BoraCare - anyone used it?

[Bill Holt]

Tyler, I had great results with a diluted version of BoraCare I found on Amazon.  I got 600 bf of mesquite in the winter and did not want to wait until it got warm enough to use the black plastic method.  Sorry, I cannot remember the name of the product, but I'm sure a search of Amazon will uncover a few good products.

[EdL]

I've used Timbor with excellent results.

Lined the firewood barn with 1 1/2 thick soft maple, 4' up on the walls. PPB's got into it.
Used the 12volt lawn sprayer and hosed the carp out of it.

Killed what was there and never any re-infestaiton.

Ed

[Jim Waldron]

The chemistry of all these commercial products is based on sodium octaborate; I picked the cheapest one, since they are chemically identical. Additionally, when I've used them, I dissolve the borate in automotive antifreeze (glycerol based) for application. Boracare is a lot more expensive and doesn't penetrate as well as the antifreeze based formulation. The sodium octaborate is easier to work with than off-the-shelf borax; although they are quite similar

I'm not the only one: a reasonably astute authority is http://donsbarn.com/insect-infestation-a...ed-lumber/ from Don Williams, retired senior conservator at the Smithsonian. His blog is worth your attention on a lot of topics and is thoroughly entertaining as well. If you want to spend for pure glycerol, you can find it on Amazon or E-Bay.

If all you're worried about is roaches in the kitchen, just spread some borax powder around where they travel and it'll be fine. But if you want to penetrate lumber and kill off and prevent powder post beetles and carpenter ants and termites in lumber, the extra effort of getting the good stuff is worthwhile. Borax (sodium borate with varying degrees of hydration) in water is not going to penetrate and won't give long term protection.

If you use the antifreeze, don't use the timber for food contact surfaces. Food grade glycerol is widely available if you need it.