A Reason Not to Buy Cooking Spray

It is easily confused with insect repellant.

Comments

[Lisa Harrigan]

Where do you store your bug spray and cooking spray?!?!?!?!
Mine are in radically different parts of the kitchen and I'll be sure to keep them that way.
I keep my Pam on the counter near the stove. Always a bad place to store bug spray (which is flammable and should never be stored near the stove).
Note - Bug spray should be locked up except when in active use, ie actually spraying something. When done, lock it up again. Never just leave it out. I don't care how buggy the apartment is.
Some men. ;)

[James Grimmelmann]

This also seems like a reason -- a better reason? -- not to buy insect repellant. The consequences of making the reverse mistake are much, much worse.

[rev]

James, if you are a person who does not buy or use cooking spray, then you would not make the reverse mistake, since you would not think to spray something on your frying pan.

[tWB]

I'm hoping that this story ended up with an oily insect rather than toxic pancakes.

[sootytern]

??? I'm flabbergasted. You cook with your eyes closed? Granted the cans are shaped the same but, if you can't read the label, you shouldn't be allowed anywhere without a minder.

[donna]

Well, the cooking oil would likely kill the bug if sprayed on it, so I would go with just keeping the cooking oil in the kitchen, and the bug spray somewhere else in the house.

I keep bug spray in the garage. But today I would like to have it in the house -- of representatives....

[ArC]

I use a refillable oil mister -- avoids the propellants and water inherent in oil sprays. Also, I have an electric fly swatter, so I don't keep bug spray near the kitchen. Or at all.

[Noni Mausa]

Pam -- one of the products which reliably drives me into Fogey Mode. "The kids these days, they can't even pour out a few drops of oil! T'cha, lawks, me poor old feet!" ~cackle~

There's a whole passel of studies on the creation of fine particulate organics in the air due to cooking. (I went looking for one, but found the orc army coming over the hill the other way.) Obviously humans have been inhaling some of their food for millenia, so it can't be that dangerous, but I still find it kind of creepy.

Noni
off to build a summer kitchen

[JM]

On the other hand, household products can be surprisingly effective as insect repellents.

Many years ago, while a student, our laundry was invaded by a horde of ants (this is a common summer occurance in Australia). Having run out of insect repellent I grabbed the only aerosol we had:- "Preen Spray-on-Starch".

The ants that took the immediate hit ended up glued to the wall, the others scattered _and_ _never_ _came_ _back_

I have been using Preen to keep ants out of the house ever since. It works, truly it does.