# Diatomaceous earth



## Serval007 (Mar 10, 2009)

What brand do yall use for around ff cultures? 

Thanks, Matthew


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

I'm using the 'Safer' brand. I've not used others, so I can't give any comparison information. I had it hanging around from a few years ago when my chickens had mites; it worked well for that, too.


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

Just grab a bag from any hardware store. All DE is just fossilized skeletons of microscopic shelled organisms. On a microscopic level they are sharp and work by cutting up and drying out the mites.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Okapi said:


> Just grab a bag from any hardware store. All DE is just fossilized skeletons of microscopic shelled organisms. On a microscopic level they are sharp and work by cutting up and drying out the mites.


Well, one point of clarification that may save a life: use only DE intended for food use or for gardening use -- that is, amorphous. Do NOT use pool DE (crystalline) for spreading around. Breathing crystalline silica will greatly increase your odds of contracting silicosis.

Here's just one of many studies showing this fact: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11836467. Occupational exposure to crystalline silica (pool DE) causes more than 50 times more deaths than is allowable under OSHA regulations.

Likely both types are available at hardware stores. Shop safely.


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## salvz (Nov 3, 2014)

Any *food grade* DE should work. I bought mine on amazon.com, lots of choices.


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## DPfarr (Nov 24, 2017)

I'm sucking at making one species cultures. 

One vector of was considering is my shredded wood aka excelsior. I bought a bale from amazon. Does it need to be autoclave and held in secondary containment? I already have my cultures in a container with mite paper in the bottom and that container in an open tub with mite paper. 

Maybe I need a scorched earth approach where I need to take all culturing out of my home and start over completely? I threw some waste in my isopods and saw HUGE mites on there. Definitely the detritivore type but still is frustrating not getting the population efficiency I should.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

DPfarr said:


> One vector of was considering is my shredded wood aka excelsior. I bought a bale from amazon. Does it need to be autoclave and held in secondary containment? I already have my cultures in a container with mite paper in the bottom and that container in an open tub with mite paper.


You can keep the excelsior in the freezer to keep it mite-free.

I switched to DE and permethrin barriers after watching mites crawl across mite paper and onto my culture containers. Maybe I got a old batch of paper, maybe some user error, maybe I have super Godzilla mites at my place, maybe I'm hallucinating mites, I don't know. I do know that this works for me: a cookie sheet with a layer of DE in the whole sheet. On top of that, six short deli cups that have been sprayed with permethrin. The culture containers sit in the deli cups. Cultures are made with FFs that are no more than 3 weeks old, dusted before adding to culture. Excelsior and culture cups are kept in the freezer, dry media in the fridge.


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## Speg (Nov 9, 2010)

This is what I use:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Safer-B...ea-Ant-Crawling-Insect-Killer-51703/206857782

Been using the same batch for years and it works quite well. So happy I went with this rather than my last method of doing nothing special.


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