bacteria, and excrement on your bedding.

Several studies have shown that dust mites hate silver, so spraying your bedding with colloidal silver might be the answer. Spray three times a week to ensure that no dust mites survive. Be sure to air dry your sheets before crawling back into bed. This practice can further reduce infestations.

In fact, a study conducted by researchers in Seoul, Korea, documented a 99.9% reduction in dust mite infestation within 48 hours after dust mites were placed on silver-impregnated fabric in an enclosed test tube.

Using a different test designed to monitor the fate of the mites through two developmental cycles over a period of 6 weeks, researchers in France achieved a 94% reduction in house dust mite population (i.e., Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) populations in 2003.

There was no corresponding reduction in dust mite populations in the untreated samples in either study.

Why not just mist your bedding – very lightly – several times a week using a spray bottle with 10ppm colloidal silver, and then allow it to air dry?

The dust mites will be driven back to oblivion, and you’ll be able to kill off any nasty bacteria on your bedding.

When washing your sheets and pillowcases, add a couple of ounces of colloidal silver to the rinse cycle to give the fabric added antimicrobial protection (and anti-dust mite protection).

Thanks to silver’s remarkable disinfectant properties, it’s an effective and easy solution.

For the same purpose, I spray my furniture fabric with colloidal silver every few weeks.

 

Colloidal Silver Water

Colloidal Silver for Fruit Flies

Leave a comment

Say Goodbye to fruit flies thanks to colloidal silver. Taylore keeps a large gallon-sized plastic “mulch” compost container next to the kitchen sink for the collection of fresh fruit and vegetable scraps, such as watermelon rinds, cornhusks, potato peelings, apple peelings, etc. She is an avid organic gardener.

Since there are only two of us in the house, the kids have grown up and gone away. It may take a week to fill that compost bucket with enough food scraps to take outside to the composter.

Sometimes, especially during hot summer months, if the plastic container/compost bucket hasn’t been emptied into the outdoor composter fast enough, we discovered an outbreak of tiny fruit flies in the kitchen.

Take the mulch container/compost bucket outside, dump its contents into the composter, and then thoroughly wash it out before bringing it inside.

One summer day, when we had an outbreak of fruit flies, my wife decided to spray the inside of the container and everything inside with colloidal silver.

Voila! No fruit flies. What happened?

Apparently, fruit flies are voracious eaters. They feed on anything that produces alcohol, including decaying and fermenting fruit and vegetables.

As well as eating decaying/fermenting fruits and vegetables, the flies lay hundreds of eggs at a time.

Spraying colloidal silver on the fruit and veggie scraps in the plastic mulch container temporarily stopped the fermentation/decay process, which eliminated the bacteria helping with the rotting process.

The International Journal of Nanomedicine published a study in 2011 which showed that silver is toxic to the eggs of Drosophila – the genus of flies that includes fruit flies that are attracted to ripe and rotten fruit.

The fact that my wife sprayed her fruit and vegetable mulch with colloidal silver probably killed any fruit fly eggs that had already been laid as well as the bacteria that produce fermentation byproducts that fruit flies feed on!

 

Colloidal Silver Water

No More Cockroaches with Colloidal Silver

Leave a comment

You can fight roaches and other household pests with colloidal silver by spraying or pouring colloidal silver on the floors where there is no carpet (or simply mop your floors with it) to help get rid of roaches.

Silver water is actually very effective against some insect pests. It is not because silver is poisonous or otherwise toxic to them. Instead, silver destroys the necessary microbes that live in symbiotic relationships with the insects.

Once the silver molecules eliminate those microbes, the cockroach either dies off or moves on to another home where there’s no silver to harm their microbe friends.

Below are some specific examples of how colloidal silver can stop roaches and other common home insect pests…

It was found that colloidal silver repels roaches in a study titled “Anti-bacterial Performance of Colloidal Silver-Treated Laminate Wood Flooring,” published in International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation.

Study authors revealed that roaches avoid laminate wood floor coverings containing colloidal silver. In fact, during the study, roaches avoided walking on the flooring 87% of the time!

As a result of the colloidal silver-impregnated laminate flooring, roaches avoided it.

According to them,

“Our data facilitate further investigation of the biological effects of colloidal silver, in particular to explain why cockroaches avoid surfaces impregnated with colloidal silver.”

However, the answer to the dilemma has already been known since the mid-1940s.

Roaches are also part of the estimated 10% of insects that depend heavily on bacteria to survive.

R.W. Glaser of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research discovered back in 1946 in a research paper published in the Journal of Parasitology titled “The Intracellular Bacteria of the Cockroach in Relation to Symbiosis” that:

For several decades, it has been observed that all cockroach species so far studied contain intracellular bacilli. Bacteria are tightly packed within the cytoplasm of specialized fat cells called bacteriocytes. This parasite microorganisms are transmitted from generation to generation through the ova.”

Roaches are loaded with bacteria internally. Their intracellular bacteria are passed on to the young even before they are born.

According to Glaser, studies conducted as early as 1945 showed that when penicillin was administered to roaches to kill the bacteria living inside their bodies, the roaches died after a few days.

In fact, Brues and Dunn stated at the time in their earlier 1945 study,

Despite the present results not being conclusive, it appears probable that the bacteroids are necessary for the continued survival of the cockroaches and that they are symbiotic rather than parasitic.

