Drione Dust - Questions & Answers

Drione Dust is not labeled for dust mites. I would recommend switching to a product such as bedlam that is labeled for dust mites.

 

Dust mite allergies can cause sneezing, nasal congestion, itchy eyes, respiratory issues, eczema, and most severely, asthma. While you won’t find dust mite bites on your family members, exposure to dust mites in the first year of life can cause a lifelong allergy to this pest, so learning how to kill dust mites is important for your family’s health. A multi-step approach to dust mites treatment is the best course of action to rid your home and prevent dust mite accumulation.

• Reducing humidity: Using a dehumidifier or air conditioner to reduce the humidity to at or below 50 percent humidity in the air and reducing the air temperature will slow and eventually impede the life cycle of dust mites, since the lower humidity makes it difficult for the mites to absorb water in the air. This is a very important step in getting rid of these pests.
• Vacuuming: If possible, use a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Arresting) filter compatible vacuum to trap the microscopic mites and particulates. Dust commonly contains other allergens, including pet dander, cigarette ash, mold spores, pollen, and other insect feces, so vacuuming can help alleviate many symptoms of allergies. 
• Bedding maintenance: Switching out woolen or feather bedding for synthetic materials, as well as replacing traditional stuffed animals with washable ones, can lessen the accumulation of mites. Washing all bedding at hot temperatures once a week, or freezing non-washables overnight, can kill the existing dust mites. Using allergen-impermeable dust mite covers for mattresses or pillowcases can help to prevent more mites to live in your bedding once you have gotten rid of them. Cleaning mattresses and box springs is also important, and deep cleaning with a steam cleaner can achieve this. 
• Insecticides: Some insecticides can be used as spot treatments for killing dust mites (and other pests) on contact and when used in conjunction with proper cleaning, a good dust mite spray can be a powerful tool against dust mites.

There are three basic active ingredients in Drione dust, Pyrethrins, Piperonyl Butoxide, Amorphous Silica Gel. Both the pyrethrins and Piperonyl Butoxide have lost their potency and should no longer be an issue for anyone. The Amorphous Silica Gel however does not fade away over time, it is a desiccant and can be irritating if it gets in your eyes or if it is inhaled. People working around these old deposits of dust should wear eye protection and a dust mask and should wash their hands before eating, drinking or using the toilet.

Since the Drione Dust is a powder, you should just vacuum it up like any other powder on a surface. If it was applied too heavily by a pro to your home you need to report the company for mis-use of product. Dusts - when used indoors - should only be used lightly and directly into crevices, not on surfaces out in the open. Soap and water on a scrub brush should pull the product up as well. 

You would want to dust behind and underneath furniture, appliances, garage perimeter and inside wall voids.  All dusts pretty much work the same way and all are OK on spiders.  But the inherent problem is that spiders are hard to kill because they do not groom themselves.  Unlike other insects that walk over dust, get it on their legs, and then groom themselves, spiders do not groom their legs and therefore do not ingest the dust as easily.  For this reason, glue boards and sprays are typically used more often.  We have a spider kit that is very popular for brown recluse spiders and all spiders in general that we would recommend.

You can use Drione dust directly applied to the nests with a hand duster for ground hornet control. We recommend that you either treat very late in the evening or very early in the morning to minimize the risk of attack. You should note that Drione dust takes a few days to kill the hornets and will not immediately knockdown the insects.

Drione Dust does have pyrethrin as one of its active ingredients. When applying any insecticide, you should take great care and concern to not apply it within reach of pets or children. Dust in particular should be applied in areas where it would not be accessible to your cat but also in areas where the dust will remain undisturbed such as behind or underneath household appliances, inside wall voids, and where plumbing enters the home such as underneath kitchen and bathroom sinks.

Drione Dust will not harm Juniper. Be sure to apply directly to the nest in the cooler times of the day. 

Drione Dust should not be mixed with water. It is labeled to apply to voided areas and those areas you cannot spray a liquid solution. We recommend that you treat with one of our Bedbug Kits. Please find detailed information on treating for this insect in our How to Get Rid of Bedbugs Article.

Since Brown Recluse spiders are known for hiding in cracks, crevices and hard to reach areas, using Drione or Tempo 1% Dust inside wall voids does provide great control and preventative measures. Treating with Cyper WP will affect the spider directly and also help get ride of the insects that the spiders feed on. Applying Cyper WP indoors and outdoors is recommended. Indoors, spray around all baseboards, door frames, window frames, under appliances, in closets and storage rooms and in areas where utilities enter into the structure. Outdoors you should spray around the bottom of the foundation, on the ground adjacent to the foundation, door frames, window frames and places where the utilities enter into the structure.

