Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article , wrote:

Most people/stores I've called have never heard of the stuff.
I've called paint stores, hardware stores, chemical stores,
pharmacies.
Hardware stores carry methyl hydrate but not methylated alcohol.

That is probably the same stuff. As names fly across the pond,
they often mutate.

Unlikely in this case more like they stayed the same and ours evolved.
The problem is that to communicate chemicals by common names in the
colonies you need to know what Elizabethan alchemists called the stuff.
According to Henley's (ca 1921) even if he did find "methylated spirits"
in the USA/Canada it would be impure methanol or wood alcohol. Same for
methyl hydrate only more so. Pure methanol is too phyto-toxic to use. It
will certainly kill the mealy bug but probably the plant as well.

What we call meths they call something like denatured (pure) spirit or
grain alcohol. (NB *not* petroleum spirit). I'd expect any half decent
chemist to have impure alcohol spirit for use in spirit burners.

I expect it is residual fallout from the days of prohibition that
ethanol is so hard to find on sale over there.

Rubbing alcohol consists of isopropyl alcohol here, 70% isopropyl ISP.
Could isopropyl alcohol be used instead of methyl alcohol to kill
these mealybugs?

Yes. And so could medicinal ethanol. It is the dessicating effect
that kills them, not the particular chemical.

Just be careful handling isopropanol that you don't get it in your eyes.
It is a severe eye irritant.

Regards,
Martin Brown