Probable Improbabilities

A study performed at the University of Austin in 2018 was done on champagne to determine oscillation rates of the bubbles.

Some have raised the difficulty of cleaning plants that are deeply netted or suffer difficult to penetrate areas; that is, the formation of ‘micro pockets’ of trapped air or even water, shielding the pests we’re trying to eliminate. This of course is an issue with all forms of treatment in a liquid that is static.

One of the interesting byproducts of using a carbonated liquid as the cleaning agent is that the liquid is dynamic or in continuous motion.

While trapped, protected areas must exist to some extent, the following could suggest that the survival of ‘micro pocket shelters’ in carbonated water is far less likely than static cleaning solutions.

The tests performed for the study above at the University of Austin in 2018 were done with a hydrophone in champagne but we performed our own and found very similar results with seltzer water.

Seltzer effervesces at an amazingly predictable rate. In fact, it bubbles at many rates but at two rates primarily. These rates don’t vary much over time, but they do lose intensity over time.

These rates are known as oscillations as seen in the oscilloscope image below:

This is known as cavitation and is how commercial ultrasonic cleaners work.

Although we did not test this, we saw no pests or eggs survive even after 6 months. Of course, the degree of any additional deep cleaning and penetration this affords is speculation at this point.

However, it could suggest that a combination of the very high pressure of seltzer with the mechanical cleaning action of the seltzer bubbles and their inherent cavitating action should greatly increase the probability of micro pocket penetration or even the destruction of micro pockets entirely.

As an example of the incredible pressure, here the excess of over 300% pCO2 pressure of seltzer water applied to algae cells forces the contents almost completely out of Marimo algae cells at around second 45 in the video:

Marimo Algae Drained by CO2 Pressure

Here is a sample of the recording of the oscillations in seltzer. A hydrophone was immersed in seltzer to measure the frequencies of the oscillatory energy.

If you listen closely, you can hear the very high frequency ‘whistle’ of the fast, microscopic cavitation bubbles popping en masse along with the low rumble (and occasional large bubbles crashing into the microphone!) of the much larger, effervescence bubbles:

Recording of Seltzer Oscillations

This addendum is speculative and has not been tested beyond what is presented here.