Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Mr. Curmudgeon,
Here's an odd one for you. We're having our complex fumigated tomorrow & the exterminators will use something called Vikane gas for the job. They claim there is no residue left by this gas, but I'm obviously unwilling to leave it to chance. Will this gas have any adverse effect my Ricks, Fenders, or my '74 Guild bass?
Thank you!

Dow Chemical, the manufacturers of Vikane, say that it is non-reactive with the materials from which your instruments are constructed and with which they are finished.

But if you're feeling a bit paranoid (after all, Dow made Agent Orange, too...), remove them to a safe place. The plus side of leaving them in the house is that you won't have to worry about termites attacking your Ricks.

What a horrible thing to discover - bugs chewing on your guitars!!!

I'd move them, JOB..... Vikane might be non-reactive but you may end up with guitars that glow in the dark!

That could be handy Howard - an new model Lightglo

Vikaneglo..mmm...no.

Thanks Paul et al, I'll remove the guitars. Guess I could have just done that without asking, but nobody wants to cart around 10 or 12 guitars unnecessarily.

I'm sure someone here would want to cart off 10 or 12 Rickenbackers. Just give us a shout when you're ready.

Yeh I loved to say I'll give them a home while the jobs being done, but it's just a little too far to travel.

When my building was fumigated with the same stuff (which IIRC is sulfuryl fluoride with chloropicrin added as an odorant), I moved all my old amps and guitars out of the apartment just to be on the safe side (and yes, it was a grand pain in the you-know-what). As a chemist who has used the analogous (and much more reative) sulfuryl chloride, I didn't want to find out years later something otherwise unexplainable was happening to my gear.

Bojangles Music in Laguna Beach *supposedly* went out of business because their entire guitar inventory was ruined by Vikane fumigation, and were unable to reach a satisfactory insurance settlement following the incident.

OUCH!

I work for a commercial pest control company but have never used Vikane. Other fumigants such as Phosphine and Metho Bromide can cause reaction with certain things. Did the pest control company issue a list of things to remove such as opened food products and medicines? I would always opt for the overly cautious side--that way no regrets.

Thanks for that info John, it confirms that for once my paranoia was justified!

Geoffrey, I think that you meant "methyl bromide", and yes, the fumigation company gave a full list of things to remove. What troubled me was that chewing gum (which is essentially latex, a natural polymer of isoprene) was included in the removal list; it's not a substance that I would think was very reactive under the conditions of fumigation.

Gary, you are right I was thinking of a trade name product called Metho Gas that is a methyl bromide fumigant. Hopefully all worked out well for you and the inconvenience was worth all the trouble.

So after all that JOB, I guess you'll be finding temporary accommodation for your Ricken family, while the fumigation takes place.

Just as a side issue I've often wondered how safe, in reality, it is for humans to live with this stuff long term, let alone worry about what it's going to do to your guitars?