Polyacrylamide crystals

[Joe]

I was looking through some old threads and I came across this one:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107

Since it's over a year old, I was wondering if this has become a proven and effective method of maintaining humidity since then? If it has, then props to Code Monkey for the good idea.

 

[Navaros]

Never seen that thread. Looks like a pretty good idea though. But usually after a while they turn to liquid so they would probably have to be replaced pretty often and it would be really hard to dry the tank out in the case of mites etc.

 

[Guido]

obscenity, your near albany, right? do you have any doubles of slings that you wanna trade? i have a B.albo and some A.avics that i will trade...sorry for going off topic..pm me if your interested

 

[phoenixxavierre]

polyacrylamide

Here are my concerns with polyacrylamide, which may or may not apply to arthropods.

Acrylamide is the chemical used to make polyacrylamide. Polyacrylamide is used in the treatment of drinking water and waste water to remove particles and impurities. It's also used to make paper, glue, and cosmetics. Polyacrylamide contains very small amounts of acrylamide. Acrylamide is used in making the foundation for dams, tunnels and may be produced in some foods prepared at high temperatures.

Acrylamide is known to cause cancer in animals. Certain doses are toxic to the nervous system of animals and humans. It is found in a variety of cooked and heat processed foods in elevated levels. There is some concern for workers who use acrylamide in their jobs and also the presence of acrylamide in cigarettes.

There is very little known about how acrylamide forms in food. It is found naturally in some foods, especially starchy foods, such as potatoes and cereal products that have been processed or cooked at high temperatures. No one is real sure how it becomes present in food or what promotes or reduces it's presence. No one is sure at what exact temperature acrylamide is formed in foods, though foods that don't reach 120C do not normally contain it, neither do boiled foods. Pre-cooked, home cooked, packaged and processed foods contain elevated levels of acrylamide. Prolonged exposure to acrylamides cause tumors in rats.

Polyacrylamide is used as a cleaning agent which combines with solid material and removes unwanted substances from water. The levels of acrylamide in polyacrylamide are very low.

I personally don't like using polyacrylamide simply because there isn't that much known about it, or how it reacts when animals digest it, whether it breaks down to acrylamide through digestion or not.

WHO determined that acrylamide causes several thousand cases of cancer per year in Americans. It is also known to affect male reproduction and causes birth defects in animals.

Polyacrylamide is also known to release acrylamide when exposed to light.

Part of the problem is the use of polyacrylamide in herbicides such as Roundup. Glysophate has an effect on the solubility of polyacrylamide. Since polyacrylamide is used in our environment to such a great degree, most American grown vegetables, etc., contain it, and when exposed to heat and light, releases acrylamide, which is known to be cancerous and cause other problems in both humans and animals.

It's unknown whether it may or may not cause problems in arthropods. The problems surrounding polyacrylamide are only now coming to the surface (acrylamide being the main problem).

Foods containing the highest levels of acrylamide are the popularly consumed fast food french fries, Pringles, Fritos, Tostitos, and Honey Nut Cheerios, all of which contain much higher levels than what is considered safe in drinking water. For example, what is in fast food french fries is 300 times what is allowed by the US EPA in a glass of drinking water.

This is a bit off topic, however, is interesting.

coca-cola, one of our all time favorite soft drinks, is some pretty potent stuff!

If you place a t-bone steak in a bowl of coca-cola, it will be gone in roughly two days.

To clean a toilet, pour a can of coca-cola in the toilet, let sit for an hour, and flush!

You can remove stains from vitreous china using coca-cola.

coca-cola can be used to remove blood stains.

Need to remove rust from a chrome bumper? dip some Reynolds wrap aluminum foil in coca-cola and use it to rub the rust off.

Need to clean corrosion off of car battery terminals? pour a can of coca-cola over the terminals and watch it bubble!

Want to loosen a rusty bolt? Apply a cloth soaked in coca-cola for several minutes.

