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posted by on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the should-have-used-a-magnifying-glass dept.

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — Maine's state fire marshal says a man burned down his parents' house and killed three pets while trying to exterminate ants in his basement with matches.

Investigators say 21-year-old Devon Doucette was trying to incinerate the ants with wooden matches when one of them ignited combustible materials. The fire quickly spread to the rest of the house.

[...] Authorities say the fire killed two cats and one dog. They say charges are not likely.


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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday April 02 2017, @01:53AM (9 children)

    by butthurt (6141) on Sunday April 02 2017, @01:53AM (#487780) Journal

    Thanks for the comment. I didn't know that using ozone for fumigation against insects is a thing. It's been tested for use with stored grains.

    https://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/030130.Mason.ozone.html [purdue.edu]

    In combination with hydrogen peroxide, it was effective against bedbugs.

    https://ag.purdue.edu/entm/ENTM%20493%20Capstone%20Summaries/Feston%20Capstone%20Summary.pdf [purdue.edu]

    Wouldn't it be better, though, to generate it from pure oxygen rather than from air? An electrical arc in air can make oxides of nitrogen.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @02:06AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @02:06AM (#487786)

    Ozone is also a common way to keep hot tub and pool water clean -- the water runs past a UV bulb that generates some ozone. Often not quite enough to keep the water clear indefinitely, but cuts way down on Chlorine usage.

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday April 02 2017, @03:23AM (3 children)

      by butthurt (6141) on Sunday April 02 2017, @03:23AM (#487806) Journal

      Thanks, I didn't know that, either. According to one article about the topic,

      Corona discharge generators produce a much higher concentration and quantity of ozone as compared to the ultraviolet ozone generators.

      -- http://www.poolspanews.com/facilities/maintenance/shedding-light-on-uv-and-ozone_o [poolspanews.com]

      It goes on to say that micro-organisms are damaged by the ultraviolet light itself.

      Ultraviolet light and ozone can also be used to treat drinking water.

      http://srjcstaff.santarosa.edu/~chaverin/pda-pdfs/CHANGING%20ORDER/UVDisinfectionWaterApr10.pdf [santarosa.edu]

      UV is used in the water systems of Vancouver, Rotterdam and New York City.

      http://www.trojanuv.com/applications/drinkingwater [trojanuv.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @06:57PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @06:57PM (#487995)

        Sounds like a UV LED in the toilet bowl could do the job of a chlorine tablet in the water tank without having to worry about chlorine degrading all the other parts in the tank.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday April 02 2017, @12:43PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 02 2017, @12:43PM (#487919)

      $50 will get you a couple watt "EPROM size" UV lamp for your tropical fish tank aquarium mounted in your box filter. There are also specifically ozone generating machines for $250 or so. The Chinese being who they are, I suspect some fraction of "UV aquarium lights" are just blue LEDs that do nothing.

      I've been thinking about it on and off. To some extent don't fix whats not broken and my fish are happy so I'm happy.

  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday April 02 2017, @04:38AM

    by sjames (2882) on Sunday April 02 2017, @04:38AM (#487822) Journal

    While the nitrogen oxides aren't a great thing, a corona discharge in a pure oxygen environment can have some fairly unfriendly side effects as well.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 02 2017, @05:41AM (1 child)

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday April 02 2017, @05:41AM (#487831) Journal

    It's probably not a thing. It just happen to kill things and damage (human) lungs. But it can be produced without source chemicals and has high potency. Production rate is perhaps low however.

    As for practical production one could use zeolite [wikipedia.org] to filter out oxygen using pressure swing or if cheaper just buy oxygen. Another method is to electrolysis of water and using the oxygen part to feed a spark chamber that feeds whatever space that needs ozone. Pay attention to the fact that ozone will also have it's way with rubber sealing and all kinds of things, including your lungs. The nice thing with ozone is that it has a half life less than a day and breaks down to.. plain oxygen. The concentration to kill bed bugs needs to be 1800 ppm according to one company.* [foreverozone.com]. One unit is specified as producing 0.02 kg/hour of O3. Given a required 1800 ppm that would kill all the bugs in a 10 m³ space within one hour.

    Another method is hydrogen cyanide which can be had from ammonia. Efficient, but it's extremely toxic and more complicated to make and probably to be sure it's gone later.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday April 02 2017, @12:52PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 02 2017, @12:52PM (#487923)

      Another method is hydrogen cyanide which can be had from ammonia. Efficient, but it's extremely toxic and more complicated to make and probably to be sure it's gone later.

      Chemical warfare is the way to go. In general. Specifically vs ants, their oils are delicate and you can either whack them with a different oil (citrus oil degreaser, perhaps) or mineral spirits. Mineral spirits can be set on fire, its harder than gasoline or matches but that achievement can be unlocked with enough effort.

      To some extent ant infestations are like stump removal, where doing it the "right way" is easy and only moderately expensive so naturally people F around with all kinds of ridiculous stuff instead.

      Outdoors a pot of boiling water will take care of the problem. Its a good excuse to get out the turkey fryer and do a Lenten fish fry and then dump the oil into the ant hill. I wear my aluminum casting safety gear while doing that... I woudn't recommend doing that if you're a nudist.