Ever heard of the use of boric acid for termites treatment?
Termites, and generally, pests are important in nature and the ecological balance of the ecosystem, but they may become problematic once we have too many of them in places where they shouldn’t be.
What options do you have for proper termite treatment, if the use of pesticides and other strong (and more effective) chemical is not an option or the lack of availability of other more natural and organic termite treatment methods?
You use boric acid, or make your own boric acid bait!
Boric acid is right in the middle, between the chemical and organic termite treatment products. The reason is that boric acid is neither as toxic as other pesticide chemicals nor is it as safe as the organic and natural treatment products.
What Is Boric Acid?
To begin to understand what boric acid is, one needs to understand where it comes from.
Borax vs Boric Acid, Are They They Same?
Boric acid has the chemical formula H3BO3, sometimes written as B(OH)3, which is a processed and refined form of borax, both, from the same compound boron.
Many people confuse borax for boric acid and vise versa. The striking similarity between the two is the fact that borax is the salt form of boric acid, and they both are derived from Boron.
Borax is widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and cleaning industries, as it a component used in making detergents and cosmetic products. Boric acid on the other hand, when dissolved in water, is used as an insecticide.
Boric acid is mined as borate and then undergoes a refining process to extract white crystals.
For many years it was mined mostly from Death Valley mine until the last mine, Billie Mine was closed in 2005, though, presently, borates are mined in Boron, California.
Boric acid (also called sodium borate; the salt form of boric acid) is toxic by inhalation or if taken internally, either by humans and pets. Long term exposure to boric acid according to research may not be healthy because research studies on dogs have shown that they develop testicular cancer, they may also cause skin irritation.
P.F. Harris invented the Roach Tablet in 1922 and he was the first to impregnate a tablet with boric acid as an insecticide since then the U.S. Patent Office has had over two hundred different products registered with the same principal.
Framing Lumber, a New Foundland lumber company, expanded the idea and started to treat their timber with boric acid in the fifties. Since that time there is no record of any wood being treated with boric acid and then been attacked by termites.
Why use Boric acid for termite treatment
Using boric acid for termites treatment is ideal for many reasons, it’s effective, although it may take some time to completely get rid of the pests you’re battling, and it’s not highly toxic termite treatment method when on humans and pets.
One of the advantages is that it is cheap and easy to get hold of any drug store or pharmacist stocks the product. Most of the commercial insecticides for termites contain boric acid in some form, either in the baits or as tablets.
One of the most effective ways to use boric acid for termites treatment is to make your own bait traps. Soak some wood in boric acid crystals melted in boiling water and then bury the wood in the ground near an infestation.
Monitor where you have laid the baits traps and replenish them when they have been eaten. The wood you have buried the more effective the bait traps. Each termite nest has hundreds of thousands of termites and in some cases millions.
As the termites carry the wood back to the colony it is stored and then eaten later. Eventually, the boric acid will be eaten and it will wipe out the colony.
Boric acid works as a stomach poison to the insects and the dry powder dehydrates their exoskeleton.
How to make a homemade boric acid bait
It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to cook up own boric acid termite killer, it’s a great way of how to get rid of termites.
What ingredients do you need for a homemade boric acid bait?
- Boric acid or sodium borate
- sugar
- water
Directions
dissolve 1 teaspoon of powdered boric acid together with 10 teaspoons of sugar into 2 cups of water.
- Soak the wood in this solution.
- Place the soaked wood (bait) around the infested areas.
- Frequently check if woods been eaten, and replace with anew wood.
- Alternatively, use a sprayer or sprinkler and spray the solution on the wood surfaces as a spot treatment against termites.
Boric acid in this concentration is also effective against ants as well as termites.
Adequate care should be taken when handling borax, or boric acid, as ingestion can cause health hazards.
What are your thoughts on “Boric acid for termites”?
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