What's New In Borates

An alternative method of control works by eliminating wood as a food source and harborage for wood-destroying organisms.

With pressure mounting from the Environmental Protection Agency and consumers becoming more educated about their pest control options, borate-based treatments are gaining momentum for the treatment of wood-destroying organisms among PCOs across the country.

Borates are a naturally occurring mineral salt mined in California. They work by eliminating wood as a food source or harborage for termites, carpenter ants, wood-destroying beetles and decay fungi. The wood becomes nonviable to them; therefore, the pests don’t feed on the affected wood. If borates are consumed, they kill the microorganisms that produce enzymes in the insect’s stomach, the insect can’t absorb nutrients and it will starve to death.

SUCCESS STORIES. William Houtchens, owner of Team Too, Corona, Calif., said that he’s seen tremendous success using borates for his customers and his company since he started almost 20 years ago. ""We’ve been using borates since 1981,"" Williams said. ""We actually were the first company to get an Experimental Use Permit from the Department of Agriculture. We were doing a home where they didn’t want the mother to move out because she was bedridden. Yet, they didn’t want their home destroyed by drywood termites. We had to come up with an alternative method becausethey didn’t want fumigation. We still have that home under control today. We’ve been servicing the home on an annual control contract and we have no termites.""

Some PCOs say they are seeing a decrease in callbacks because of the implementation of borate treatments. ""It’s cut our drywood termite callbacks down to 10 percent of what we were doing before,"" said John Helm, director of research and development for Truly Nolen, Orlando, Fla. ""You can definitely reduce callbacks and you don’t keep treating the same area. Once you’ve treated it, it’s done. It’s just an inspection process after that to make sure it’s still in place and there’s no activity.""

Borates provide a different approach to pest control. Instead of baiting for termites or creating a liquid soil barrier, borate products are applied directly to the wood and in return eliminate the wood as a food source or harborage.

""My philosophy is that we can count on the materials that are available for pre-construction soil treatments to last a maximum of about five years, that is if everything is done the way it should be, under ideal conditions. If we look at that and say that five years is a maximum and I’m seeing failure in as little as six months, it’s time to look at other alternatives (to soil treatments),"" said Tom Aho, owner of Allied Pest Control, Longwood, Fla.

Two borate-based products on the market, Bora-Care, both from Nisus Corporation, Rockford, Tenn, are water-soluble. Bora-Care contains glycol, which provides deep penetration into the wood. ""Bora-Care is recommended for the remedial control of powder post beetles and is the product of choice for subterranean termites because of the efficacy data and field study applications at Mississippi State,"" said Ron Schwalb, national technical manager at Nisus. ""Bora-Care has shown to be extremely effective. There has been no damage and termites have not tubed over the Bora-Care-treated wood over this eight-year study.

""Tim-bor provides a more cost effective method for treating drywood termites and wood decay fungus,"" Schwalb said. ""Tim-bor diffuses into the wood and kills the fungus. Tim-bor can also be used as a dust against carpenter ants whose nest might be infesting a structure or spread in the attic soffit areas to prevent drywood termite infestation.""

After treating his own home with Bora-Care, Aho realized the possibility of using borates. ""My theory is that there is another way to do (a pretreat) and it works as a profit source as well as a preventative measure to sell our customers. It reflects back on new construction to pretreat that structure with borates as it’s being built,"" he said. ""I’ve seen soil treatments done correctly, but then the construction crew walked across it or disrupted the soil compromising your treatment.""

HOW TO USE BORATES. PCOs can use borates in a number of different ways. As a liquid, borates can be used to treat wood directly. They can also be used as a dust, mist and foam. When applying borates, there are various application methods used by PCOs. The wood may be treated by spraying, high pressure misting, brushing or injecting. PCOs may have their own preferred method depending on the type of job.

Paul Hardy, technical director, Orkin Pest Control, Atlanta, uses an integrated approach to borates. ""We implemented a ‘fourth barrier’ system in 1994, in which we added an additional borate to treat the crawlspaces and unfinished basement as the fourth preventive method in pretreatments.""

Ken Gordon, president of Gordon Termite Control Inc., Rosemead, Calif., focuses the majority of his business on treating drywood termites. ""In the early ’90s I got involved in the borates and in my company they have literally replaced fumigation,"" Gordon said. ""We started using borates in 1993 and as of last year our revenue was eight-fold. Normally speaking, if we had doubled that in a five-year period we would have been in what the industry considers the normal growth which is 15 percent a year. We’re standing at almost 800 percent in a short period of time. I think convenience over fumigation is basically what drives our growth.""

The work Gordon Termite Control handles is not limited to individual homes. The company is often called to tackle large high-rises and condominiums. ""If we fumigate an apartment building, they have to totally vacate that building for three to five days,"" noted Gordon. ""The apartment owner has to start paying the lodging and food bills on all his tenants and that gets extremely expensive. With borates, (tenants) can be in the adjoining room while we’redoing the treatment.""

The switch to borates isn’t only focused on one particular type of termite. Bob Kunst, owner of Fischer Environmental, New Orleans, focuses his efforts on a combination of drywood, subterranean and Formosan termites. ""Borates are a very important part of termite work. They can also be an important part of your regular pest control,"" Kunst said. ""I do a great deal of termite work — nearly 60 percent of my business. Borates really allow me to get repair contracts on homes that I normally couldn’t and that gives me a competitive advantage.

""Here in New Orleans the competition is severe. We generally don’t make any money on the initial treatment. We try to get our money back over the term of the life of the renewal, which is about 14 years. With borates, but in particular Bora-Care, I’m able to go back to the house when it’s framed and spray the timbers with the product,"" Kunst said. ""This gets a tremendous penetration and I can charge (my customers) enough money that I can make a profit on the initial treatment. It cuts back on my cost and I don’t have to wait two years to break even, which is what I do in a normal pretreat.""

With efficacy studies in their ninth year at Mississippi State University’s Forest Products Laboratory, results have shown no damage and a deterrence of tubing over the Bora-Care treated wood. The field evaluation at the Harrison Experimental Forest near Gulfport has been monitoring the resistance of Bora-Care-treated wood to subterranean termites feeding and tubing. The current report shows that in the eighth year, termites have not tubed over wood treated with 1:1 dilution of Bora-Care to reach untreated wood above it and there is no damage to the Bora-Care treated wood. However, the termite pressure is so high in this area that some of the control stations (with untreated wood) have been completely consumed by the termites. Overall, during the ninth year, termites attacked 84 percent of the monitoring stakes while leaving the treated wood unharmed.

The author is a writer with Bynum Lawrence Rushing, a marketing firm in Birmingham, Ala. She can be reached via e-mail at ngarcia@pctonline.com.