Termites

[woodman58]

Hey everyone, I am air drying about 4000Bf of wood before going into the kiln. I would like to know if any one has a problem with termites. If you do, what do you do about it? I am not having any trouble right now but someone I work with ask what I did to keep termites away. I have seen termites around my property but not around my logs or boards. Is there something I should doing to prevent them? Thanks for the help.

[beenthere]

Do you know which termites you are likely to have that you know about?

By keeping your air drying piles off the ground, and where any termite tubes can be seen on the pile substructure, should be sufficient to prevent them from getting into the wood.
Likely the air drying stacks would be short term, and you won't have to worry much if the area is open and clean.

[bandmiller2]

I've had more problems with carpenter ants than termites.I think if you keep stuff off the ground and rotate your stock,takes the varments some time to get established. Frank C.

[WDH]

You can sprinkle some borate powder around your stacks.  They won't like that at all. 

[SLawyer Dave]

I supported myself as a certified pest and termite inspector through law school, so my comments are coming from that back ground, (basically protecting residential and commercial buildings), but the issues are very similar.

A big portion of the answer depends where you live, which will decide what species of termites may be in your area.  Keeping the wood elevated off the ground is going to eliminate 95% of issues with subterranean termites.  They will then have to build "mud tubes" to reach the elevated wood.  This will both warn you of their presence and give you an opportunity to treat the ground immediately around the elevated blocking, so that the termites will not be able to rebuild their tubes.  There are a number of pyrithrin based products out there that you can buy and apply without having to be licensed that will create the chemical barrier around your elevated blocking.  You will need to dig a shallow trench around the blocking, mix the pesticide according to the label, and then pour it in the trench and let it soak into the soil.

Dampwood termites should not be a problem with any wood elevated above the ground.  Generally dampwood termites, as their name implies, only attack wood that is exceedingly "damp", and often times already softened by a wood destroying fungus.

Drywood termites is the other real threat you could face.  Drywood termites infest from one building/tree, and even furniture, to another source of dry wood, (generally less than 25% moisture content), with flying queens.  So if your old logs or dried timber is allowed to sit for substantial amounts of time, you could face such an infestation.  Evidence of drywood termites is generally seen as very small pellets of wood, (not dust).  As the above poster suggested, having your stock turn over frequently is really the best defense.  Getting rid of drywood termites can be a pita, generally requiring fumigation with deadly gasses that can only be done by licensed individuals, or in small lots/sizes with heating or freezing applications.

As with Drywood termites, there is also the possibility of infestation from a number of wood boring beetles.  These beetles generally create a very fine wood dust that will sift out of infested wood through very small holes.  These types of infestations are most commonly caused by allowing dry, dead wood to sit for long periods of time, where the beetles are able to transfer to other dead/dry wood in the area.  I've seen a lot of situations where a house or building becomes infested with these beetles, because firewood was allowed to sit for a number of years without being used against the house.  Again, turning over your stock frequently, and not allowing dead/dry wood to sit for long periods of time is your best defense.  Treatment is difficult and expensive, and comparable to drywood termites.  If you make furniture out of your wood, this is one of the main ways that such infestations also get into homes.

[YellowHammer]

I only had termite problems when I tried to air dry lumber stacked on wooden pallets directly on the ground.  Not good.  Used cement blocks after that, no problems.
Powder post beetles are terrible in my area and will ruin a stack in a hurry if precautions are not taken.
YH

[catskillpond]

we use borax soap powder some corn meal and a tablespoon of sugar in a soda can around our firewood piles and where we stack lumber and never have a problem with ants kills them right off

[beenthere]

catskillpond
Do you even have termites?
The recipe you use for ants sounds easy to make, but wonder if termites would dine on it.

[drobertson]

woodman58, you are north and east of me bout 150 miles, I have air dried a fair amount of oak and pine lumber with no sign of termites,  with a short term plan and a kiln you should be fine with it,  and preventive treatment in the area surely would not hurt anything for future projects,  david

[WDH]

I have air dried thousands and thousands of BF of predominately hardwood, and I have not had a single termite problem yet.  However, the powderpost beetles come to Middle Georgia to vacation  :-\.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Flying termites are restricted mainly to FL in the USA.  Subterranean termites require quite a bit of time to infest and damage wood, so lumber on an air yard is seldom in a hazardous or risky situation long enough.  In over 50 years of observing drying, I have never seen NEW termite infestation in air drying in the USA.

[den]

Termidor SC is the best stuff for termites and ants, easy to get.

[woodman58]

Thanks everybody. This batch I have been spraying with termite killer all around the perimeter. When all of this goes into the kiln I will put the 4x4 runners on concrete blocks until I can put a pad in.

[Solomon]

Hey everyone, I am air drying about 4000Bf of wood before going into the kiln. I would like to know if any one has a problem with termites. If you do, what do you do about it? I am not having any trouble right now but someone I work with ask what I did to keep termites away. I have seen termites around my property but not around my logs or boards. Is there something I should doing to prevent them? Thanks for the help.

Chloradane, Chloradane, Chloradane  .  Yes it can still be had.    agritrade.com

[Raider Bill]

Termidor SC is the best stuff for termites and ants, easy to get.

That's what most use here in Florida including myself. Works great.

Here even the subs fly once a year when they swarm.

[Magicman]

Depending upon what/how you have the lumber stacked on.  Yes, many times I have seen infestation into the lower few levels on the stack.  They will build tunnels around treated 4X4's, etc. and even cut through felt (tar paper).  I had to discard eight 2X12's for my Cabin Addition because of termite damage to the bottom two layers on the stack.

I should have sprayed the timbers that contacted the ground which I believe would have eliminated the problem.  I now use "Termidor SC".

[YellowHammer]

Some years ago I conducted an informal, no effort experiment to see what little beasties would attack my stacks if given half a chance.  Kind of a "get to know your enemy" thing.   So I took various cut offs of lumber, some dry, some fresh and laid them on the ground, on stumps, and old cinder blocks out of the way near my wood stacks, as well as other places on the farm. 
Every now and then I'd check them to see what had taken hold.  Before too long the resulting insect attack reminded me of throwing a chunk of meat in a dog kennel, especially the pieces that were on damp ground. 
Bottom line, in North Alabama in the warm months, a piece of unprotected wood touching the ground is going to get infested with something, and it wont take very long.
So now, all my stacks are on concrete and cycled regularly.  I also spray insectcide on my lumber as it comes off the mill, and I use the kiln to sterilize everything.
YH

[catskillpond]

For termites I am told diatamaseous earth works up here on the Japanese beetles a termite also has an exoskeleton I think I need spell check on this to many long words