• Are you a Tarantula hobbyist? If so, we invite you to join our community! Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your pets and enclosures and chat with other Tarantula enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Advice?: Concerns over permethrin use in the household.

Kaiyo_no_Okaami

New Member
Messages
3
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
So, a household member is going camping at the end of the month and just mixed up and used a batch of permethrin on his tent. Its main use, as I understand it, is against ticks.
Which are arachnids...

Does anyone know just HOW paranoid I should be?
The user claims everything was cleaned with bleach (which apparently will degrade and eventually neutralize permethrin). But this also is a man who frequently leaves wet, floury fingerprints around the kitchen when he bakes, and notoriously puts away my scale with flour/bits of wet dough on it. I can't be super sure how careful he was.
I'm slightly afraid to touch anything relating to my spiders for fear of contamination.

AND he used the sink I usually use to clean water dishes (etc) in. ‍

I'm really trying to remain calm and not panic here. At the same time though... My tarantulas!
I'd be concerned no matter what species I had, but I have Cyriocosmus sp. Tambopata. They're fairly new to the hobby right now and still fairly rare (afaik, at least in the US). Plus, they're still slings. (Ish? Most recent molt measured around 3/4" or about 19mm DLS.) Especially as someone relatively new to keeping Ts, I would be devastated if something happened to them.

Should I be going over every last inch of everything it might have come in contact with using bleach? Permethrin apparently breaks down in about 4 days in the sun, but can last around 4 weeks otherwise.

I also have no idea how easily teansfered this stuff is when dry. Or if water will reactivate it. Etc. The internet has not been very helpful with this so far.

Thanks in advance.
 

Latest posts

Top