Jul 4, 2011 – Treating Hard Flooring
QUESTION:
Are the chemicals safe to spray on hardwood floors?
ANSWER:
You don't indicate what kind of pest problem you are concerned with here, so I will just talk generally about the use of insecticides on hard floors. If this happens to be a wood infesting beetle problem in a hardwood floor you may be considering the use of a borate or some other WDO product on the floor, and this may not be appropriate. Since the floor likely has a finish on it you would not be able to use the product according to the Label, and the finish would prevent it from penetrating into the wood where it would do the most good.
Another consideration to keep in mind is whether or not treating that hard flooring for a pest is going to have any effect on the pest problem. Hard floors such as wood, linoleum, or tile are not places where most pests like to hang out. They may run across the floor on the way from one place to another, or in the case of fleas may end up hopping around on a hard floor as they search for a host animal, but treating general expanses of hard floors is not going to put your chemical active ingredient and the pest into much contact. If the floor needs treating at all the application might be best around the perimeter against the walls, where the crawling insects are most likely to be moving along. If it is fleas then a light mist of pyrethrum over the floor will kill the adult insects, and this could be released a couple of feet above the floor so that it does not wet the floor.
One concern with finished surfaces of natural wood is the potential effect your insecticide mixture may have on the finish. Aerosols have been the worst culprits in the past, as they often contained fairly strong solvents, and these solvents could permanently disfigure the finish. They might discolor it to create white patches or they might eat into the finish to cause pitting that cannot be altered without refinishing the surface. Many of the old liquid concentrates we used to have used solvents like xylene, and these also could affect the look of the clear finish on hardwood surfaces. Fortunately, today's products have for the most part moved away from these kinds of solvents, and many even are water-based. Water alone should not affect the hardwood floor, other than leaving spots from the hardness of the water or from the active ingredient after the water evaporates. Hopefully these could be removed easily with a towel or a towel and a wood surface cleaner.
Wettable powders and microencapsulated formulations generally have no solvents of concern, so if the water alone will not harm the look of the finished wood surface then they should be appropriate. It is strongly advised that if you have a concern about this that you treat a very small, out of the way spot first, and then inspect it a couple of days later to see if there has been any negative effect. This might be in a closet, a corner under some furniture, or even a scrap piece of that flooring if it's available. Installers often leave leftover pieces of the flooring with the homeowners.
In general I would say that most of our products today "could" be used on hardwood flooring without causing problems, but test it first to be sure. And, evaluate the pest problem there to decide if an application to the exposed floor surface really is necessary. Since the pest will normally be spending only moments on that open floor the better place to apply your treatment would be along edges, behind floor molding, within walls, etc. These all offer a much better chance to get the pest and the active ingredient together for the longest period of time, and also eliminate human exposure to the material.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
Are the chemicals safe to spray on hardwood floors?
ANSWER:
You don't indicate what kind of pest problem you are concerned with here, so I will just talk generally about the use of insecticides on hard floors. If this happens to be a wood infesting beetle problem in a hardwood floor you may be considering the use of a borate or some other WDO product on the floor, and this may not be appropriate. Since the floor likely has a finish on it you would not be able to use the product according to the Label, and the finish would prevent it from penetrating into the wood where it would do the most good.
Another consideration to keep in mind is whether or not treating that hard flooring for a pest is going to have any effect on the pest problem. Hard floors such as wood, linoleum, or tile are not places where most pests like to hang out. They may run across the floor on the way from one place to another, or in the case of fleas may end up hopping around on a hard floor as they search for a host animal, but treating general expanses of hard floors is not going to put your chemical active ingredient and the pest into much contact. If the floor needs treating at all the application might be best around the perimeter against the walls, where the crawling insects are most likely to be moving along. If it is fleas then a light mist of pyrethrum over the floor will kill the adult insects, and this could be released a couple of feet above the floor so that it does not wet the floor.
One concern with finished surfaces of natural wood is the potential effect your insecticide mixture may have on the finish. Aerosols have been the worst culprits in the past, as they often contained fairly strong solvents, and these solvents could permanently disfigure the finish. They might discolor it to create white patches or they might eat into the finish to cause pitting that cannot be altered without refinishing the surface. Many of the old liquid concentrates we used to have used solvents like xylene, and these also could affect the look of the clear finish on hardwood surfaces. Fortunately, today's products have for the most part moved away from these kinds of solvents, and many even are water-based. Water alone should not affect the hardwood floor, other than leaving spots from the hardness of the water or from the active ingredient after the water evaporates. Hopefully these could be removed easily with a towel or a towel and a wood surface cleaner.
Wettable powders and microencapsulated formulations generally have no solvents of concern, so if the water alone will not harm the look of the finished wood surface then they should be appropriate. It is strongly advised that if you have a concern about this that you treat a very small, out of the way spot first, and then inspect it a couple of days later to see if there has been any negative effect. This might be in a closet, a corner under some furniture, or even a scrap piece of that flooring if it's available. Installers often leave leftover pieces of the flooring with the homeowners.
In general I would say that most of our products today "could" be used on hardwood flooring without causing problems, but test it first to be sure. And, evaluate the pest problem there to decide if an application to the exposed floor surface really is necessary. Since the pest will normally be spending only moments on that open floor the better place to apply your treatment would be along edges, behind floor molding, within walls, etc. These all offer a much better chance to get the pest and the active ingredient together for the longest period of time, and also eliminate human exposure to the material.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
