bayer complete insect killer

[BIO-Linist]

My dad has spread bayer complete insect killer all around my pond. It is highly toxic to fish. The pond is a 35 gallon tub sitting on the sidewalk in the back of house It has humdreds of beautiful guppies and some platies too. The sidewalk is made of flat concrete bricks and the pesticide granules all over it. It was raining and what if it splashes in. And the wind too. I have attempted to carefully wash away the granules but they broke down into a fine powder that sticks to the the sidewalk. I am very angry. What to do.:help: :help:help: :help: I don't have time so much homework and midterms next week ****

[HeatherB]

Can you sweep the powder off with a broom? Or blow it off with an air compressor or air-in-a-can?

If you Dad is concerned about insects around the pond, maybe you should get some misquito fish. (Not sure what they are called, but they eat the misquito larvae.)

And I don't think I am spelling misquito right either.

[smaug]

First off,mosquito is spelled skeeter round here:hmm3grin2orange:
The bug killer is certainly a concerns ,I recomend using a garden hose with not attachment,just use the normal flow of the hose to gently wash it away from the little pond.To ease you mind a bit,if any would have gotten in there would be dead fish by now.Dont worry bout skeeters in the pond,the small fish you have in there will eat any long before they hatch/emerge.

[HeatherB]

First off,mosquito is spelled skeeter round here:hmm3grin2orange:


I knew there was an O in there somewheres!

[BIO-Linist]

I recomend using a garden hose with not attachment,just use the normal flow of the hose to gently wash it away from the little pond.
Thank you smaug! That is exactly what i did. There were dead earthworms floating out. There is still a lot and it's settled into the cracks/spaces and there are still visible stains. I will wash again later.
I also stuffed a bag of carbon in the filter.


If you Dad is concerned about insects around the pond, maybe you should get some misquito fish. (Not sure what they are called, but they eat the misquito larvae.)
Never have any mosquitoes, no way! Guppies and platies always extremely effective mosquito fish.
I don't know why he applied the pesticide. It doesn't make any sense to me! It's a lawn product but he spread it mainly on the sidewalk around the house and we don't even have a lawn. And now whenever I (or anyone else) walks on the sidewalk it sticks to my (or their) soles and tracks everywhere ARRRR


To ease you mind a bit,if any would have gotten in there would be dead fish by now.
It appears they all are still alive, though if some have died I wouldn't be able to tell because of the floating plant cover.
It is not "out of the woods" yet.

The "bayer complete insect killer" says it kills in 24 hours - so if it takes up to 24 hours just to kill its intended target, it's probably a slow(er) acting poison.
And it also says it lasts something like 3 months - so it is persistent in the environment. Regardless of the persistent qualities of this pesticide, chronic problems may develop even while there have been no immediate deaths.
I wouldn't be able to easily tell internal damage or disease. There could be shortened life premature death. There could be reproductive harm.
These guppies and platies are all descendants of a few guppies/platies came many years ago and are a self replenishing (or maybe still increasing) population. Impaired reproduction could cause birth defects or failure, leading to a gradual dying-out.

[sheamurai]

If I were you, I'd be more worried about poisoned insects falling into the pond and being eaten by the fish. Insects get wonky after being poisoned, and could easily crawl/fly into the pond while dying. You might want to spread a screen over it for a couple days.
If you can find the MSDS sheet on it, on the manufacurers site, or search it on google, it will tell you how best to clean it up.
Barring that, unless there's a chemical in it that will react, the general thing to do with a pesticide that has been spilled is to wash hard surfaces with a bleach solution, and to shovel up the contaminated soil and replace it with new.
Not sure if you're that worried about it, just thought I'd mention it.
The tub is waterproof, so insecticide won't leach into it from the soil. Surface run-off and insect contamination should be your only real worries.
good luck with the clean up!

[BIO-Linist]

If I were you, I'd be more worried about poisoned insects falling into the pond and being eaten by the fish. Insects get wonky after being poisoned, and could easily crawl/fly into the pond while dying. You might want to spread a screen over it for a couple days.
Thanks for the heads up. What kind of screen would be suitable? Where to find?


If you can find the MSDS sheet on it, on the manufacurers site, or search it on google, it will tell you how best to clean it up.
Barring that, unless there's a chemical in it that will react, the general thing to do with a pesticide that has been spilled is to wash hard surfaces with a bleach solution, and to shovel up the contaminated soil and replace it with new.
found it! http://whatsinproducts.com/msds/02021017%20MSDS%20Bayer%20Adv%20Complete%20Insect% 20Killer%20For%20Soil%20Turf%20Granules%20112103.p df?PHPSESSID=6282da493629760e2e5bc4e185809649 The decontamination step is to scrub with soapy water, which is impractical for my situation.
Scrubbing is impractical because of the large, porous surface area with many pits and cracks.

This site http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/tims/TG15/TG15.pdf also recommends soapy water for both of the active ingredients (imidacloprid and beta cyfluthrin). But implies scrubbing, which is, again, impractical for my situation.

The sidewalk has gravel on both sides; there is no exposed soil so I don't think soil contamination is as much of a concern. However, the gravel makes it much harder to clean up.

From what i have gathered, replacing the sidewalk seems to be the most effective solution, but the necessary combination of time/money/approval does not exist at this time. If conditions were favorable it actually would be pretty simple as lifting out the individual tiles, replacing the weed barrier fabric, and covering with new tiles.

pond
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/971/2010_03Mar_06_pond_000.jpg

[Wild Turkey]

Seeing that the pond is raised up like that, I dont think you will have any issues unless he got some directly in it.

I agree to be safe washing the patio with a hose on normal power is good idea, having chemicals anywhere near my tanks makes me extremely nervous so I can relate to that, but I dont think you need to go replacing the patio.

[BIO-Linist]

Under it around it, everywhere *angry angry angry* It's on the hose and buckets I use for water changes for all my tanks (which are all on the patio) and around the 42 gallon sump (setup and connection of which is now postponed even further) the brine shrimp bucket and plant growing tub and water storage tubs I haven't fed the fish or watered the plants for almost 2 days and water changes are overdue and 3 midterms next week i havent for studied yet... R Arrr r rr it makes no sense

Man i really blew up

[Wild Turkey]

Oh man, I cant blame you for being miffed, Talk about inconsiderate :(

I would definitely wash that equipment ten times over

On a small setup like that, you could probably run some carbon if you feel the need, in theory that should remove any chemicals that made their way into the system.

I really dont think replacing the patio would do much though, most of the chemicals are probably in the soil under and around it at this point.

[sheamurai]

yah, no need for replacing anything with the tub raised up like that.
As far as screening, just normal nylon window screening would do...you can cut to fit and duct tape it or whatever to secure the edges.
Wow, sucks to have to decontaminate all your fish stuff - and you'll still be wondering about it after, no matter how well you clean it...ARGH! I'd be ticked too

If its any consolation, I doubt VERY much it will bother the plants at all, you should be able to water them...

[BIO-Linist]

It's not the plants I'm worried about it's the hose. Of course the plants will be safe; after all, the pesticide was intended for soil and turf use.

The hose in the back (you can see it to the right of the pond in the picture) I use for watering and water changes has a "hose mender" repair joint that got covered somewhat with pesticide granules. That joint was never completely watertight and leaks very slightly; thus the pesticide in contact with it could diffuse through the leak and contaminate water in the hose.

I used another hose dragged all the way from the front to wash the sidewalk.

[BIO-Linist]

I was failing pretty hard in my calculus class (if my abysmal quiz scores were any indication) and midterm was on Tuesday. Need to do extremely well on exams to pass.

I had originally planned to study all weekend, Friday to Monday, but due to the incident that made this thread happen, had no time to do so.
Large amount of homework should have been done over weekend was not done.
What was done was done poorly late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

Monday night I was unproductive - too exhausted. Pray and went to sleep.

Tuesday morning I was panicking.

(N.B. there were potentially embarrassing events involving me getting mad at my dad that should not be posted onto a forum)

That morning saw a series of events clearly miraculous.

I pray with my mom.

Soon some serious stuff started happening. My mom dropped me off at bus stop just as bus was about to leave, and I ran up to the bus and was allowed to get on. (never happened before)

Then more awesome stuff happen. Usually, the bus is packed to standing room for the morning commute. But this time, there were many empty seats available. I was able to sit down and study. And the traffic was good.

Next bus connection came right after and there were seats available on it too.

Plus there were no elderly/disabled people that I would otherwise have to give up seat to.

Result: Trip was real smooth. Totally unprecedented. Got to school over an hour early. Went to study room and studied with classmates.

...

I think I did pretty good on that test.

My mom later told me she was praying pretty hard the whole time.

Conclusion: The Lord intervened. Praise God! Thank you Jesus!
Explain the the high-quality study time was created from what usually is crowded, hectic, and traffic clogged commute, and for additional help during the exam itself.

To top it off, I haven't seen any floating fish yet, and it's been raining every day so the effect of my not watering the plants is mitigated.

[sheamurai]

good luck really needs to follow bad luck at some point!
glad things seem to working out for you!

[BIO-Linist]

Spring break.

4 weeks have gone by since last water change for all my tanks.

Finally found a 5/8" "drinking water safe" hose. After shopping at 6 different places. Nearly all hoses seem to have lead and other chemical junk in them.

Oh and by the way I also finally found a specialist LFS. The first time I've ever seen new tanks larger than 55 gallons for sale in a store.

I really suck at shopping huh?

[BIO-Linist]

First victim confirmed yesterday. A gold barb, which was already sick for a long time before this whole thing happened so not likely to be caused by direct effect, though reduced feeding and no water changes for a month may have been 'last
straw'/'nail in coffin'.

Nitrates have stayed surprising low (less than 10ppm) in the pond and the 20 gallon, as algae was allowed to grow unchecked.

However, in the badly overstocked 29 gallon nitrate was between 25 and 50 (I use strips so not much precision, but it tells enough to know how seriously water change is required). The pH was also a bit low (6.5-ish while it is normally at 7). Is this danger for HITH coming back? I can't see well because of the algae on the glass.

Finally set up new hose. Also bought 4 new buckets. I made a new dedicated water change nozzle from pvc pipe. The new hose, though it is drinking water safe, has a vinyl smell that goes away after running water through it for several minutes. Pressurizing the hose (by closing the valve on the nozzle) causes the smell to come back. I suspect this is because stretching of the medical grade vinyl causes a small amount of plasticizer to be released, so I have to run it fully open so that pressure does not build up.
I got very wet.
Done small water change on the 29, plan to continue to do small changes without removing algae to avoid shock. The 42 gallon sump cannot be set up because it is contaminated:scry:.

Dealing with this situation has totally disrupted my daily routine and long term plans. The 125 construction is delayed even more.