A Detergent called Borax was once used as the primary detergent in America. It still is used in Europe because it does not damage the environment like harsh cleaners used in North America now, and it is very cheap to buy in bulk. But that is just the surface of what Borax and Boric Acid are. Borax is a common household detergent in Europe that is rapidly gaining news around the world as an eco-friendly way of cleaning your clothes. It is much less damaging but that is not all that it can do.
Boric acid or Borax as it’s called by most people was first discovered in Nevada in 1872 and then in the great Death Valley in the state of California in the year 1881. This was the first time anyone had discovered large deposits of a mineral called borate. In those days they would mine the borate by hand and haul it across Death Vally by mule, twenty mules at a time would hall massive hunks of what would soon be one of the best selling products in the USA and Canada. When the rail system was expanded out west the mules retired, but they remain on the box of the oldest American brand of Borax as a memorial to the century of work done by the teams of 20 mules and the miners of Borate. This brand, the twenty mule brand still exists and can be bought in stores along with many other brands of Boric Acid soap.
An important distinction between the finished product of Borax and the raw material Boric Acid is that Borax is a product you buy to wash your clothes. Hand soap contains Borax and so does most fertilizer brands. Borax is a product that can be sold on its own or used in other products but it is not actually what you should use to treat a pest situation. It does work a bit but that is not what it is made for. It is, essentially, soap. Boric Acid on the other hand is a chemical used in many things including eye drops and, of course, in domestic, homemade and commercial pesticides. Ant bait which is a solid bait intended to be brought back in pieces to the nest and consumed by the colony frequently contains, as one of its active ingredients, boric acid. You can find Boric Acid in many forms including liquid, tablet, and powder. These each have their own exclusive uses in both the pest industry and other industries.
One of the uses of Boric Acid is as a vaginal suppository used to cure a yeast infection. A common brand name of this drug is Hylafem. While it Is effective it also comes with a lot of warnings. You should not use it if you have diabetes or HIV/AIDs for instance. This has also been taken to the news as a scandal regarding the use of cockroach pesticide in the treatment of venereal diseases like Chronic Bacterial Vaginosis. This is a new treatment which is why it is under scrutiny. Normally a chronic bacterial infection in the vagina must be treated for five to seven days with a course of strong antibiotics. With the overuse of antibiotics in the eighties and nineties, the effects have lost their potency and 50% of women get re-infected shortly after. This gave doctors the idea of Boric Acid as a Vaginal suppository to cure Chronic Bacterial Vaginosis without weakening the effects of antibiotics more than necessary.
One of the most important differences between boric acid and borax is safe to touch and not especially poisonous to humans but boric acid is a dangerous chemical that can cause burns if it touches the skin and can even cause blindness if gotten in the eyes. So when handling Boric acid make sure to wear the proper attire.
