dry ice

[Dayoh]

Hi every one, its been a while. Hope every one is doing well. I had a discussion a little while back about killing mice. Don't want to start the talk up by any means just want to know plain and simple the way to use dry ice. Finding the proper size food f/t has been a royal pain so I have been regularly buying live and having my boyfriend thump them (several at a time) and freezing them for future use. But he doesn't want to have to do it any more so I decided dry ice is they way im going to go. Just need the most simple way to do it. And where can i buy dry ice?
Thanks ya'll, and once again hope every one has been doing well.......

[DAND]

You may try and see if there is an ice house anywhere around your area. I believe they still have them around.

[Fatman608]

You can fine a way to build one here. thereddragonden.com/co2.htm As far as locating dry ice. My grocery store cares it.

[Bluebeard]

alot of welding supplie shops carry dry ice and if you do a search there are some good threads (i think) on here for building a co2 euthinizing chamber

[Dayoh]

Thanks alot, is co2 the same as a dry ice? I did a search on the co2 and it brought up building one but saying it cost 100 dollars or so, and the co2 is in a tubes.

[DAND]

You can make a chamber by using two 3 or 5 gallon buckets. Drill holes in the bottom of one and place the mice in. The dry ice goes in the bucket without holes. Put the bucket with holes inside the other and put the top on. The holes will allow the nighty night gases through and then all you'll have to do is bag the mice up and put them in the freezer.

NOTE: Be careful not to touch the dry ice with bare hands.

[Dayoh]

Thanks, that is exactly what i needed to know......

[Arson]

Dry ice is frozen CO2. Therefore when it evaporates that's all there is to breathe.

[babbaloo99]

Like Fatman said, my grocery store carries dry ice too. I've seent the little ice case in Albertsons. I believe someone working there has to take it out for you.

[Sasheena]

When I'm "offing" the mice and rats I usually have a larger sterilite container with some water and a couple of bricks. I put the dry ice in the water. On the bricks I will place a smaller container with the mice/rats in it so that the gas can come into the container. I like to wait until I have a buildup of CO2 before I place the mice/rat container into the larger one, so that they do not have to go through the gradual loss of breathable air. They usually go unconscious in about 30 to 60 seconds if the concentration of CO2 is complete. I leave them in for five minutes for them to suffocate, and the I bag and freeze. I usually buy 1 pound blocks if possible, and I've offed 300 mice and 50 rats with one 1 pound block. This way is fairly cheap... (dry ice is $1/lb or something like that) and very quick.

[boaboi]

no arson dry ice is compressed co2 thats why it skips the liquid stage

[Alias47]

no arson dry ice is compressed co2 thats why it skips the liquid stage

Arson was correct.
Dry Ice IS frozen CO2...it is created by compressing the CO2 into a solid form...

Here's a quote from http://www.dryiceinfo.com/

"Dry Ice is frozen carbon dioxide, a normal part of our earth's atmosphere. It is the gas that we exhale during breathing and the gas that plants use in photosynthesis. It is also the same gas commonly added to water to make soda water. Dry Ice is particularly useful for freezing, and keeping things frozen because of its very cold temperature: -109.3°F or -78.5°C. Dry Ice is widely used because it is simple to freeze and easy to handle using insulated gloves. "

CO2's melting point, -57 C (where it turns liquid) is actually a WARMER temperature than it BOILING point of -78 C. This process of turning from a solid into a gas without the stage of being a liquid is called sublimation. Dry ice never "melts" it "sublimes"...hence the term DRY ice...
The only way to create liquid CO2 is in a lab under high pressure...

As for the bucket deal DAND suggested...I think it would work better if you had a vent hole in the lid on the upper bucket...
CO2 should build up in the bottom of the buckets...and will be heavier than the air around it...until it dissipates...but would create alot of pressure in a sealed system like that...

When I was in high school we used to make dry ice bombs with water, dry ice and 2 liter bottles...they had enough power to do a number on a mailbox...or so I was told :noevil:

Oh, yeah..I don't recommend ANYONE try that...I had a buddy who needed 18 stitches in his hand after one blew up while he was holding it...
Pretty ugly...

[sumguy]

Oh, yeah..I don't recommend ANYONE try that...I had a buddy who needed 18 stitches in his hand after one blew up while he was holding it...
Pretty ugly...

dry ice bomb - long video, kind of boring. looks dangerous (http://www.big-boys.com/articles/dryicebomb.html)

[princess]

Without starting a semantics war, technically, the carbon dioxide in the chamber you buy is in liquid form (under great pressure) but at our normal atmospheric pressure it comes in 2 forms, solid and gas -so you can have liquid carbon dioxide...just not on this planet (or outside a pressurised flask).

[JTGoff69]

Totally :-offtopic LOL. If you have a "Lowe's Foods" near you, they ALL sell dry ice.

