How do “kill on contact” bug/wasp sprays actually work?
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permethrin. the way nerves work is there are charged ions on the inside and outside of the nerve cell membrane, so the inside is negatively charged and the outside is positive. there are protein gates along the cell membrane, and when the nerve is activated they open in a way that causes the charge difference to flip, so the inside is positive and the outside is negative. then they flip back to normal. the inverted charge triggers the next nerve cell to do the same, basically, and that allows the string of nerve cells to transmit information from one part of the body to another. there are lots of good youtube videos explaining this in a way that’s much easier to understand than an eli5 reddit post, if you search nerve electrical signalling
permethrin is a neurotoxin that jams those gates; once they open they can’t close to reset back to resting state. the nerves lose their ability to transmit information and the bug starts convulsing as it can no longer control any of its bodily functions.
in most arthropods the effect is very fast and irreversible, once a nerve is jammed up like this the system has no way of purging and resetting itself, so while the poison isn’t instant, once it makes contact the bug is doomed.
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