GB2508334A - Long acting fly repellent - Google Patents

Abstract

A fly repellent composition comprises ingredients with high boiling points and low volatility so that the repellent characteristic lasts for many weeks, wherein the composition comprises rosin, also known as pine resin and colophony. Only water and isopropanol may evaporate but the rosin and the other ingredients remain, giving rise to a dried tacky film. The composition is formed by mixing the rosin with a mild alkaline chemical such as triethanolamine or morpholine which allows the final composition to be water soluble and suitable to be sprayed onto surfaces. The composition may further comprise a humectant such as dipropylene glycol, mild odour ingredients such as benzyl alcohol and terpineol, and a dispersant such as Cetomacrogol 1000RTM.

Description

A Fly Repellent System DSCR. iRl U NJ This system relates to a fly repellent composition which causes flying insects to deviate from landing on a surface which has been treated with a formulation which is the subject of this present Patent application!

The prior art in this particular field involved:-

(a)Long-life adhesive strips which are normally pinned to ceilings in houses and stores and these will capture flies when they land on the treated paper strip where the tacky surface is based on Pine Rosin(colophony)dissolved in high boiling hydro-carbon mixture. When the flies are caught on the adhesive strip their feet are bonded, they cannot move, they cannot take off again and soon die! These paper fly catchers have not been off the market for nearly 100 years and recently new sources from foreign lands have entered the UK market.

(b)FIy Sprays became popular some 40 years ago when high boiling point petroleum hydro-carbons were used to kill flies and later the products were greatly improved by the addition of chloro chemicals with insecticidal properties which later were found to be toxic to humans and now the more modern sprays are based on "modified Pyrethrine" which has low toxicity towards humans.

BACKGROUND OF ThE INVENTION

One important ingredient in the present inventive product which is to be described is based on Pine Rosin(Colophony) but our present technology has no relationship to the use of Pine Rosin in the fly catcher paper strip of (a) above or in Insecticidal sprays as in (b) above.

PRESENT BACKGROUND:-

Two factors which controlled our thinking were:- (1)Treatment of Colophony Resin whose source can be "Gum Resin" or "Wood Resin".

(2)TaII Oil Resin where all have the same chemical reactions. A study guide by Nuffield Advanced Science which indicates that Files have "taste organs" at the extremity of their feet and they actually "taste" substances either by landing upon them or by passing close to a treated surface when in flight.

Our searching in the patent literature has not revealed a patent script which is a true fly repellent for household and bird sheds where the latter are large enough to house hundres of birds. In this respect we have studied US Patent 5,281,621 which claims to be a process for repelling house flies and mosquitoes and generally composites for repelling blood feeding Anthropods.

A reader of this patent is confronted by no less than 25 figures of designed test equipment which is stated to be test apparatus for determining fly repellancy and the degree of fly attractancy of chemicals on test.

A lot of print in the patent is dedicated to Test Equipment, metal traps for feeding and even insect repellant "perfume composites which form part of a candle body material". It is notable that the Abstract on page 1 of US 5,281!621 concerns only 35 words relating to a soap based product where its repellancy to the flies is formed by combining the soap base with a chemical mixture.

It would seem that the evolved product consists of either a chemically treated soap base or a candle wax where the ingredients are procured from the market of trade named chemicals all of which seem to be registered "R" materials.

A reader of this present patent application script, which is based on the Chemical Technology of repelling various species of Anthropod in the group of "True Insects" should find the following inventive script, which is based on a liquid product which is centered on a derivative of COLOPHONY which is converted to a water soluble composition which can be applied to the surfaces of walls, ceilings and the like in sheds, poultry houses or in any fly ridden buildings or outhouses.

Natural Colophony -(Pine Resin) Since various types of Colophony (Pine Resin,Pine Rosin) are available on the world market it is important to differentiate in the sub-division of Colophony into raw materials from two sources in nature and one as a by product of paper mills.

The two sources of Colophony are - (1)Derived from the growing pine tree by tapping each tree to obtain Pine Gum which is distilled to yield Turpentine Oil and leaving a residue of Colophony (Pine Rosin) which solidifies to transparent, amber, glassy-like lumps which contain up to 92% of Rosin Acids (all solid) which contain a high percentage of ABIETIC ACID (2)ln previous years the Pine Tree was cut at its base and sawn down and the root was allowed to remain in the ground for some 40-50 years until it was discovered that if the roots were mechanically puHed-up, washed free from soil and shredded and the chips distilled that it yielded Turpentine Oil and the residue on cooling solidified to give "WOOD ROSIN" with a similar ABIETIC ACID content as the rosin from the growing tree! In the research which we carried out in the development of our product "FLYGO" we knew that any of the two rosins (1) and (2) above contained approximately 86% of Rosin Acids where the main one was ABIETIC ACID, and lately that Tall Oil Resin from paper mills is very similar to Rosins (1) and (2) above and all can be used in our technology at similar concentrations.

