Room Reset - CO2 Gas & Bleach Fogging

[ceosam]

I'm looking for suggestions on how to "reset" a room.

The issues are:

• Powdery mildew
• Root Aphids

I plan to run my CO2 generator for a longggggg time with the lights on and A/C off as I've heard they will suffocate. All fans will be running to blow everything about. I will do this is succession as to get any eggs that might be hatching.

Next I will run foggers in a bath of bleach water... with all the fans on to make sure the bleach mist goes everywhere.

Last I will manually clean every square inch with bleach water and a rag.

My concerns are around running the CO2 generator for extended periods, is there any potential risk to this (aside from CO2 poisening, no one will be near the room/structure).

Also, I will be taking cuts from my mothers and killing them. What is the most effective way of "cleaning" the cuts so I don't re-introduce the aphids?

 

[Granger2]

Take cuts, take them out of the room and plant them in medium from a new bag, purchased for that purpose. Don't take the bag of medium into the room before the fogging etc. is done.

If you burn all the O2 our of the room with the CO2 burner if will extinguish the flame at some point. Careful. Also, if you go into the room with like 10,000+ ppm CO2, you'd better be quick. It will asphyxiate you very quickly, almost immediately.

I opened a CO2 tank in my room and let it all into the room with fans going [no exhaust], and didn't see results on mites or RA's. It should have had about 15,000 ppm in the room. When I held my breath and went in to turn an exhaust fan on to evacuate the room, then took 2 breaths, and got out, I breathed hard and rapidly for awhile. As I said before, careful. And I wasn't burning all the O2 up. I suggest having someone else there that is not a beneficiary on your life ins. policy, just in case. BTW, 1 part bleach and 9 parts water will kill everything. Good luck. -granger

 

[Mikell]

Glad you're still with us granger, it wouldn't have taken much longer.

Never enter a room while fumigating with CO2, at the least use an extension cord to turn on ventilation remotely.

O2 depletion is a concern if the room is well sealed. Baking it (130*F for at least 60 min) is more effective and less dangerous.

 

[Limeygreen]

Since you have foggers using microscopic sulfur (sulfur burner is much better and then I would use the lump sulfur instead) for the purpose of getting rid of mildew, bleach is fantastic, I have used 5% solution of 35% sodium hypochlorite in commercial settings (glass houses as chlorine ruins poly) in foggers, and just straight 35% through the foggers. Make sure it's well ventilated before re entering it can cause quite a fit for your lungs and eyes and it can be hard on structural things like metal.

Another option may be to use something like oxidate or sanidate and running it through your foggers, since it is stabilized with acetic acid it has some residual affect compared to just hydrogen peroxide. It will burn your skin pretty good too if it comes into contact, eyes etc, but I have used in the same manner as the sodium hypochlorite.

These things I never thought to have much affect on the bugs but more on diseases and viruses, for the root aphids I would put up sticky traps every square meter in your room or 2 per square meter before plants go back in and after your treatments, this at least will tell you if something is still sitting around there before you put new plants in there and if you are good to go. You could also spray the room with mineral oil at 2-4% solution after your treatments to suffocate any bugs still sitting around just in case, wait a day or so then rinse with water, once the oil re wets it makes things rather slick and could be dangerous if it were to drip on a hot bulb.

Make sure you are rinsing your foggers out with clean water as well to prevent corrosion on them, as bleach or the oxidate will eat up metal components if you have any.