Charlie - what do you think will happen to the wine and how would it happen? They use sulfuryl fluoride. It has a half-life of around 16 hours.
The chemical would have to be absorbed through the corks. But if your bottles have capsules, that should not be a problem. Anyway, here are some articles. We were worried about it a little while ago but didn’t have to do the tenting, so it turned out we didn’t have any worries.
Your NIH link says the half life is 36 years, just to make sure someone doesn’t rely on that 16 hour number. Maybe you’re describing the half life of clearance from a home after fumigation?
I moved all my wine to the offsite when we had our house tented. No way I was going to risk it. I didn’t have 900 bottles but I still would have moved it all, no way I’d leave it in with that toxic gas. I’m sure it’s fine and all the fact sheets are believable but peace of mind is important to me.
Plan B would be to get those special bags they give you and wrap all of them in that. Prob would be faster than boxing up and moving all the wine, then moving back. We did this Plan B approach 7 years ago when our rental was tented, but we didn’t have any wines worth saving anyway. And FWIW they all tasted fine when we drank them later.
Thanks for all info. We’re boxing and moving on Monday. I gave a garage room with ac. Going to drop it down and keep wine at 65 or so for about a week an move them back in.
We just had our house tented 3 weeks ago, and everything was fine. All my wine was inside a wine fridge and left inside the house. I’ve opened many bottles since, and all its all good.
Th termite man said as long as the bottle is left on its side then it’s safe.
I’m happy to store all 900 bottles for you. All 800 bottles will be cared for at the proper temperature during the eradication process. Rest assured, the complete boxed 700 bottles will be returned when tenting is over.
They didn’t say upright bottles would be toxic. Just that they guaranteed if you lay the bottles down, due to the pressure of the wine covering the cork there would be no way for any chemicals to seep past the cork.
If the bottle is left upright with that little space of air between the wine and the cork. There may be a possibility that something could seep through. But I highly doubt that this gas could seep through the cork.
When you’re tenting your house you only need to secure open perishables or items that aren’t factory sealed. You only have to secure items that you eat, drink or smoke. Wine is technically “factory sealed” so I wouldn’t really worry too much about your wine as long as it’s lying down in a fridge.
Once you enter your house after the tenting is complete you never smell anything or would know that your house just had a chemical injected throughout your house.
I’m glad that they told you not to worry about the wine, but the reasoning is not correct. There is no difference between having the wine upright, on its side, or upside down for that matter. Think about the fact that a bottle of wine can sit there for years without evaporating. Even the poorest cork is good enough to prevent any chemical compound from making its way in or out for all those years. A little insecticide gas isn’t getting into your wine in a couple of days.