In Industry the rosin is reacted with Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda) to produce the Sodium Salt of the rosin acids and this allows the raw material to be soluble in water so that the addition of Calcium, Zinc, Lead and Cobalt can be added to the Sodium Salt solution to yield precipitates of Calcium Resinate, Zinc Resinate, Lead Resinate and Cobalt Resinate for use as driers in the Paint Trade and ALL are insoluble in water. We have found that, and it is well known in the Trade, that rosin is soluble in Alkali Hydroxides, but the solutions are only suitable for purposes such as the ones shown above for making products which are only solvent soluble.

In our research we sought for a mild "Alkaline Chemical" which would produce a salt from the ABIETIC Acid in Colophony but it was important that the salt would be soluble in Alcohols and also in Water and in water it would still produce a transparent solution and not until it was diluted with cold water 14 times the allotted aliquot of the "FLYGO" would the transparent solution invert into a milky coloured colloidal sol.

The milky emulsion produced when "Flygo" is highly diluted with water is completely devoid of rosin insoluble gum and this is an important "wash-down" feature of the product of this invention when hosed washings are sent to the drains.

The Formulation of "FLYGO" We have found in our laboratory work that the two favoured organic "alkali" substances for use in the manufacture of "FLYGO" were MORPHOLINE and TRIETHANOLAMINE and in particular the latter because of its high molecular weight (149.19) as compared to the former whose molecular weight is 87.12. From both in this alkaline organic field we selected TRIEThANOLAMINE because it is a Pharmacopoeia Monograph and it is used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical skin creams and eye drops but from a chemical point of view it is a variable mixture of organo-bases such as Triethanolamine, Diethanolamine and Monoethanolamine where the Tn-base is in the highest percent. The percentages of each one in the quoted three is NOT dispensed but depends upon the manipulation of the chemical reaction, but in general the smaller amount in the reaction mixture is always the mono-salt.

Use of the Quoted Substances to Produce "FLYGO" An example of the combination of the ingredients being mixed in the order set out in the table below, and giving contact times when required, will produce "FLYGO" product with the properties which have been quoted in this Patent Application ROSIN FLAKES 18 grams ISOPROPANOL 18 grams Pipropylene Glycol Mono Methyl Ether 10 grams Dipropylene Glycol 10 grams Benzyl Alcohol 3 grams TERPINEOL 3 grams Mix the above ingredients by means of a slow stirrer until the only SOLID materiaI in the mix has disslved to produce a transparent mixture. At room temperature this may take about 30 minutes but, if required, this can be accelerated by the application of a little heat but in this respect it should be remembered that Isopropanol has a FLASH POINT of 70°F.

When the above six ingredients are now in a fully transparent solution the conversion of the mixture into a WATER SOLUBLE product because of the conversion of the water insoluble resin into a soluble compound by the chemical conversion into the "SALT" of the alkaline substance TRIETHANOLAMINE can occur. This neutralization of the Abietic Acids is almost instantaneous and at this stage the whole mix can be completed by the addition of the remaining chemicals: TRIETHANOLAMINE 20 grams Benzyl Alcohol 3 grams TERPINEOL 3 grams Cetomacrogol 1000 3 grams WATER 25 grams Triethanolamine is the only material in the "FLYGO" formulation to react with the Colophony Rosin and the amount of "Alkali "in it to do so and its strength is equivalent to 7 mIs of a 1 N acid for every 1 gram of Triethanolamine.

At this stage the overall ingredients, now uniformly mixed, represents our formulation of "FLYGO" but for uniform recognition purposes we prefer the fundamental product to be colour tinted and for this purpose we have selected a water INSOLUBLE dyestuff which is soluble in the non-aqueous ingredients of our formula and the selected material is marketed under the name of "Solvent Red. 0".

A stock solution of the dyestuff is prepared by making a 2%w/v solution in Isopropanol and tinting the prepared "Flygo" to the required product colour.

Persons skilled in the art will realise that the water content of the finished "Flygo" product is close to the 25%w/w and that with the exception of Isopropanol (b.p. 82°C) all the other ingredients in the product have boiling points with values in the range 202°C, 205°C, 212°C and 245°C. It follows therefore that when undiluted "Flygo" is used to spray walls, ceilings etc, the evaporation of the volatile ingredients will be Water and Isopropanol so that all the other ingredients consisting of Rosin and the other ingredients whose high

S

boiling points are quoted above remain. This means that these high boiling point chemicals will be very much less volatile than would be suggested by their boiling points because after the water and isopropanol have dried off the sprayed area of the work in practice they will have even less volatility because of the solvents being dissolved in the rosin solids" and this causes the dried tacky film to remain active for at least six months in the building's atmosphere and so continues to repel all types of flies -A.