[Greenbuilding] (Hardwood Floor Sound Underlays and) Pest Management

[RT]

rachel.scarano at scaranoarchitect.com

>  What have been people's experience with multi-family building pest  
> control? Even eco-insecticides are still insecticides!

Assuming that the use of the term "insecticide" in the above is meant to  
imply that insecticides are a Bad Thing for living things other than  
insects ...

Boron in its various compounds (borax, boric acid, borates ) is very  
useful in helping humans to control a surprisingly wide range of things  
that humans don't find desirable to have in their lives ...

ie borate solution treatments for lumber (as described previously on this  
list) and other cellulosic materials (as described on other lists like  
Strawbale)  is effective as prevention against fungal decay and insect  
attack and as a fire retardant ... and yet borate solutions (ie sodium  
perborate) are safe enough to be used as a mouth rinse to fight peridontal  
disease.

ie boric acid used in minute amounts (ie mixed into bait as described  
previously on this list )  is very effective in killing entire colonies of  
ants and cockroaches  ... and yet is safe enough to be used in dilute  
solutions as an eye wash to fight eye infections or just to sooth eye  
irritations due to foreign material ... or as a vaginal douche (Google  
this one yourself if interested) .

Of course as with anything else (even water), if ingested in excessive  
amounts it could eventually have deleterious health effects.

But as a means of controlling insect infestations in a house, we're  
talking about an amount of boric acid powder small enough to fit onto the  
wide end of one of those old-fashioned wooden toothpicks, mixed with a  
small dab of some bait like molasses to yield a teardrop-sized baiting  
station that when taken back to the colony by ants, will kill the queen  
and subsequently the entire colony.

The approach would be slightly different when dealing with cockroaches (ie  
applied in a thin dusting which would get on the insects bodies as they  
crawl over the treated area and subsequently ingested during preening) but  
effective nevertheless if one believes what is written about it. (I have  
no experience with the latter but have, with ants.)

Awhile ago Sacie asked about pest control of another sort ... the  
buck-toothed, furry critter sort and in particular how one might determine  
their entry points into the building envelope.

I remember reading a recommendation for putting down a thin dusting of  
white powder (perhaps on a length of board) and placing that board in  
locations where it is suspected that the critters are finding entry.
Put the board down late at night before going to bed and then check for  
footprints in the morning.
What to use as the white powder ? Maybe an odourless baby powder or  
such-like ? ie something that is very fine but yet dense enough to not be  
blown away by breezes.

How to kill the furry critters in a non-toxic way ?  A savvy farm wife in  
Eastern Ontario near Eldorado once told me something about a plastic five  
gallon pail with a board placed against it to provide a ramp for the  
little critters to climb up in order to get into the pail which had some  
liquid in the bottom.

I forget whether that liquid was just plain water or stale beer .  I think  
there was also another element involved ... something like bits of  
something salty placed on the narrow board that would entice them to eat  
and then requiring a drink afterwards, they'd go for the liquid at the  
bottom of the pail.
But since the sides of the pail are too steep, tall and slippery to climb  
back out, they are trapped and eventually drown.

I've seen a somewhat similar technique inadvertantly work on construction  
sites to trap raccoons. Instead of the five gallon pail, a 200 litre  
plastic barrel of the type used by masons to hold mortar mixing water, or  
an empty dumpster.

-- 
=== * ===											AOD257
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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