Home > Community > Why does bifenthrin supposebly go bad 45 hours after mixing with water, and also have a half life of 97 days?
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Logan Allomes

Why does bifenthrin supposebly go bad 45 hours after mixing with water, and also have a half life of 97 days?

Dalton Mendeleve  Follow

Bifenthrin is like all other insecticides made today, it is biodegradable. It is the longest lasting of current insecticides Its residual half-life in soil is between 7 days and 8 months, depending on the soil type, with a low mobility in most soil types. Bifenthrin has the longest known residual time in soil of insecticides currently on the market. It is a white, waxy solid with a faint sweet smell.

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Corey Deane  Follow

Once the aqueous mixture has been applied it dries, leaving a film of bifenthrin to act as a contact insecticide.

Continued interaction with mildly acidic municipal water as a solution beyond 45 hours allows interaction between the relatively fragile bifenthrin molecule and carbonic acid in the water causing gradual degradation of the insecticide. Glacial Aquifers in the Northeast US and many surface water sources tend to be mildly acidic mainly from carbonic acid formed from interaction between CO2 in the air and the water.

Water from the spray solution begins the degradation of the molecule, water vapor in the air and sunlight completes the denaturing over the next 96 hours.

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