70% Isopropyl alcohol strong enough to sanitize shoes?

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jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
In an attempt to prevent any future bugs entering my grow room through shoes I am now filling a 32oz spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol and spraying my shoes thoroughly before entering the grow room. Even though my shoes are used only for getting into the grow room I still spray them in the off chance an egg has transferred from my upstairs carpet to the downstairs landing area of my basement directly in front of my flower room door. Spraying my shoes down is the last preventative to kill any hitchhikers before I walk into my flower room. I will be burning through a good amount of ISO moving forward. It's cheap so that's okay. I'm looking at walmart who has a 2-pack of 70% ISO for $3.92. I figured I'd order 10 packs of that and I should be set for about a year on ISO. Amazon has 99% pure gallons for $35, but that's horribly overpriced in my opinion for ISO. You're paying for Amazon convenience. My question is will the 70% be effective enough to kill mite eggs or should I source the 91-93% more concentrated ISO?
 
mysunnyboy

mysunnyboy

Well-Known Member
jonnynobody said:
In an attempt to prevent any future bugs entering my grow room through shoes I am now filling a 32oz spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol and spraying my shoes thoroughly before entering the grow room. Even though my shoes are used only for getting into the grow room I still spray them in the off chance an egg has transferred from my upstairs carpet to the downstairs landing area of my basement directly in front of my flower room door. Spraying my shoes down is the last preventative to kill any hitchhikers before I walk into my flower room. I will be burning through a good amount of ISO moving forward. It's cheap so that's okay. I'm looking at walmart who has a 2-pack of 70% ISO for $3.92. I figured I'd order 10 packs of that and I should be set for about a year on ISO. Amazon has 99% pure gallons for $35, but that's horribly overpriced in my opinion for ISO. You're paying for Amazon convenience. My question is will the 70% be effective enough to kill mite eggs or should I source the 91-93% more concentrated ISO?
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If you’re that concerned I’d use shoe covers.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Why not just have a pair of shoes dedicated to the grow room? Thats what I do. I have a dedicated pair of slippers for comfort and a pair of work boots for heavy work. They stay right by the entry to my grow room. I just sit on the bottom stair to pop em on.
 
J

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
mysunnyboy said:
If you’re that concerned I’d use shoe covers.
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Shoe covers are actually a great idea. I dig that.

Renfro said:
Why not just have a pair of shoes dedicated to the grow room? Thats what I do. I have a dedicated pair of slippers for comfort and a pair of work boots for heavy work. They stay right by the entry to my grow room. I just sit on the bottom stair to pop em on.
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I did that, but what happens is I put my grow room shoes on then I run up stairs for god knows what. Coffee, snack, door knock, etc. which contaminates the shoes again. The wife and I are in and out of the house all day. Back yard then back in the house. And of course our shoes are on. So there are certainly mite eggs spread randomly through the fibers of my carpet as I'd imagine is the case in most homes in the world. I realize this problem is easily solved by being diligent about removing the grow room only shoes as soon as I exit the room. I also realize when I'm in a hurry to do things I will blow right past that step. Which brings me back to spraying down with ISO before I enter the room. As long as I'm spraying every time (and it's really not a big deal. takes 5 seconds) there's no chance of my shoes bringing contamination into the room. My stupid human behavior has to be overcome by implementing safe guards such as this :)
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
jonnynobody said:
but what happens is I put my grow room shoes on then I run up stairs for god knows what.
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you take the shoes off? lol I guess that you would have to re-spray whatever you wear, I don't think a brief light dusting of iso is really gonna be 100% or even 50% on a mite or egg. You would have to dip the shoes IMO to really get er dun.
 
