Termites... Anything I can do beside tenting boat.

I just got back from helping a friend all weekend with his boat...how I've handled stuff like this in smaller boats before is with C02.

First you need to have a way to evacuate air from the lowest part of the boat.. a shop vac with the hose down there will work.
Figure out approximately the cu. ft of your boat,or how high you want to treat.

1 pound of dry ice is 8-9 cu ft of CO2 gas.
Or get a tank ..1 lb of liquid gives about 10 cu ft of gas... ~$1 a pound

EVERYTHING will die- insect eggs,mold,fungus,insects,animals. Leave it in there as long as possible..a day should do it but longer is better...then suck it all out.
Post warning signs of impending death.

No toxic residues getting into your lungs.

 

Interesting Idea.... will think about it.

 

I'm thinking with normal required venting of even closed windows

it is going to be tricky keeping the CO2 in the boat, even given boat window might be much better seal.

I hear a house exchanged all air every 2 hours even with all window closed.

I'm thinking a CO2 treatment would require reloading a super-size ice-chest at least once, probably with section of 6" PVC pipe from an open hatch or window. Use duct tape to seal the open window so can be 'opened' from outside the boat and plastic sheeting more or less wrapped around the pipe during reload.

I haven't found anything on WWW that says CO2 (besides dry ice blasting) is effective on mold. I'd even be afraid the bugs might sense high CO2 (thinking 'fire!' or even "something big breathing heavy") and wall off the queen, and bugs can really go dormant.

Since termites cultivate a fungus on which they dine, just killing all mold once wont shut them down for long, or keep them from moving right back in next day.

I think he needs long term anti-mold treatment of wood, and he says 'no copper'. Sure the Copper GREEN is chemically dangerous to aluminum?

 

The chemicals typically used to kill dry wood beasties, becomes inert after 48 hours. Once dead, no further damage will occur and if the boat is good and sealed against airborne invasion again, you've solved the problem.

 

I'll second that. I set off half a dozen of the professional style "drop the chemical in the water and run" bombs in my boat shed. Every single bug in there died (black widows, other spiders, flies, blind mosquitoes, real mosquitoes, etc...) The place was fresh and habitable the next day (it's outdoors, so ventilation was good.

 

There are very very few anaerobic (not needing oxygen) molds that exist in an oxygen rich atmosphere.

BTW,lived in Australia for a year and had a small power boat...could not get rid of the cockroaches and bugs with bombs,sprays,tapes etc but the CO2 did the trick as it killed the eggs laid way up behind things too..

 

Drywood termites can be killed with just about any kind of pesticide if you can get it into contact with them. Subterranean termites do have mud tunnels from the ground up, this is why a ground barrier is placed around the structure such as Dursban TC or cloridane which is off the market. Termador gives the termite a virus which is passed from termite to termite. One exception to the mud tunnels to the ground is when there is a water source such as a leaking roof or pipe. Formosan termites are a subterranean termite, they will eat a telephone post. You more than likely have drywood termites but given your location you could very well have formosan termites, tarp the boat and dyr it out to be on the safe side and call a pro for a free inspection. Rick

 

Copper arsenate is used to pressure treat pine in house building in Australia.

In PNG I found the local termites had a particular dislike for salt water and a good soaking effectively killed any termite infestation. set your bilge pumps and spray the area with salt water from your 'anchor-wash-down-hose'.... salt residue may well dissuade further infestation?

 

Protect your investment. Get it professionally treated (tent and gas), and buy the extended warranty.
This is no trivial matter, even in a metal boat.

 

termites - orange oil

termite control:

anybody know where to get orange oil in bulk.

and how do you know you are being given the correct substance and not being conned. I heard there are suspect "orange oil" suppliers out there.
thanks.

 

Here ya go, works on ants, roaches, dogs, cats, grease and grim

and even termites!

http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Wisdo..._next_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2

Sounds like one of those all in one products like Ballistol.

 

Dry wood termites get deep into the wood grain. You may kill some on the surface, but it's unlikely you'll get the nest or all of the potential breeders, so what's the point. There's only one way the insurances companies will accept and with my experience, they're right, you have to gas their butts and completely flood the area for many hours with this gas. The point being you can get them all or just piss them off so they'll come back. How much wood do you want them to consume before you realize you have to retreat?

 

An update to the saga. I put about 8 bug bombs in main section if boat. I lock it it up for a week, opened all the hatches and bilge, and left a co2 tank open. A week later, they were definitely dead. A month later, I saw new termites flying in the windows. So new strategy. Need screens for windows and do again. I then have leave AC on all the time.

 

Repeated bug bombs in small spaces will permanently stink up cushions, cloth, wood etc.

This would seem easy to do, especially now in July, in Florida.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7440.html

 

It would seem easy to do, "heating all wood in the structure to a minimum of 120°F and holding this temperature for at least 33 minutes". I got to thinking about fumigation, which saturates the wood with a toxic vapor. Some people here will put pan of formaldehyde in their boat cabins and then let that evaporate to kill stuff. Anyone heard of that?

I was thinking a mixture of bleach and ammonia makes a toxic gas. Would that work? Would that be corrosive? Unfortunately, if you go go too heavy on the bleach, you get an explosive mixture. If you go even heavier, you apparently get a form of rocket fuel, even more explosive. That sounds more like beer fueled science research fun to be performed in wide open spaces than something you might want in your boat.

http://www.asktheexterminator.com/Pesticide/What_Is_Bleach.shtml
This sounds like it might have possibilities, but again, I don't know about any corrosiveness.

An estimate on getting my house fumigated was $7,000 a number of years ago. I got to looking into it and sulfuryl fluoride is the gas they use nowdays, instead of the outlawed methyl bromide. SF is also the gas they use agriculturally to fumigate all the grain you eat, 2-3 times a year. If you're poor and have to accept government commodities that they dole out, and I imagine also all the grains we ship to Bangladesh and other rat nests of humanity, sometimes that grain has been in storage for up to 5 years so has been fumigated 10-15 times. Farmers use it for their on site storage bins.

The thing is, to be a certified house fumigator applying sulfuryl fluoride, you have to go through a battery of training, testing, licenses and fees. For a farmer to get a permit to buy a tank of sulfuryl fluoride, it's a whole different thing, which in some states amounts to nothing besides stating you are a farmer. Enough sulfuryl fluoride to fumigate my house only costs a few hundred dollars. The whole expensive, heavy duty vinyl circus tent enclosure exterminators use I suspect is a product of being tuff enough for reusability and probably gov regulations. Farmers are instructed to use "Visqueen", polyethylene plastic like at Home Depot to enclose the area to be fumigated. The grain bin process I saw in photos was enclose the area, have fans running for circulation, run a hose from the tank, (a 10 gallon propane like tank) under the tarp and turn it on. So many pounds per cubic feet.

When using heat (rented torpedo heaters) for fumigation, the tenting consists of polyethylene hung from the eaves to the ground and the whole house isn't necessarily covered.