Water Storing Crystals from MiracleGro. Ok or Not?

[Agbailey1990]

Hey!
I breed my own dubias. & I love to use Water Crystals for them, but I havent had any in quite awhile. But I do have and old pack of MiracleGro Water Storing Crystals i bought from Home Depot awhile back. But it has 100% Polyacrylamlde in it & idk what that is & if thats ok to use or if it will kill off the Dubia Roaches. 50% the people I talk to say there there ok & the other 50% say its not. Has anyone used this brand & had success? Or has anyone used it & lost there feeders?

 

[hippygirl]

Been usin them with dubias and crickets since before christmas and with superworms for appx 2 weeks with no problems.

 

[Taterbug]

Do the folks who say no have a reason?
Polyacrylamide is just a polymer material that is used for its ability to soak up and retain liquids. I would guess that most commercial water gel products are all the same. Unless there are any hat are gelatin based or something.
I use the miracle grow brand and have for almost two years with no problems.

 

[Agbailey1990]

GREAT!!! No they never said why. But I made another post alittle while ago talking about how every morning when I check on them I find a few of them who are like barely alive. They can wiggle there legs but there like not strong enough to carry themselves to walk. So maybe its because there not getting enough water. So hopefully this will help them.

 

[hippygirl]

Don't remember the brand, but when I was loking for some local, I found one that had a fertilizer added to it, maybe that is why they say not to use it. The flukers brand is a polymer base, they jus use food coloring.

 

[Salamandra]

I've been using them for several months now with no adverse effects. If I remember correctly, they're exactly the same stuff as crystals branded for insects, although it would definitely be a good idea to double-check before you use them (or buy more) to make sure that they're just Polyacrylamlde with no additives. Other than that, do it up. They're good stuff.

 

[jarich]

The reason they are often not recommended has to do with the process of synthesis and the breakdown of the poly. While polyacrylamide is non toxic and too big a molecule to be problematic, what its made from is not so. Its usually made of potassium acrylate and acrylamide. Acrylamide is a fairly powerful neurotoxin and a carcinogen. While all water crystals are usually 100% polyacrylamide, those that are made for garden purposes have the disadvantage of sometimes containing residual acrylamide from the synthesis process. Its not a problem for your plants, but could potentially be for your roaches and lizards. Its not always the case obviously, and Im not saying that all garden quality poly is bad, but Ive never used them knowing what could potentially go wrong.

Just as a side note, its not common for them to last this long anyway, but always make sure to throw out and replace all your poly crystals within 18 months at the latest. They really start to break down back into their component parts fairly quickly after that amount of time.

 

[Taterbug]

Guess its time to replace mine. Thanks for that info!!

 

[icelore]

Not weighing in on the water crystal issue as I don't use them, but I can tell you about Polyacrylamide. That is what the gel is made out of. It reacts with water, expanding it's chemical make up to hold the water for extended periods of time. It is not toxic at all, and can be ingested. It has lots of forms, and the straight chain polymer form is probably what used in water crystals. It's also used to make contacts and as a partial replacement for cartilage and spinal disk surgery. They hydrogel form is also used a lot in ecology as it helps filter water where man-made erosion is a problem and reduces the need for irrigation.

Glad to see that degree in Chem. Eng. is useful for more crap then I thought possible. lol

 

[diamc]

Glad to see that degree in Chem. Eng. is useful for more crap then I thought possible. lol