Sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate

Jun 12, 2011 - Why Borates Kill Bugs

A quick seminar on borates. The original material is a mineral called Borax, and this is mined from the ground. I don't know if it is still around, but as a kid we used soap called Boraxo, and there were TV ads for "20-Mule Team Borax", depicting long mule trains pulling carts filled with this mined material. Borax is used for many other reasons, but it also is known to be toxic to insects, so it is refined for pest management. One misconception (bald faced lie??) that is spread on the Internet is that borates and boric acid are "non-toxic" to people, and thus are good "alternatives" to those nasty toxic pesticides. This is dangerously false, as borates and boric acid are quite toxic to humans and pets and often used at nearly pure concentration.

The least refined is the Borates, which are essentially borax, composed of sodium, boron, and oxygen. The borax can be highly refined to a crystalline material that we call Boric acid, and it also is known as orthoboric acid, another name for the same thing. The "borates" go by the names Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate (Boracide Powder), Sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate (Terro and Intice baits), and Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate (Nibor dust, Gourmet baits, BoraCare, Timbor, Borasol, etc.). These are all extremely similar but with slightly varying molecular makeup.

However, in ANY of its refined forms the boric acids and borates are stomach poisons, and they must be ingested to affect an insect. Therefore, those arthropods that do not have the ability to ingest the active ingredient are not going to be killed by boric acid dusts or borates on surfaces, and this includes blood feeders such as bed bugs and mosquitoes, or other insects that feed with a sucking mouth. The exact mechanism by which the borate actually kills the insects seems to be a little unclear, even now after many decades of use of these products for insect control. However, somehow the borate interferes with the proper digestion or metabolism of the food eaten by the insect and eventually the insect, in a sense, starves to death. It is possible that the borate affects microorganisms in the gut of the insect (bacteria and protozoa) that are responsible for helping with the digestion of the insect's food, and in this manner interrupt proper digestion.

Wiley Guide to Chemical Incompatibilities

Encyclopedia of Food and Color Additives

Photography. Processing Chemicals. Specifications for Sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate

Thermophysical properties of chemicals and hydrocarbons

Lowrys' handbook of right-to-know and emergency planning, handbook of compliance for worker and community, OSHA, EPA, and the states