We have a system like this

Here is a link that might be useful: Taexx

Fascinating. Where do you live that such systems are considered?

What a fascinating idea!! I was planning on putting a mixture of boric acid and diatamoaeous earth inside my walls before the sheetrock goes up because I am terrified of the huge monsterous freaking flying cock-roaches that live in the south. they DO get in, and they attack!! I swear...the other day I was sitting on the couch watching TV and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw one of those monsters FLYING RIGHT AT MY FACE!!!!!! It had to have been 10" long!! OK...maybe it was only 3" long. But he was only a few inches away when I spotted him. I had to twist around and scrunch down so he wouldn't land on me and actually pulled a muscle doing so. If I could find a way to make sure they never get in my new house it would be worth a fortune to me. How much is such a system??

The system I discussed above is an outdoor insect control system also known as a mosquito misting system. The system is on a timer and activates several times a day to spray a fine mist of non-toxic pyrethrum insecticide. The in-the-wall system is an alternative to having your house sprayed by a pest control company; main advantage is that no access to the interior is needed.

We have used this system in our barn- you can set it up yourself- look in equine, agriculture catalogs. I would imagine the spray is different, as it is for flies and mosquitoes-safe for the horses, but probably not strong enough for Texas bugs! I had not thought of using it for a home!!

ccoombsl

Dat nuttin mon!

Mi maga wife from JA. She scares de piccannies wid tales of giant red poisonous centipedes be long as ya arm bwoy!

A tru, breden!

(Now I know why I'm never moving further south than Buffalo!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Name that Bug

OK Worthy....that critter beats flying cock roaches!! Man...who could live in an area where there are 30" long centipedes!! I couldn't look at the Name that Bug link....I saw roach pictures and had to get out of it. Just the sight of a roach makes me feel ill. I am going to look into a in-the-wall sprayer though....cool idea!

my wife and i want to install one of these systems. you cannot go outside our house at or after dusk. the pyrethrin is safe, but the system also has a temporary bypass feature so tha tif you are having an activity it won't spray and disturb folks.

the down side is the thing will run around 6 grand for the system and then a few hundred more for the chemicals.

That was about the price of the estimate I received but I started looking at DIY. My estimate for a 4K sqft, two story house is less that $3K but you are correct that the insecticide is pricy. Estimate is that it will costs between $500-$800 per year, but we may be able to cut down on the monthly cost of pest control inside the house.

NO insecticide is "safe". If it kills something, then it's far from safe, it's just being administered at a dosage that won't kill you right then. Long term exposure is quite another matter. As is dealing with the concentrate that creates the mixture. And also there is the environmental impact of indiscriminate and widespread application of poison to beneficial insects rather than specific and limited targeting of certain pests with the least toxic option first.

Pyrethrins are based on natural plant toxins so are marketed as "safe and natural". They are far from it. They're quite deadly, and far more dangerous than many other plain jane man made chemical insecticides. They are deadly to aquatic life and don't belong anywhere in a watershed that feeds into a pond or river.

ANother environmental impact of general mass spraying of insecticides is that insects breed much more rapidly than do humans, and many are evolving resistance to overused pesticides because of this. Mass spraying of insecticides is actually contributing to "super bugs" that traditional pesticides can no longer kill.

I'm no tree hugging alarmist that wants to ban all pesticide use. Pesticide use certainly has it's place. This isn't one of them.

Totally agree with live wire oak and am frankly shocked that anyone would install a system that automatically sprayed pesticides around their homes. Like worthy, I wonder where everyone with these systems lives, cuz I sure have never heard of anyone in our area (Northern NY) having one. For the cost of installation and one year's supply of chemicals, you could have a nice screened in porch, a yard that your kids/pets could actually play safely on *and* a lifetime supply of fly swatters.

sandyponder

DH is making his own system for the outside of our house. It will go around the foundation and have micro sprays.

I live in Texas but grew up in PA. Those of y'all up north have no idea the bugs down in the south. I swear I see something new every week that I have never seen before. Bugs that give you blisters, spiders that can kill you with one bite, fire ants that are the devil, centipedes that can kill you...I could go on! The scorpions along are enough to make me say sure put one in!! DH killed a centipede the other day that was longer then his hand. I was picking up rocks and a GIANT scorpion came after me! I swear it was coming after me. I picked up the rock and kept hitting it. I told DH it had spots on its back and he said they were the babies....GROSSSSS!

