CO2 kills biscuit beetles almost instantly!I need to fucking share this, I am so pleased with how well this worked, this morning I noticed that biscuit beetles had gotten into my rice, so I spent all day at work thinking of how I could kill them but leave the rice uncontaminated and still edible.I got a small disposable cannister of CO2 gas for welding, (600 grams, which is actually 300 litres of CO2 apparently ? ) caught a few biscuit beetles in a jar, filled it with CO2, check with a match to make sure it was full of CO2 (match goes out in CO2) they die within a few seconds, like 3 seconds. I even tried putting them in for 30 seconds, then blowing all the CO2 out, they remain dead.>tfw total biscuit beetle deathhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wj7NxZJCGcthe larger plan is to put all the rice into plastic rubble sacks, use an iron or heating element to seal all but two openings in the bag at the top, see where this is going? one is "in", one is "out", I can even attach a vacuum cleaner to one and vacuum pack it. I feel like vacuuming all the air out and re-filling with CO2 will get a good concentration of CO2 throughout.I will do an experimental bag and keep you posted.
>>2823274great I will remember this when I need to go back to the civil war and don't want to eat maggots, or I'm trying to survive in russia after nato bombs the shit out of me.ORI will just buy real freeze dried food and keep it sealed.
>>2823274>biscuit beetles had gotten into my rice, so I spent all day at work thinking of how I could kill them but leave the rice uncontaminated and still edible.anon.... I have bad news. the rice is already contaminated. WITH BEETLES!
>>2823274>600 grams, which is actually 300 litres of CO2 apparently ?Ideal gas law states that 1 mole of gas fulls a 22.4 liter volume (probably, this is from memory). The molar mass of CO2 is about 44 g/mol so 600 grams is 13.6 moles which should fill a 305 liter volume.
here's a biscuit beetle, OP's image is lacking in detail. I've never seen these, but there's no way you're getting these things and their turds out of a pile of rice.
It does beg the question of how to keep food long term. I put my plastic-bagged rice into glass jars as soon as I get it home, to keep the plastic fumes from spoiling it over the year it takes to get around to eating it. If it were contaminated from the store, you could kill any beetles by vacuum packing it, but then you get back to the problem of plastic contamination.
>>2823274CO2 isn't killing them.The lack of oxygen is.You're asphyxiating them.
>>2823330>the rice is already contaminated. WITH BEETLES!>>2823357>but there's no way you're getting these things and their turds out of a pile of rice.>they don't wash their rice.if only i had some way to see them and remove them.also the infestation isn't too bad or i wouldn't even be thinking about this.
>>2823358i didnt know about that, does it really cause it to spoil?
>>2823366>CO2 isn't killing them.>You're asphyxiating them.>with CO2.
>>2823699"spoil" in the ruined sense, yes. Soft plastic is soft because of liquid components, which evaporate either slowly in cool and dark places or quickly in hot sunlit ones. It gets in the food, after 2 years in a plastic bag the food will have acquired a bitter plasticky taste. Peanut butter is pretty bad about this too, if you've ever tried old peanut butter from a plastic jar, like expired stuff from a food bank or that jar you forgot about behind the pancake mix. It's gotta cause ass cancer, so I don't eat anything that smells like plastic when I first open it. It's a bitter smell, not food-like at all. Cereal bags do it pretty bad as well, and I think most foods have either 1 year or 2 years between packaging and the expiration date. When I see an item near its expiration date I think "this food has been in this bag absorbing plastic fumes for 2 years" and put it back on the shelf. Everyone shits blood eventually, but I'd like to put it off as long as I can.
>>2823357oh no, plant matter with bug turds in it? how will you survive, nooooo
>>2823330This. Process the rice when you first get it.
>>2823743>you vill
>>2823366I hate you
>>2823357>>2823330most of your food can contain a government approved quantity of insect parts.
>>2823274anyway, in other news, update on the situation; sealing the bags is a bit trickier than i thought, needs a much more accurate temperature and pressure than i can get with an iron or soldering iron, so i will simply pump them full of CO2, and tie them shut very well. The valve has a connection for 4mm tubing, found something that works. Pushing a long piece of this right to the bottom of the rice in multiple places allows proper dispersal of CO2:>Test;Filled very large jar with rice, pushed tube to bottom in multiple places, turned on CO2, removed pipe, closed lid. shook jar around to mix up any remaining air, did match test: passed, flame went out even after shaking, which means the CO2 fully flooded the rice from the bottom up.Now I just need more air tight containers.
btw CO2 is heavier than air, like argon, it can fill a container and will not rise out for a while.
>>2823274>I even tried putting them in for 30 seconds, then blowing all the CO2 out, they remain dead.I doubt it, did you leave them in with something wet to eat? If they cbf to revive and fly away on fresh food I'll believe it.>>2823357If they're smaller than rice grains you can wash them out together with broken grains and rice dust.Then it becomes interesting how to use inedible starchy liquid in farming ig.>>2823366Hoomans pass out from too much CO2 much faster than from zero oxygen.>>2823358I do this and sprinkle some coarse salt on it, every ~6cm of rice in height. If there were beatles in the bag that'll kill them.I still worry about the synthetic rubber in the standard jar lids so it's a max 1y solution.
fuck I'm namefagging, I gotta kill an autofill
>>2823976>I doubt iti don't, they're fucking tiny, however i will do an experiment overnight.method:flood container with CO2, leave for 30 seconds, blow into jar to circulate fresher air, leaving in a drop of water and some rice.
