Borate Wood Treatment

Active Ingredient in Borate Wood Treatment

The borate wood treatments that are provided by Pest Mall uses one of the most powerful active ingredients that proves its efficacy against wood boring pests as well as preserving the wood, destroying fungus, and providing a lasting residual. Moreover, it presents a very low or even no hazard to people and animals.

The Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate (DOT) active ingredient is a chemical that contains the basic elements, boron and oxygen. It is a material that is mined from mineral deposits that can be found in the dirt in specific locations around the world including the western region of North America, South America, and Asia. The borate compound is not only a wood insecticide, fungicide, and preservative, but outside of pest control, it can be used to create such products as fertilizers, glass, ceramic tiles, cosmetics, detergents, soaps, and medicines.

DOT is different from most other active ingredients in that it provides an extremely long residual. Although other wood treatments have a longer residual time than normal insecticides do, the borate compound can provide treatment for 5+ years. Once the borate compound diffuses into the wood, it cannot be broken down which means that it can remain in the wood for an indefinite amount of time under all perfect conditions.

How Borate Wood Treatments Work

Although borate compounds are not very hazardous to people and large animals, they are very toxic to both insects and fungus. For most major wood destroying insects, borate compounds are an ingestion poison. Although such insects like carpenter ants do not directly ingest the treated wood, when borate compounds are used as a dust treatment, the dust builds up on the outer skeleton of the carpenter ant and as they clean themselves, they are able to ingest the poison. The reason why borate wood treatments are so effective is because the borate compound destroys all the necessary bacteria and protozoa in the stomach while disrupting the entire enzyme system. This results in severe indigestion and ultimately leads to a “stop-feed” action in insects. Ultimately, insects starve to death because they are not able to survive the indigestion. Moreover, it is a contact toxicant against fungus, which is why the borate compound used in the borate wood treatments is completely efficient against fungus.

Target Pests of Borate Wood Treatments

There are several different types of wood destroying species that borate wood treatments are highly effective against. Such pests are most major species of termites which include the subterranean, Formosan, drywood, and dampwood, carpenter ants, Powderpost beetles, Anobiid beetles, Old House Borers, and even wood decaying fungi.

How to Effectively Use Borate Wood Treatments

There are a few different ways that borate wood treatments can be applied to wood. It will really depend on what pest you are targeting, mainly due to the fact that different pests will attack wood in different ways. Usually, borate wood treatments are sprayed on, injected into the wood, or even used in the powder form. If directly spraying onto the wood, it is best that the wood is bare or unfurnished. Wood surfaces that are furnished or painted on should be sanded down. This allows the solutions to soak into the wood rather than remain on the surface. Once the application is dry, you can finish the wood with furnishing materials or paint. Depending on the piece of wood material you are applying the borate compound on, there may be an easier solution to how you approach borate wood treatment.