# Treating reclaimed wood for termites?



## Fundabug (Dec 27, 2007)

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster(whoops..I guess I did post sometime in the past, forgot). I did a search on treating reclaimed wood for termites, but found nothing really helpful so far. My in-laws gave me permission to strip some buildings from an old homestead that's been on their farm for.....No one really knows how long. One of the buildings is a small three sided barn used for small livestock, I guess. Their best estimate is that's it was built about a 100 years ago, give or take a decade and is in pretty good shape for a barn that old. You can tell it had been doped up pretty good at some time in the past, but most of that has weathered off at this point. I pulled off a large plank and brought it home to see if it was still in good enough shape to be used. I had to cut the plank into several smaller planks in order to remove some rot. As it turns out, the wood is hand worked planks and timbers made entirely of thick heavy oak. There appeared to be some termite damage to parts of the wood, but I found no live active termites. I made that wood into a weather station and gave it to my father in-law as a gift for letting me strip the wood. Now that it's fall and I can get back to the building without getting eaten alive by ticks & chiggers, I'm going to go ahead and strip all the usable looking wood. My question is, how do I treat several planks at a time just in case there's any active termites in this wood? Something cheap and easy that I can do in my workshop. The wood is beautiful and I would hate to waste it. Plus I like the thought that some distant relative cut down the trees and worked the wood by hand. Sorry for the long read, but any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

i did not get all the way through your one paragraph writeup. A little too much in one place for me.

However, based on your subject I would say that there is never any reason to treat any wood for termites unless there is evidence of "dry wood" termites in the in the wood. Dry wood termites (and Formosan termites) are the only termites that can live without having a direct contact with the moist earth.

George


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

GeorgeC said:


> i did not get all the way through your one paragraph writeup. A little too much in one place for me.
> 
> However, based on your subject I would say that there is never any reason to treat any wood for termites unless there is evidence of "dry wood" termites in the in the wood. Dry wood termites (and Formosan termites) are the only termites that can live without having a direct contact with the moist earth.
> 
> George


ah ha.
what about beetles?


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

MidGAOutdoor said:


> ah ha.
> what about beetles?


If you visually inspect the wood you can tell if there are any insects that have been causing damage.

George


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