4 replies to this topic

[TofuPower]

Has anyone tried adding a food grade mold inhibitor to the plaster during the mixing process?  Would that even work?

 

I’ve been poking around the forum, and I’ve seen it mentioned that white plaster has a tendency to develop mold, and so some people don’t use it.

 

I’ve also seen that when making food/medium for ants or flies a food grade mold inhibitor like Calcium propanoate can be added to prevent mold.  It seems to be safe for flies and their maggots, and also for homemade ant food recipes.

[AndersT]

This is taken straight from Wikipedia (as I have limited knowledge in this field), but "According to the Pesticide Action Network North America, calcium propionate is slightly toxic.". Whether or not it would present a problem, I don't know. If nobody else knows either, I guess you could try making nest with the mix, add some wild worker ants, feed them and make sure nest conditions are good and see how it goes. It would be interesting to see if it actually helped prevent mold and also to see if it would be safe for the ants.

[TofuPower]

Thanks for that.

I just found that line on the Wikipedia page, and it goes on to state that it is not uncommon for food items to be considered slightly toxic, including vitamin C, and that calcium propanoate can be used as a fungicide on fruit.

 

Perhaps I will run some experiments this summer.

I'll try growing mold on purpose on different mixtures of plaster, to see if it even works while submerged in plaster.

I usually wind up with several dozen Solenopsis queens... I'll divide them up and see if the ingredient appears to interfere with the development of the eggs and larvae.

 

I've read that calcium propanoate is considered a "pesticide" which threw me off at first.  But any chemical used to combat a living thing is considered a "pesticide" even if that targeted living thing is only mold or fungus.

 

Also from Wikipedia:

 

Toxicity Class III[edit]

• slightly toxic
• Signal word: Caution, possibly followed by:

"Harmful if swallowed", "May be harmful if absorbed through the skin", "May be harmful if inhaled", or "May irritate eyes, nose, throat, and skin"

Class III materials are estimated to be fatal to an adult human at some dose in excess of 30 grams.

[AndersT]

I just found a place where they sell it for use in fruit fly cultures. Reading your first post, I guess you knew that already. I missed it. That ought to deem it pretty safe - although long term exposure could cause other unknown problems, I guess. I doubt it though. I think the real challenge would be to incorporate it in the plaster. I'm not sure the effect would be the same.

[drtrmiller]

http://www.formicult...ericide/?p=5214