[jazzgeek]

PV = nRT

Never thought I'd use that again in my lifetime. ;)

regards,
jazz

[Alias47]

I used to buy it at a local dairy/ice cream parlor...the kind where they MAKE the ice cream...

If you look up DRY ICE in the yahoo yellow pagesit will give you listings...

Here are the listings for Detroit.

A-US Ice Corp
(313) 862-3344
10625 W 8 Mile Rd
Detroit, MI

Embassy Foods
(313) 259-2100
2478 Riopelle St
Detroit, MI

Midwest Ice Corp
(313) 868-8800
14450 Linwood St
Detroit, MI

Pars Ice Cream Co Inc
(313) 366-3620
17853 Conant St
Detroit, MI

Pars Ice Cream Co Inc
(313) 838-7277
12900 Greenfield Rd
Detroit, MI

Sometimes bait shops will sell it as well...

[Amanda E]

As for the bucket deal DAND suggested...I think it would work better if you had a vent hole in the lid on the upper bucket...
CO2 should build up in the bottom of the buckets...and will be heavier than the air around it...until it dissipates...but would create alot of pressure in a sealed system like that...I don't think you understood what Dave (DAND) meant.

I think he meant just two buckets set inside each other... no lids, kind of like this rough drawing I made.

[Alias47]

You can make a chamber by using two 3 or 5 gallon buckets. Drill holes in the bottom of one and place the mice in. The dry ice goes in the bucket without holes. Put the bucket with holes inside the other and put the top on. The holes will allow the nighty night gases through and then all you'll have to do is bag the mice up and put them in the freezer.

NOTE: Be careful not to touch the dry ice with bare hands.

Thanks...the diagram is actually pretty cool...but Dave did mention a lid...
Just wanted to clarify for others reading this...so they didn't kill their mice with 20 atmospheres of pressure instead of CO2...LOL

[Hurley]

If I use dry ice to euthanize via CO2 inhalation, I usually put the mice/rats in a good-sized container that is very deep (like a bucket, garbage can, etc.) I then take the dry ice and drop it into a gladware container with holes in it and pour hot water in before putting on the lid. The CO2 comes pouring out the holes at a rapid rate so that when I place the gladware down in the bottom of the container, CO2 levels rise very rapidly.

Actually, if you let the CO2 levels rise a little more gradually, the mice lose consciousness more calmly and with less stress than dropping them into a higher concentration. They aren't feeling suffocated. The feeling of suffocation comes from the response to low Oxygen levels. You get hypoxic (low on oxygen), you struggle to breathe and you feel paniced.

CO2 can anesthetize and kill an animal without setting off the hypoxia response of being deprived of oxygen. It will stimulate them to breathe faster at lower blood levels, then once a threshhold is reached, it actually slows respirations. Higher levels do work faster, though. I have a friend who (not very brightly) stuck his head down into CO2 vapor and took one big breath...and nearly passed out on the floor. LOL, he didn't think it would work that fast. He said the world started to go black for an instant. He didn't however, feel like he was suffocating. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT THINK ANYONE SHOULD TRY THIS FOR THEMSELVES...JUST AS I TOLD HIM HE WAS A DOOFUS TO DO SO. But, since he did pull that stunt, I thought I'd share the info from it.

CO2 does not work by displacing Oxygen in the tank. High blood CO2 levels will kill an animal regardless of their Oxygen levels. Room air contains just 21% Oxygen and 3% Carbon Dioxide. You'd probably only have to up CO2 in the air to maybe 10-15% to eventually kill an animal (although it wouldn't be as instant as the higher levels). Animals under anesthesia can easily die at just 3 times the carbon dioxide levels in their blood while breathing 100% Oxygen.

[Alias47]

I have a friend who (not very brightly) stuck his head down into CO2 vapor and took one big breath...and nearly passed out on the floor. LOL, he didn't think it would work that fast. He said the world started to do black for an instant. He didn't however, feel like he was suffocating. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT THINK ANYONE SHOULD TRY THIS FOR THEMSELVES...JUST AS I TOLD HIM HE WAS A DOOFUS TO DO SO.

And I always thought Serp was a smart guy :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :nyah:



Great info...and seems like the easiest (and CHEAPEST) way to euthanize...

[Hurley]

Heh...yeah, and it wasn't even Chuck that pulled that one.

It was a doctor, believe it or not. LMAO

[Alias47]

I can COMPLETELY believe it...

Some doctors I have known (present company excluded), especially in more of a teaching or research capacity, were so analytically minded that their common sense was next to ZERO...

They were so completely interested in the data and results...and what the experience was...that they didn't always consider the consequences in the SLIGHTEST...

Of course...I would be the guy to stick my head in the bucket and see what happens...although...I think the bending over to stick my head in the bottom of the bucket would cause me to partially black out...even without the induction of CO2...LOL :shrugs: