Toggle sidebar

Help! Keeping mead safe durring termite treatment

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
thechromeknight

thechromeknight

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 29, 2006
3
0
0
47
Hello everyone!
I've been coming here for a few years now, and I finally have a question that I didn't see somewhere already :-)

So...
I have some meads that are aging in a spare closet. (it has a door).
I just found out that my landlord is going to have the building tented in about a week for termite spray or whatever it is they do when they tent your building for termites.
I am worried about the mead getting ruined! (poisoned).

Moving them would be very difficult, but not impossible.
I have one 3-gal carboy, a 3-gal bucket (primary fermenter) and four 1-gal carboys.
I have caps for the 1-gal's. Would it be safe if I capped those, and maybe put trash bags over all of them? (and tied them up so that they were as airtight as possible?)
Even with Airlocks?
(if it helps, they are all done fermenting and are all in the aging stage)

I am hoping someone out there has experience with this :-)

Thanks for your time!
 
thechromeknight said:
Hello everyone!
I've been coming here for a few years now, and I finally have a question that I didn't see somewhere already :-)

So...
I have some meads that are aging in a spare closet. (it has a door).
I just found out that my landlord is going to have the building tented in about a week for termite spray or whatever it is they do when they tent your building for termites.
I am worried about the mead getting ruined! (poisoned).

Moving them would be very difficult, but not impossible.
I have one 3-gal carboy, a 3-gal bucket (primary fermenter) and four 1-gal carboys.
I have caps for the 1-gal's. Would it be safe if I capped those, and maybe put trash bags over all of them? (and tied them up so that they were as airtight as possible?)
Even with Airlocks?
(if it helps, they are all done fermenting and are all in the aging stage)

I am hoping someone out there has experience with this :-)

Thanks for your time!
Click to expand...
No experience with that sort of thing (there's a few termites been found in the "West Country" area, but that's through imported timber etc).

I'd guess, that wrapping the tops of the bottles/carboy's/demi-johns that are ageing, with cling wrap, then put the whole thing into a garbage/trash/rubbish type bag, which is then sealed up (I'd also want to stand the bottle/carboy/demi-john on top of the sealed part) should be fine.

That way, when it's all done, you should be able to just gently cut the plastic away from the container, lift out the container and dump the plastic without any possible residual "touch" contamination either.

Yes, I'd cap the ones with airlocks if possible, or at least change the airlock for a rubber/plastic/silicone bung.........

regards

fatbloke
 
Thanks for the fast replies! :-D

No, he didn't. I was wondering about that. He must have gotten some kind of instructions.
I will have to go find out.

Thanks Fatbloke for the suggestions. I will try that :-)

If I happen to run into the guys, I will ask them. It's a small town, but I don't see them very often :-P
I'll post what I find out incase anyone else ever needs to know :-P
 
Sorry for the late reply.

I had to "bomb" my house this spring for fleas. The pesticide canisters clearly stated to remove all food items and anything that comes into contact with food. So I had to move my three 6.5 gallon glass carboys and my primary bucket with 7 gallons in it next door. :eek: It was an extreme pain, but I prefer to err on the side of caution.

As a side note: All I did with my aquarium was to cover the entire top with bath towels and then cover with plastic. It was nowhere near airtight. All of my little fishies survived and they would be way more sensitive to this stuff than I am.

I would just ask the landlord or call the pest control company directly and ask them if removal of food items is necessary.
 
Vikane (sulfuryl fluoride) is the stuff typically used in whole-structure tent fumigation. Methyl bromide is another, although it is far less common these days due to concerns about environmental contamination - it doesn't break down as quickly as sulfuryl flouride and it attacks the ozone layer. So it is very likely that the company performing the fumigation will use Vikane to do the job. It doesn't penetrate HDPE plastics, so anything protected by a near airtight covering of HDPE will likely be OK. It also doesn't dissolve readily into water-based liquids, so very little will likely get into your mead even if there is some incidental exposure.

Still, this stuff is nastily toxic, and carries the EPA's most stringent pesticide warnings. You can't even buy the stuff legally unless you are properly trained in its use and disposal. So... if it were my mead, I'd move it. YMMV, of course.
 
:-)

Thanks for the replies!
:-D

I ended up speaking to the Pest Control guy and he assured me that the special bags we had to use would be more than enough, especially since (as he says) it's required by law to double-bag everything "if the manufacturer's seal is broken". They gave us special bags that were made for use with whatever gas they were using.
I made a point to let him know that I was very concerned about it, and he assured me that if I double-bagged the meads and did it like the diagram he handed out said, that the meads would not be affected at all.
Incidentally, I also moved unexpectedly over the last couple days (hence the late reply), and the place is bigger so yay, more room for mead :-D
I'll post back with a little more specific info when I get the papers from my old place, maybe it can help someone else :-)
 
I agree on the never enough room. I recently moved and doubled my mead/beer storage space, in 3 months I now don't have enough space (this is eerily similar to the space issue I had in my apartment...). Surfing Craigslist for cheap carboys is both a boon and a curse.

Kyle
 
I think mead/winemaking operations are like releasing a gas in an unpressurized volume - it expands to fill any space you give it... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom