Question about Timbor

[kkcomp]

Will timbor prevent carpenter ants if applied during milling or should I use another product as well?

[Don P]

Hmm, sorta, not really. They are nesting more than ingesting. Carpenter ants are pretty easy though, dry the wood  and get rid of the source of moisture. When we find them in a house, the house has a leak somewhere.

[kkcomp]

Thank you that makes sense. Another question, since boracare is pretty much timbor with antifreeze to aid penetration would it help to add some antifreeze when mixing timbor?

[kantuckid]

My Timbor question: How long is a solution active or effective once you've mixed it with water? I have several jugs and a sprayer around that I mixed a few months back.  

Timbor says its product is effective "on the wood" as long as not washed away by rain, etc..

[longtime lurker]

So long as the borates stay in solution it's effective when applied, there's no shelf life issue beyond evaporation concentrating the borax, which is a case of just add water. It can be a headache if it dries out in hoses etc with clogged nozzles 

[Don P]

If the wood is green, green enough that when you take a fresh end cut it is wet all the way... then straight DOT, whether Timbor, Solubor, BeauRon, etc, any of those mixed with water will DIFFUSE just fine without anything else. Where saltwater meets freshwater, the salt wants to mix with the fresh.

If the wood is dry you need to wet out the wood with something that will penetrate and stay wet for long enough to get the borate solution moving in. It will only migrate when the wood is above the fiber saturation point. If you try to wet out with straight salty water on dry wood you'll have a surface crust and little more penetration. It'll basically flash off and crust over before it sinks in. Also from my experience, once you see that sparkly dry borate crystal surface, it will accept no more with further coats, its glazed. 

We were talking about cousin Ene last week, benzene, gasoline, kerosine.
The -ols are alcohols. You need a slow drying solvent that mixes with water and doesn't play with the borate. The glycols are called permanent water in a couple of things I've come across. Slow drying alcohols. All they are doing is wetting out the wood. Ethylene glycol, in boracare, is toxic. This can give another kill but it is another poison. I have gotten too lax with it and skin contact before. Another brand uses polyethylene glycol, PEG, and another uses propylene glycol, RV antifreeze. I've usually used EG and tune it towards my goal, maintaining a wet surface till I can make it around with the next pass. Painters use ethylene glycol as a paint additive to improve wet out in dry conditions.

So there you have it, go green and you can work greener, and cheaper.

BTW, check your soil. My soil tests always call for boron, that is timbor's identical twin solubor. If you avoided glycol, your shavings are within an organic cert in the garden.

If it is in solution it is good, if it precipitates it forms rock candy pulling the remaining concentration to some lower level. That crystal takes some energy to put back in solution.

[moodnacreek]

Hmm, sorta, not really. They are nesting more than ingesting. Carpenter ants are pretty easy though, dry the wood  and get rid of the source of moisture. When we find them in a house, the house has a leak somewhere.

And that leak can be very small.