Posted on 05/20/2014 11:51:34 AM PDT by PoloSec
Chemist Pilar Mateo has come up with a paint that slowly releases insecticides, making homes inhospitable to parasite-spreading bugs.
Across Latin American, large beetles known as vinchucas spread Chagas disease. The disease can lie dormant for years, but when it emerges, it can damage the digestive system and heart, sometimes fatally.
The vinchucas, technically Triatoma infestans, are also known as kissing bugs, because of their tendency to bite on the face. They inhabit the crevices of mud or adobe houses, coming out at night. Latin America is the epicenter of this beetle’s territory, with about 7 to 8 million people are infected with Chagas disease. Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, the disease’s namesake, identified its source in 1909.
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A local hospital facing a cockroach infestation inspired Mateo to come up with an idea for infusing paint with insecticide. It would be slow-releasing; toxic to the insects, but not to humans.
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It worked. She describes the process as vaccinating the house rather than its inhabitants. Deploying Inesfly, as the paint is known, reduced infestation rates from as high as 90 percent to nearly zero.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
at least one neednt DRINK nor be DOUSED in the stuff
Thank you.
So, you paint your mud house, and the critters don't like it.
okay, so.....I am supposed to be continually freaked-out about the lead paint that probably lies 6 or 7 layers down, but a fresh coat of a paint that will slowly release insecticides is hunky-dory??
All we need is another “silent spring” type book claiming it will kill frogs or something and more humans can suffer ....
Ahhh.....
That’s why she looks like that!
So it's a flea collar for your house? Imagine breathing in that stuff for a decade....
My thoughts exactly.
Years ago one of the Popular Mechanics books suggested mixing DDT with concrete in the foundation to keep termites out of your house.
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