Coca-cola loosens grease stains in the wash!

Coca-cola cleans road haze from the windshield!

Place a nail in coca-cola. It should dissolve it in about 4 days.

coca-cola can be used to clean truck engines!

Interesting link here: http://tuberose.com/Fast_Food.html

Sorry, got a bit off topic!

 

[scorpio]

Thats very interesting. This sort of discourages me from using it

 

[Mister Internet]

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread, but I was doing some poking around about polyacrylamide, and ran into this... everything on this list is complete crap. They are well known urban legends, and I'd hate for anyone to use this as an excuse for not using polyacrylamide based on association with this thread. There is plenty of opinion on both sides of the polyacrylamide fence, but you should do your own research and reach your own conclusions. I know tons of feeder-breeders who have used it exclusively for many generations with no obvious ill effect on either the feeders or the feederees.

This is a bit off topic, however, is interesting.

coca-cola, one of our all time favorite soft drinks, is some pretty potent stuff!

If you place a t-bone steak in a bowl of coca-cola, it will be gone in roughly two days.

To clean a toilet, pour a can of coca-cola in the toilet, let sit for an hour, and flush!

You can remove stains from vitreous china using coca-cola.

coca-cola can be used to remove blood stains.

Need to remove rust from a chrome bumper? dip some Reynolds wrap aluminum foil in coca-cola and use it to rub the rust off.

Need to clean corrosion off of car battery terminals? pour a can of coca-cola over the terminals and watch it bubble!

Want to loosen a rusty bolt? Apply a cloth soaked in coca-cola for several minutes.

Coca-cola loosens grease stains in the wash!

Coca-cola cleans road haze from the windshield!

Place a nail in coca-cola. It should dissolve it in about 4 days.

coca-cola can be used to clean truck engines!

Interesting link here: http://tuberose.com/Fast_Food.html

Sorry, got a bit off topic!

 

[Michael Jacobi]

everything on this list is complete crap

Not exactly. Actually, one of the list is true.

Need to clean corrosion off of car battery terminals? pour a can of coca-cola over the terminals and watch it bubble!

.

Coca-cola immediately dissolves corrosion on car battery terminals and is the best method of performing this cleanup.

Just FYI, MJ

FYI 2: I have used the crystals to produce the gel water that all of my roaches and other feeder insects drink for at least three years. These insects are fed to thousands of arachnids and lizards. Not one problem.

 

[deathrattle]

i don't want to completely steer the topic away from the crystals, but since the coca cola thing is brought up, i recently watched an episode of "mythbusters" in which they tested all these uses of coca-cola that were mentioned and nearly all of them were proven false. especially the one about the steak. it was fully intact after several days soaking.
the only things it worked for was cleaning the bumper with aluminum foil, and it shined a penny up very nicely after letting it soak.

 

[TroyMcClureOG82]

I've noticed you kind of have to use a lot of crystals to make a difference. I lost a mutilans this way unfortunately. I put what I thought was a good amount of crystals in his very small enclosure. One day I was feeding and watering everything and my other pedes had very good moisture but I didn't notice his was getting a little dry. The next day he was dead from dehydration. For my roach colonies I have to use more than two teaspoons crystals for a ten gallon tank with two inches of pete. This is a lot more than the recommended dosage. I tried less and they had no effect.

 

[Mister Internet]

Sorry... I could have sworn that I had typed "almost everything on that list.." c'est la vie, I stand corrected. However, I think Mythbusters did say that they weren't sure whether the Coke was actually doing the bumper cleaning, or if it was simply the abrasive action of the aluminum foil... and TONS of acidic juices clean pennies... way off topic now...

As for the crystals, those of you who have been using them for years... is there any harm to adding water to the bowl to re-hydrate the crystals, and doing that indefinitely? Obviously there reaches a point where enough of the polymer has been eaten that it needs to be replaced, but it seems that the crystals can be re-hydrated indefinitely, IME.