Polyfilla kills booklice?

[starlight09]

I was filling in any cracks in my bedroom. I was using polyfilla. Me and my friend were doing it and found it really dried out skin out. My friend's cuticle dried so much, she had to wear a plaster as it bled.
A found a booklice walking over to a crumb of dried polyfilla and immediately touching it, it wriggled violently then dropped dead. As booklice need moisture and the polyfilla is drying, do you think the polyfilla sucked whatever moisture out of it?
It looked like an awful death and I kinda felt guilty.

[Paul mabbott]

That's a reasonable theory: in plaster there is an oxide which absorbs water in the process of hardening off ....
I could offer two other suggestions though. The plaster is fairly alkaline so if anything was absorbed it would upset the pH of the animal's body fluid.
Furthermore, does the Polyfilla contain a fungicidal agent to stop mildew formation? Many mixtures do - they're supposedly harmless to humans but could well be toxic to a small organism.

At least your books should be safe now?

[lisacat]

I have just got to try this! Still having the booklice problem at my end too. Don't know if this nightmare will ever go away