So, I am not one for spraying the crap our of your house and we buy organic but even that is not any safer for us or our dog, but I am on board for this system.

We live in Maryland, you know, south of the mason dixon line but still considered north to most people. I have to agree with the southern posters that are keen on this system. We don't have the super-sized bugs and creepy crawlies they do. I don't want that type of system in my home, and I could stand on a soapbox and say it's because of my children and future pets, but I swear to God above if I had to deal with some of the things people down south do I would be first in line for this.

Amy

Very well put, live_wire_oak! Anybody with small kids, that thinks pyrethrins -- natural or artificial -- are safe is whistling past the graveyard.

They are a neurotoxin -- that's how they kill. Not to mention that you will also kill every single beneficial around also, thus INCREASING the chances of pests in your yard.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, there is a marked difference between (a) Pyrethrum (natural insecticide made from the flowers of certain species of chrysanthemum) and (b) Permethrin (one type of pyrethroid, a synthetic insecticide whose structure is similar to natural pyrethrum). Natural pyrethrum is a relatively low toxicity insecticide that breaks down quickly when exposed to sunlight and has a low environmental impact. Pyrethroid insecticides are generally more toxic and more environmentally persistent.

For what it is worth, I am tired of spiders and centipedes and mosquitos and dirt dobbers and millipedes and on and on and on, to say nothing of the squirrels that crawl all over our house eating the bugs that are caught in the spider webs. Although chemical companies invented a selective grass killer for use in flower beds, I don't think a similar product has been developed that can distinguish between "good" insects and "bad" insects. With apologies to Will Rogers and the tree huggers, my wife and I never met a spider that we liked. As for the centipedes, big, black 8 inchers crawling in and around your house are a literal nightmare.

OK...so this system sprays outside the house?? that would never work for me. I have over 13,000 in koi ponds in my back yard and can't risk harming my fish with poisons (Pyrethrums are very toxic to fish). I wouldn't mind a system that keeps a barrier down inside the walls, but I dont want spraying outside the house.

The system we intend to put in sprays outside around the foundation. We are not getting the system that is inside the walls. I totally understand the concern that some have with pesticides and believe me I do not have a love for them either. BUT....I do not want a brown recluse spider in my daughters room where she could possibly get a bite and die. One of our masonry workers brothers died about a month ago from a bite. I have been bitten by one and let me tell you, I thought I would die. I do not want a centipede in my coffee pot in the morning, have my friends over and 4 people end up in the hospital and one dies. This happened to a neighbor of ours where we are building.

I try to do the best I can with organic and we do have a dog and I do worry about her and my daughter. Sometimes you do what you have to do on certain things. I wish I could have built totally green and not ever have the need to put out pesticides or eat them on our foods or be able to afford to buy all organic foods. Unfortunately that is not the case, at least with us anyway. Ok, I'm off the soap box now!

I think it's up to each person to do what's right and best for their home and family. Of course, nobody wants to deliberately harm the environment and certainly we all want to keep our children and pets safe. We do the best we can under our own circumstances.
We bought our home with an in-th-wall system in place and have been VERY pleased with it. I will do it again when we build

until i get teh system, i will just have to continue spraying Malathion around the house every couple weeks. too bad i don't have any diazinon left, since that was the only thing that really kept the mosquitoes at bay. this system is MUCH safer than that!

around here you have 2 choices, spray chemicals to kill the mosquitoes, or die from west nile or any number of other mosquito borne diseases. the city and county constantly spray much harsher chemicals to control them from both trucks and from cropdusters. at least twice a week one or the other passes my house spewiing a cloud of chemicals. if this is not done, we see a huge rise in kids and older adults getting sick from insect bites.

the people who raise such a stink about using pesticides do not live in an area where you cannot go outside for the bugs. my daughter got 38 mosquito bites in LESS THAN 15 MINUTES last month, and this was during the day. the black and white mosquitoes, we call them tiger mosquitoes, are not bothered by direct sunlight and do NOT require stagnant water to breed. they swarm all hours of the day and night. there are over 30 different breeds of mosquito in my area and each one carries a different disease. plus we have ticks, fleas, and all sorts of dangerous spiders and other insects. sure teh system kills the beneficials as well, but so do the other chems used for mosquito control. at least i prefer to use the least harmful EFFECTIVE method.

as for a screened in porch, they will find a way in there as well. when you are dealing with literal clouds of them, they always find a way in with enough nnumbers to be more than just a bother.