Water-absorbing Polymers
Products such as ArenaMoist and Terra-Sorb consist of crystals that are designed to absorb and release water. You may have encountered similar products in your garden supply store because they were created for gardening and landscaping use. These products usually say that they will absorb 300 (or more) times their weight in water.
The problem with using them in an arena is that to get them to absorb that much water, you have to flood it. Because most people are reluctant to submerge their arenas, they often don't fully hydrate the product and get its true value.
Although these products can help reduce dust, they're somewhat expensive. And problems may arise because they're rendered ineffective by hard water and they're sensitive to UV sunlight. In addition, the material is likely to become slippery if it gets clumped together when it's wet. Ideally, it should be evenly distributed through several inches of footing, preventing that problem, but that's not always the reality.
Coating/Binding Products
Another category of dust suppressants consists of emulsions that are intended to coat the footing material and fight dust by making particles stick together. In this group are products such as Dustshield, Durasoil and Arena Rx.
As a general rule, these products have a cumulative effect on footing, so they require light maintenance applications to keep the treatment effective. For example, a first application of Arena Rx on a 10,000-square-foot arena might cost roughly $1,200; a maintenance application a year later would run about half that much.
Additional Options
Arena dust control is a tiny aspect of the enormous dust-control industry, and new products and approaches are being developed all the time. In fact, quite a few dust suppressants are available that aren't designed for arena use but that might be worth investigating. For instance, an assortment of plant-derived products are on the market, including sugar beet extracts, pine sap emulsion, lignins (a sticky wood pulp substance) and electrochemical treatments that condition soil and change its water-holding properties
