Do you think my house will ever air out?

Bug sprays are comprised of the chemicals to thwart the buggers you bought it to and (chemicals) and the carriers…ie solvents and actually water to dilute these chemicals into sprayable solutions. Both the water carriers and or solvent carriers will evaporate and leave the expected bug defeating chemicals behind. No matter what the “We are the safests bug eradicators north of the equator” will tell you….chemicals matter and so does your exposure to them. I loathe that my wife insists on bugger sprayers to treat our house….I would much rather feed spiders and creepy crawlies to consume insectoid invaders from my premise but I digress. Bug Sprays do contain chemicals and despite their Good Housekeeping seals….I am under the watchful eye of OSHA and the EPA for using similar chems here at work you can buy OTC and spray willy nilly in your home. Buyer beware.

I am sensitive to many chemicals, and I would never use bug spray like that. Yes, I do think you are being poisoned, but who knows how much? Open all the windows and leave until it’s clear. Move the affected boxes outside (porch or garage) and open them first, then dispose of the boxes.

Wash where you sprayed as well with hot soapy water. it won’t do the wood much harm or not at all if they are painted. Clear the boxes out as @snowberry says. Buy new boxes if you have to. Air the rooms well, obviously, as you are doing this. Sounds really horrible, hope you are ok.

@Stinley, I washed the floors where I could even before I saw your answer. I’ll go back and run across the baseboards, but what hit the carpet and my boxes I don’t think I can do much if anything.

I’d wash using a rag on a sponge mop and then throw the rag away. I feel like the mop (if not covered by a rag) will then have chemicals on it.

Hire a carpet cleaning machine?

Yes. Bake bread.

I could pull out my carpet cleaning machine. Pain in the neck.

I opened all the windows. It’s freezing! Lol.

Freezing? That should kill the bugs! LOL

^^Very cold this morning. It’s 72 now. It’s gorgeous outside in the sunshine.

Of course it will!

How is it now @JLeslie?

Thanks for asking. It still smells in the smaller rooms! I feel like it will never go away. Those rooms have the boxes, and some of it probably got in the boxes. I had the windows wide up every day for at least a few hours.

I called RAID and the woman I spoke to was very surprised the smell didn’t air out. I am too.she said the smell is not the active ingredients. That makes no sense to me, because why would you put in a horrible smell?

I didn’t try cleaning the carpets around the edges where the spray is yet.

My husband keeps saying to bake some cookies or put carpet freshener down, but I’m reluctant to cover up the smell. I had stopped spraying and didn’t spray my bedroom. When I’m in there it smells like how my house always smells, and I just feel like even if that bug spray smell fades it won’t return to that house smell that’s us. I know it sounds a little over the top, but that’s how I feel.

I feel it in my sinuses. I assume it’s from the spray. I’m not an allergy sinus person normally. It’s minor, but there.

I think the smell of bug spray is awful, too. It’s like they are trying to make a pleasant scent and yet it smells so weirdly unlike anything else you’d ever smell in life.

I am guessing the spray got on the cardboard of the boxes, which is like a sponge.

I’m wondering if you spray some Windex or something similar where you put the bug spray, if that will help mask the odor.

@jca I think I can probably mask the odor, but do you think the odor is just that? Just a scent? I hate covering things up that might be bad for you. It’s like taking pain medication when you need antibiotics. The strep might go to your heart and cause heart damage, but your sore throats feels better.

@JLeslie: The only other thing I can think of is take all the stuff out of the boxes, get rid of the boxes, remove the stuff from the room totally and wash the floors to wash away the chemicals and scent.

It will all dissipate eventually.

Baking soda where you can.

I’m hoping to move all the boxes to one room anyway, and then set up the guest room.

@JLeslie Read the ingredient list for the bug spray. Most home products have some sort of fragrance. I hate fragrances, In the US wherein live, we have been duped into believing that the FDA has our backs where it comes to fragrance, but that is not true. Basically the fragrance industry is unregulated, and they can put anything they want to in there as long as it doesn’t kill you immediately.

If the product you’re using doesn’t have an ingredient list on the package, look online.