J

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
you take the shoes off? lol I guess that you would have to re-spray whatever you wear, I don't think a brief light dusting of iso is really gonna be 100% or even 50% on a mite or egg. You would have to dip the shoes IMO to really get er dun.
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I poorly communicated my thought there. I put my grow room only shoes on when I'm working in there which sit right at the entrance under a chair. When I exit the room I usually don't change my shoes before I walk upstairs and around the house. I never walk outside in them, but I do walk upstairs in them. After hashing this out I'm starting to think I just need to be routine about this. Exit the room and shoes come off. Enter the room and shoes go on. Never walk upstairs in grow room only shoes. I tend to over complicate things. ADD and bi-polar keep life interesting. That's for sure :)
 
Skuxx

Skuxx

Well-Known Member
jonnynobody said:
I poorly communicated my thought there. I put my grow room only shoes on when I'm working in there which sit right at the entrance under a chair. When I exit the room I usually don't change my shoes before I walk upstairs and around the house. I never walk outside in them, but I do walk upstairs in them. After hashing this out I'm starting to think I just need to be routine about this. Exit the room and shoes come off. Enter the room and shoes go on. Never walk upstairs in grow room only shoes. I tend to over complicate things. ADD and bi-polar keep life interesting. That's for sure :)
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Next year you'll have a full blown sanitization chamber for entering your grow room like some NASA shit.
 
R

RonnieB2

Well-Known Member
jonnynobody said:
Ordered up the 2 pack for $3.92. They only let you order 1 at a time which is okay. Might place a few more separate orders for pickup. I like to stock up on shit I use :)
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Im the same way. Good luck. I got spidermites on my 1st indoor grow a few weeks ago from a plant from the outside and they came in on me. I caught it quick though
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I just think (note I said think, not know) if you are spraying 70% iso or etoh, a lot of it evaporates before it hits the shoe leaving mostly water and the remaining "watered down" alcohol may not be in large enough quantity or last long enough to reliably provide the required effect. So for me I wouldn't count on it.
 
mysunnyboy

mysunnyboy

Well-Known Member
jonnynobody said:
Man I got the blue prints in my head already. Beam me up scotty :)
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I’m from pharmaceuticals, clean room setup was one of my jobs.
We use shoe covers and tacky mats at the doors.
Alcohol spray won’t do anything. I’ve never seen this used.
Now if you’re going to the farm for research, that’s different. Shoe dunks and shoe covers after.
I bought tacky floors before actually. Tacky mats rock.
About a dollar a sheet.
us.vwr.com

Tacky Traxx Mats, Tackified Cleanroom Entrance Mats, High-Tech Conversions

These mats effectively captures dirt and dust from foot traffic and equipment before it enters controlled environment.Removing impurities from soles or wheeled equipment, adhesive floor mats placed in high traffic areas prevent critical environments from being compromised. By absorbing hazardous...
us.vwr.com us.vwr.com
 
mysunnyboy

mysunnyboy

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
I love those ones with the peel away layers. When I did salvaged freight I picked up a pallet full of boxes full of 36x36 inch clean room tacky mats, each pad had 30 sheets. Ended up selling those on ebay and made bank on them.

That was my suspicion.

Now were talking.
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I bought them at work and nabbed what I needed. They were everywhere, even at my office door. The peel away type are the best. The other flooring type sucks. Have to use their cleaner on them. Cleaning crew revolted lol
 
J

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
mysunnyboy said:
I’m from pharmaceuticals, clean room setup was one of my jobs.
We use shoe covers and tacky mats at the doors.
Alcohol spray won’t do anything. I’ve never seen this used.
Now if you’re going to the farm for research, that’s different. Shoe dunks and shoe covers after.
I bought tacky floors before actually. Tacky mats rock.
About a dollar a sheet.
us.vwr.com

Tacky Traxx Mats, Tackified Cleanroom Entrance Mats, High-Tech Conversions

These mats effectively captures dirt and dust from foot traffic and equipment before it enters controlled environment.Removing impurities from soles or wheeled equipment, adhesive floor mats placed in high traffic areas prevent critical environments from being compromised. By absorbing hazardous...
us.vwr.com us.vwr.com
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It looks like we have a consensus from the RIU pros :) Ordering shoe covers and tacky mats today. No more ISO spraying. Thank you guys. I shit you not this website is about the only place I don't hate fucking people and actually enjoy conversing with them :)
 
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