Thus, all available evidence indicates that roaches live solely on the bacteria they carry inside their bodies. The bacteria aid the roaches in various ways, including digestion and reproduction.

In fact, additional research conducted in the 1960s, including a study published in the Journal of Bacteriology in February of 1961, titled “Electronic Microscopy of Symbiotic Bacteria in Developing Oocytes of the American Cockroach, Periplaneta Americana,” outlined the symbiotic nature of the relationship between roaches and the internal bacteria they harbor.

According to the study authors, there appears to be a direct link between the bacteria that are harbored intracellularly by roaches and their egg membranes.

 

According to the study authors, the bacteria secreted a substance crucial for roach egg development. In other words, without these bacteria, the roaches would not be able to reproduce!

According to the study authors:

As a result of studying the relationship between the egg membrane and the symbiote [the bacteria – ED], one or more of these factors and possibly others not yet understood may affect the development of eggs…

It is evident that the level of symbiosis involves a highly integrated system, whatever the nature of the relationship between host membranes and symbiotes over the course of the host-symbiote life cycle.”

As a result, the roaches’ egg membranes and the bacteria that live in them form a symbiotic system that is integral to the roaches’ well-being.

Then why would roaches avoid a colloidal silver-impregnated flooring like the plague?

The roaches instinctively understand that silver is harmful to the bacteria on which they depend.

Colloidal Silver Water

Colloidal Silver Stops Termites

Leave a comment

Recently, a reader wrote that she sprayed termites under her house with homemade colloidal silver. For a week, she sprayed the affected area several times, and the termites disappeared. Despite no sign of them, she’ll keep spraying every few days for several weeks in case they’ve laid eggs.

Is Silver Effective in Stopping Termites?

I’m not surprised that colloidal silver can stop termite infestations. The federal government investigated silver particles as a wood preservative back in the late 1990s and early 2000s in order to prevent termite infestations and mold contamination from wood.

They found that when ionic silver was pressure-treated into the wood as a wood preservative, it inhibited termite damage “with 100 percent termite mortality.”

The authors of one study on this topic explain why silver is so effective against these insects, even though silver has always been thought to kill only single-celled organisms like germs, viruses, and fungi.

How does silver water kill termites?

Termites’ digestive systems contain protozoa that help break down cellulose into carbohydrate molecules that can be easily metabolized. In termites, silver’s antimicrobial properties can destroy these organisms in the gut, disrupting the digestive cycle and resulting in their death.

Silver kills the bacteria in termites’ guts when they eat silver-treated wood. These bacteria are essential to the termites’ ability to process wood into nutrients that sustain their lives.

As an example, in the gut of a termite, microbes help break down cellulose, a major constituent of wood and other plant fibers, into carbohydrates and then into short-chain fatty acids.

As a result, if the wood is drenched in silver, and the termites eat it, it kills the bacteria in their tiny guts that convert food into nutrition. Without nutrition, they die.

Another study examined the use of silver against termites by treating different blocks of wood with five different concentrations of silver – 0.1 ppm, 1 ppm, 5 ppm, 10 ppm, and 15 ppm. The blocks of wood were then placed near various colonies of termites for two weeks.

Upon examining the treated blocks of wood and the termite colonies, the researchers found that the 15ppm block killed the most termites, the fastest. Indeed, it achieved a 100% kill rate within the first 9 days.

The lower concentrations also killed the termites, but it took longer. The 0.1 ppm (one-tenth of one ppm) concentration caused the least damage.

According to the researchers:

The study concluded that mycosynthesized silver nanoparticles protect wood against termites and wood-deteriorating fungi. Further studies should be undertaken to bring this approach to the commercial scale.

The authors of a study titled “Performance of New Silver-Based Wood Preservatives” concluded:

A study conducted independently by US Forest Products Laboratory (Madison, WI) found that… biocidal silver formulations repel termites. In soil and water environments, these products have low leaching propensities and work in almost all naturally occurring pH levels.

One study found that silver nanoparticles killed 100% of termites in just three days.

Last but not least, according to a white paper produced by the London Bullion Market Association (which tracks silver’s wide variety of commercial uses):

Researchers at the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Product Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, have found that silver-embedded treatments improve wood’s resistance to termites.

Termite bait traps and barrier treatments using silver are already being used in countries like India.

A silver-treated piece of wood in a plastic container with holes for termites to crawl through is usually buried in shallow holes around a wooden house’s perimeter.

Silver-embedded wood is quite popular in India for termite “bait traps” and “barrier treatments.” The traps must be buried in shallow holes around the perimeter of the wooden home. If termites enter the trap to eat the wood, the silver kills them. Thus, the traps function as an effective barrier against termites.

The use of silver-embedded wood for termite “bait traps” and “barrier treatments” is quite common in India. Silver traps are buried around the perimeter of wooden homes. When termites enter the trap to eat the wood, the silver kills them.

It is well known that silver is effective against termites.

In spite of the fact that silver has been studied for several decades as a replacement for toxic chemicals used in pressure-treating wood against termites, the cost – it is a precious metal, after all – has prevented it from being used more widely by the lumber industry, which has opted for less expensive copper chemical treatments instead.

If you have a small termite infestation in your home, you might consider spraying the affected area with colloidal silver several times a day, for about a week, like a lady I mentioned.

Maybe you’ll find that you’ve saved a lot of money on termite treatments, too!