# Termidor / Fipronil concerns



## bubbler (Oct 18, 2010)

Long story short, I had a bunch of carpenter ants entering my living room and kitchen. I called a professional exterminator who this morning applied Termidor SC 12" up my foundation and 12" on the ground out all around the perimeter of the house.

During his description of the product he made a point of saying that the active ingredient in this stuff is the same that is in Frontline which is applied directly to the fur/skin of dogs & cats for flea & tick treatment... I guess implying that it's safe for animals/people.

I have some landscaping work that I need to done on one of the house which I was planning to do this weekend, unfortunately I forgot to ask the exterminator if that would be OK not. I had mentioned that I was planning to replace the deck in a month or two, and he seemed to only be concerned that we should call him back to reapply once the construction was done.

After doing some research online about this stuff I'm a little nervous about it's potential effects on humans... I'll literally be digging up the areas where this stuff was just sprayed, meaning there will dirt on my clothes, hands/arms, and probably I'll be breathing dust and other light particles floating about...

Should I postpone this digging work for several weeks to wait for it to dissipate somewhat? Or is wearing rubber gloves and wetting the dirt a bit to keep the dust down sufficient?

Sadly, because the ants go to the point where I called in a Pro I had already applied some products like Spectracide "Ant Shield" granules and Ortho's "Home Defense MAX" spray to the same areas in an effort to try to reduce my spider/ant/house centipede issues this spring... though we've had very heavy rains since those have been applied, so I would imagine they are some what diluted...


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## PAbugman (Jun 29, 2010)

Fipronil is very safe, especially in the dilute form used as a spray. The warnings on the label are for the concentrate, and even then they are overblown. NOBODY goes to a medical center just because they get some on their skin. It's a shame that these cautions are so overreactive as we get complacent with all chemicals then. 

There is no danger at all to working in treated area. I would still wait several weeks simply to have undisturbed treated areas available to the ants. 

We used approx 2 gallons of dilute spray around the perimeter of average houses, so you can see how little you would be exposed to, even if you got into all of it. Hope this helps.


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## bubbler (Oct 18, 2010)

PAbugman said:


> There is no danger at all to working in treated area. I would still wait several weeks simply to have undisturbed treated areas available to the ants.
> 
> We used approx 2 gallons of dilute spray around the perimeter of average houses, so you can see how little you would be exposed to, even if you got into all of it. Hope this helps.


It does, thanks--I'm waiting a couple of weeks to do the work because as you say, I want the treatment to affect the colonies that are resulting in ants in my house... but otherwise I plan to just take my usual precautions...


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