>>2824101experiment underway, 3 beetles inside, 2 grains of rice and a drop of water. tested with a flame for oxygen presence. (oxygen present in jar) beetles look very dead after approx 30 seconds of exposure to CO2, they died after like 3 seconds though. we will see what happens tomorrow, prediction: they will still be dead.
>>2824106Ideally if you can keep the rice container full of CO2 and without oxygen for an extend period that should suppress everything that isn't anaerobic bacteria (and minimize moisture to suppress that too.)
>>2823976>>2824101>>2824106>>2824110FUCK, the sage man from under the sea was right.>>2823274IMPORTANT: you need to suffocate them for a bit longer for this to work.>results of experiment;After a few hours they were back up and about. immersing them in CO2 for a few seconds renders them immobile and unresponsive for atleast a few minutes. If they are then returned to fresh air they will revive after about 10 minutes.Experiment 2: I left them in a CO2 filled jar for 8 hours, I just refilled the jar with fresh air. results to follow ...
>>2823274OP, you’re overthinking this. Put your rice (or other grains) into a 5 gallon food-grade plastic bucket. Put a lump of dry ice, about the size of a golf ball, on top of the grain. Set the lid on top of the bucket, do not seal it. Wait 24 hours. The dry ice melts, filling the bucket with CO2. It’s heavier than air, it will percolate all the way down. This is when you snap the lid down. Bam, there ya go. Oxygen-free grain storage. Bugs die, and your food doesn’t oxidize. Use a Sharpie to mark the lid with the contents and date sealed.
>>2823358>you could kill any beetles by vacuum packing it, but then you get back to the problem of plastic contamination.
>>2824313>implying dry ice is easier to find than a canister of CO2do you yanks just have that shit in "the store"?
>>2824315You can buy it a WalMart
>>2823274>PEST CONTRO WITH CO2, preppers - this one's for you!Put dry goods in the freezer for a couple of days to a week.All bugs are dead and their eggs won't hatch.Remove from freezer and pack in 5 gallon food grade buckets.
>>2824317yank confirmed
>>2824319What licenses do you need to handle dry ice m8?
>>2824322I guess they've quit carrying it.I checked my local store online and it's not listed.They had a special small freezer near the checkout where you could just buy it by the pound.I guess the demand wasn't enough to justify keeping it.
>>2824315Most grocery stores sell dry ice in the US. It is fairly cheap.
>>2824345fucking weird, what for?>>2824333>I checked my local store online and it's not listed.get rekt>>2824322>What licenses do you need to handle dry ice m8?this one mate.>>2824304>results to follow ...>EXPERIMENT RESULTS:put some more biscuit beetles in a jar with CO2 for about one hour, afterwards refilled with fresh air, still dead after 20 minutes in fresh air.8 hour exposure to CO2 also still dead.
CO2 is cheap and has many uses. I use it for MIG shielding gas (runs hotter than 75/25 so better for little 120V wire welders), inflating tires at high psi to seat beads (using a proper regulator of course) or just topping them of if my compressor isn't handy) briefly running pneumatic tools and of course blowguns.You can easily gas whatever you want using a common pneumatic blowgun. No hurry unlike needing to use dry ice before it sublimes.
>>2824322not many, in the NL you can order it in the mail in styrofoam lol anyone can, don't even need to be 18.
>>2823274A cheaper method OP, is airtight 5 gallon buckets and chunks of dry ice.Put your rice/beans/whatever in the bucket, (even if they are still in baggies) toss in a couple chunks of dry ice and let it sublimate. When you see the vapors spilling over the edge of the bucket and the chunks have gotten much smaller, put the lid on and seal it.
>>2824351>what for?drug manufacturing.
>>2823329my wife eat rice you racist fuck
>>2824479>>2824313ok here's the thing though, how do you know that can fill 5 gallons? or the volume of whatever you are sealing? and if it fills WAY more than the volume of your container, and your container is airtight, it might explode or just pop off the lid, leaving your rice exposed. also I don't know how it is cheaper, a cannister of gas that is over 300Liters was £15. the valve for the top was more expensive but I can reuse that in the future. did a quick search and 10kg of dry ice pellets is £44. gram for gram it might be cheaper but I just don't need that much. So I've spent less overall for the same result, which will also last longer in storage anyway.Besides, dry ice is cold, so won't it cause condensation inside your rice?>inb4 hurr durr it's not frozen water DUMBASS, what a loser, sidewalk daiper trump friesthe condensation comes from water vapour in the air it is slowly displacing, which gets cold before it is displaced.
americans btfo
Just wanted to post that bugs breathe through their skin. Mostly their buttons. The way their respiration works makes them instantly susceptible to the atmosphere. Take this for what it's worth
>>2826566>butthurt yuro so salty about burgers it revives a 5 day old thread
>>2826599>copeamerifat confirmed