Brown recluse spiders are frequently found in and around boxes stored in closets and attics. Boxes in such places should be taped shut to eliminate potential nesting sites. Unnecessary clutter should be eliminated, spider webs removed from interior and exterior areas, and a thorough vacuuming should be undertaken around, under, and behind furniture.

Drione dust is labeled for outdoor flea control in lawns. The Drione dust product label (bottom of pg 2) recommends that you use 16 oz per 1,000 sq ft. This type of application can get very expensive and can be washed away when it rains. We recommend you purchase and use our Outdoor Flea Kit which comes with an insecticide to eliminate the jumping biting adults and an Insect Growth regulator to stop the growth cycle of the immature fleas.

Yes, we do sell Drione Dust and we can ship it to New York. We offer free shipping!

As long as you are keeping the dog out of the area while you are doing the treatment and keeping the bottle of dust out of its reach, either product you mentioned will be safe for you pet to be around. A dust is definitely the best way to go for a bee nest as it will take the product back to the ones you dont see, just by treating the entry hole. The Drione dust would be our recommendation and will provide a little longer residual. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

You can spray pyrethrins in the individual holes and then after the application dries dust each of the hoels with Drione dust (the Drione dust will not work when wet). Below is the usual recommendations for cicada killer wasps:

Cicada Killer wasps thrive in disturbed environments, such as landscaped yards and places where bare soil is exposed. You can discourage the wasps from nesting in your yard by cutting your grass on the highest setting and by adding a thick layer of mulch to flower beds during the Cicada Killer Wasp season. These wasps do not like over saturated lawns either, so over watering during their season will help prevent them. Unfortunately, there is no fool proof way to prevent cicada killer wasps. For current infestations, you would need to use Drione in each individual burrow.


We also like to let our customers know that the Cicada Killer wasps are beneficial insects that provide free pest control for a couple months each year. Cicada killer wasps paralyze and provision their burrows with other insects to feed their young.  The beneficial Cicada killer wasps, while large and intimidating to see, are mostly harmless and there have been very few reports of anyone getting stung by just being near them. In most cases where a sting was reported, the wasps were being held or molested in some way.

Drione dust will help eliminate any type of ant that crosses over treated areas and is a good choice for ant control. Drione works very well when applied directly to ant nests in voids and cracks and crevices as well.

According to the Drione dust product label you will need to use 16 oz per 1,000 sq ft of surface area being treated. Most folks will only use 1 lb of dust when treating their home because they are not covering all 3,600 sq ft. Instead all treatments are kept to cracks, crevices and voids around the perimeter of the rooms. The Bellow Hand Duster is our best selling hand duster for home owners.

Drione Dust cannot be mixed with any type of paint or stain.  D Fense SC is a liquid concentrate that would be a better option as it is actually labelled to be mixed with paint in order to prevent carpenter bees. 

Drione Dust can be applied near vents but not directly into them.  It will not affect mice.  You can find our mouse control products here.  

Spring tails can be tough to eliminate because they reproduce very quickly. In almost every case where people have spring tails, they also have a moisture problem such as a leaking or sweating pipe, poor ventilation in their crawl space, lots of wet mulch right up next to their house, etc. You must locate and correct the moisture problem to get rid of the spring tails, insecticides alone will not do the job. Unfortunately, almost all of the products that are recommended for springtail control are products that cannot be shipped to New York. D-Fense Dust applied to cracks and crevices should help, but the spring tails can take up to a week to die after contacting the dust. You can also use D-Force Aerosol to help knock down the spring tails a bit faster. We recommend applying Demand G granules in the lawn. You could also use FenvaStar EcoCap as a residual indoors in cracks and crevices.

Drione Dust is labeled to treat for ticks. Yes, you would want to use the Bifen IT indoors around the baseboards and cracks and crevices, and then apply the dust. Delta Dust is also labeled for ticks, and is waterproof as well, so if you are using both that might be a better option for your application. You would wat to use the Permethrin product you have for an outdoor application as it is an oil based formulation and could stain some areas. You would want to treat anywhere your dogs go in your yard. We recommend paying special attention to your entrances to your home so that you can get a barrier there.

First, using powders or dusts alone will not effectively get rid of a bedbug infestation. Insecticide dusts (such as Drione) and powders take about a week to actually kill insects and in that time the bedbugs can still bite and reproduce. We offer bedbug kits that contain all of the different products you need to eliminate bedbugs and retreatments should be done every 7-10 days until you do not receive a bite for 30 days. Most dusts only need to be applied once every few months and unless you vacuumed. We also highly recommend using mattress and boxspring encasements to help eliminate bedbug infestations. These bedbug proof covers will trap existing bedbugs and eliminate hiding places and make inspections easier.