Hi this is Boruch Fishman and welcome to another episode of "Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist," we've got Dovid on the line, and today we're going to be asking Dovid about how the householder can evaluate roach sprays and pest sprays that are on the market. We're going to ask Dovid to tell us what we should look for, and how the sprays work. Specifically,  yesterday I went out and purchased a typical roach spray that you might find on the market, and I am going to ask Dovid about the chemicals in this spray.

Boruch: How you doing Dovid?

Dovid: I'm fine thank-you Boruch.

Boruch: Dovid, the first chemical listed in this roach spray is Propoxur. How good is that chemical?

Dovid: Let's step away from the brink for a minute. If you're going to be buying a spray to eradicate pests you're going to be buying a pesticide or you're going to be buying an insecticide. So if you're going to go to the counter and ask someone you don't want to go to the counter and say "Where's the stuff for insects?" because that in itself will identify you as not being knowledgeable about the correct terminology.  So the correct terminology you want to buy some insecticide. Well now that means that your target pest you are trying to eradicate is an insect, you use an insecticide,if its a pest, you use a pesticide, if its a rodent you use a rodenticide.

So what I always say to do, is to look at the inert and active ingredients in the product. The inert and active ingredients will tell you what percentage of the product is the active ingredient and which percentage is, in fact,  filler.  Now, there are many, many different pesticides on the market, today, most of which are good, and the percentage of the spray which is active will tell you how thoroughly and how quickly you will have your eradication. Also, you should be sure to read the label on the container because that's going to give you all the precautions that you must adhere to. That's for your own personal safety.  Okay, so what's your first question Boruch.  

Boruch: This particular spray has 1.1 % propoxur. Is that a good chemical and a good concentration?

Dovid: It is an insecticide and it is a good product. Let's take a look at the whole label. It's going to give us a list of the active ingredients and the inert ingredients.

Boruch:  .05% is Tetrametrin,  .1% is piperonyl butoxide,  and .320% is MGK 264.

Dovid: So those are the active ingredients. What's the balance?

Boruch: I guess everything else or approximately 98.43% is filler.

Dovid: More than 98% of what you've just bought is filler and less than 2% is active ingredients. Now of the three ingredients you've read out, one is a good killing agent, and the other two are flushing agents. If you flush that Propoxur into a particular hole, it's going to flush out whatever is in there. That's a very burning irritating insecticide, insects hate it, it usually gets them running.  It gets them out of those nocks and crannies they love to inhabit, and gets them into the area where they can be quickly eradicated with some of the other properties. Now insecticides that you are going to buy will have some level of residual, (meaning, chemicals that adhere to the ground and kill insects that walk on that area even days or weeks later), unless you are buying an aerosol.  If it's an aerosol, there's generally no residual to an aerosol because they are generally 99.5% inert gases, just to propel it to come out. But this liquid product has some resilience to it so there will be some residual, it's a good product.