Assessing the Effectiveness of Natural Wood Treatments Against Eastern Subterranean Termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) Damage: A Comparative Study

This research is to discover alternative natural chemical cues to the use of borates to deter Eastern Subterranean Termites (R. flavipes) that remain in place in areas of high moisture content. Common sources of food for Eastern Subterranean Termites include materials that are high in cellulose content. As one of these sources, wood, is an abundantly used material in society such as in home construction, research into potential methods to make this material less susceptible to termite predation is an area of public interest. The current method of deterrence is pressure treatment of wood with Borates as they disrupt the metabolic function of the termite’s symbiotes and prevent them from processing cellulose; When effective, this may cause a colony to die off from starvation. The caveat to this system however is that borates are highly water-soluble and will wash away when in contact with moisture making outdoor and foundational structures particularly susceptible, and poses serious structural safety concerns should an infestation take place. In this experiment, several samples of the same general type of wood will be treated with various other potential methods of deterrence, and compared as to how each treatment affected the amount of consumption by the termites.