5 replies to this topic

[Mercutia]

As far as ant barriers, I was wondering if anyone has tried a PTFE Pipe Dope as an ant barrier? Or Teflon Tape? Just curious.

[Barristan]

I tried both and it didn't work, ants just moved over it.

[drtrmiller]

Fluon Inhibits Crawling Insects by Combining Two Mechanisms of Repulsion

 

 

First, it must be understood that the key ingredient in Fluon is not, in fact, the PTFE on its own.

 

PTFE-based aqueous dispersions contain not only PTFE in micropowder form, which when dried, forms the basis for a slippery substrate, but also contain a small amount of surfactant, which stays on top of the PTFE substrate, and is the actual agent that inhibits the ants from crossing the barrier. This surfactant acts like an extremely thin layer of slippery soap, which on top of the PTFE film, produces two mechanisms of repulsion, preventing the crawling insects from gripping onto the surface.

 

Put another way, the PTFE itself is like hardwood floors—slick, but not slippery.  Add the surfactant ingredient on top of that, and you've got slippery on top of slick.  That is what allows it to form an effective escape prevention coating.

 

The PTFE itself is an inert polymer/plastic, but the barrier irreversibly fails in high humidity conditions because the surfactant used is hygroscopic (humidity loving), and it essentially melts/drips away in the high humidity environment.

 

The surfactant and the PTFE have different decomposition temperatures. We can use this fact to allow us to validate that the surfactant is necessary for the PTFE to work properly by heat sintering glass substrate, to which a coating of Fluon has been applied, to above the decomposition temperature of the surfactant, but below the temperature required to melt or degrade the PTFE. After this, the PTFE no longer functions as an insect barrier, even though the barrier appears physically unchanged.

 

Importance of PTFE Particle Size in Fluon vs. other PTFE-containing Consumer Products 

 

 

PTFE aqueous dispersions (like Fluon) utilize suspension grade micropowders, with an extremely fine particle size averaging 0.2 microns.  By comparison, the period at the end of this sentence is around 600 microns, or 3,000 times larger than a suspension grade PTFE micropowder particle.  While these suspension grade powders are typically more expensive to produce, they appear to be critically important to Fluon's effectiveness at inhibiting crawling insects. Fluon can lose its effectiveness if the bottle has been left to settle for an extended period, because the particles tend to clump together into larger particles once they have settled out of suspension, and they don't easily "unclump," even if reincorporated back into dispersion.

 

In contrast, there also exist emulsion grade micropowders, which are typically cheaper to produce, have a larger particle size, and do not work to inhibit insects.  Virtually all PTFE-containing consumer products, which can include lubricants and greases, use the emulsion grade micropowder, in addition to vastly different solvents, oils, or other chemicals to create a product that is completely different from Fluon, and will not have the same mechanism of action to contain insects as Fluon does.  While some of these alternative PTFE-containing products may produce a slight repellent effect, the lubricants and greases may work similarly to mineral oil or petroleum jelly, respectively, but will cost more to acquisition.

 

There is no known commercial alternative to PTFE micropowder dispersions that produces a similar effect for the containment of insects.

Edited by drtrmiller, July 30 2019 - 9:48 PM.

[Mercutia]

Define high humidity. Because our Toronto summers are very humid, but maybe aren't as humid as say... a Dallas summer. xD

 

I do keep my ants outside in the summer (protected of course) and wonder if fluon is going to be a problem then.

[Mercutia]

Would something like a Teflon non stick dry film work?

 

https://www.amazon.c...08K0047Z9121GZD

 

Or has anyone tried WD-40 as a barrier?

[drtrmiller]

Would something like a Teflon non stick dry film work?

 

https://www.amazon.c...08K0047Z9121GZD

 

Or has anyone tried WD-40 as a barrier?

 

There are plenty of non-Fluon products that ant keepers use to prevent their ants from escaping, such as mineral oil, petroleum jelly, and talc powder.  Each has their own advantages and limitations.

I have also updated the second part of my previous answer to better clarify why alternative PTFE-containing products are not functionally equivalent to Fluon.