Bora-Care - Questions & Answers

The only way to get the Bora-Care into the area where the termites are would be to drill holes through the stucco into the studs or through the window trim.  We suspect maybe they are in the window trim based on your description.  Since Bora-Care can only be applied to wood that is not painted, stained, or sealed,  you have to drill a hole into the center of the window trim and inject Bora-Care by using a sprayer or some other method  that might be available to you to get the product through the drill hole.  Or you can remove the wood or stucco to get into the interior of the wall, but this is usually not a feasible step in the process.

Both Termidor and Bora-Care are good for treating drywood termites.  They do it in different ways though.  Termidor is considered to be one of the best treatments around, however it is typically meant for subterranean termites and it is poured into the ground.  When using Termidor to treat drywood termites you have to drill holes into the wood and get the Termidor directly into the void where the termites are for it to work. Termidor will not penetrate through the word, you have to get it in the right place.  Also, Termidor does not have any long term protection qualities in the wood.  Bora-Care is a wood treatment product and will penetrate through the wood. When applying Bora-Care you do not have to get it directly where the termites are.  You would typically just spray it on the surface of the wood and the Bora-Care will penetrate through the wood and kill the termites inside.  Also, since Bora-Care is a wood treatment product, it will stay in the wood forever and protect it forever.  The down side is that Bora-Care can only be applied to normal raw wood.  It cannot be applied to wood that has been painted, stained, or sealed.  So, if you are exposing the studs or normal wood anywhere on the house or replacing any wood then usually Bora-Care is what you want to use since it will protect the wood long term.  If you have an infestation in wood that is painted and you will not be replacing it, then typically you would drill holes into the wood and use Termidor

You can use Bora-Care on any raw wood inside or outside your home, including hardwood floors.  However, it can only be applied on raw wood.  You CANNOT apply Bora-Care to any wood that is painted, stained, or sealed.  So unless your hardwood floors are unfinished, you cannot spray them with Bora-Care.  If your flooring is already finished with a stain and sealant, then you either have to sand off the finish and the re-finsh after applying Bora-Care, or you can drill holes into the infested pieces and inject Bora-Care.

If you see droppings then there are "kick out"holes which you should be able to find on the wood where the termites that are inside the wood are kicking out their pellets onto the floor.  This will help you zero in on the wood that you are treating. 

Both Termidor SC (fipronil for termites) and Bora-Care will work, but Bora-Care is typically the better one to use for this situation.  Termidor is not a wood treatment product, so for it to work you have to drill holes EXACTLY where the termites are and it has to touch the termites to work.  If you miss where they are, it will not work.  Also, Termidor does not really have any residual in the wood, so after you treat inside the wood with Termidor and it dries, that wood is exposed for future termite and beetle infestations.

Termidor: http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/termidor-sc-p-184.html

Bora-Care is usually the preferred choice if most of the wood is exposed and it is raw wood you are treating, meaning it is not painted, stained, or sealed, it is just normal wood.  Bora-Care is made only for wood, and you do not have to know exactly where the termites are for it to work which is a plus.  Bora-Care is sprayed evenly over all exposed surfaces of the wood and actually penetrates through the entire piece of wood.  When the termites in the wood try to consume the wood after it has been treated, they ingest the Bora-Care with the wood and die.  No matter where they are in the wood the Bora-Care will find them as long as you treated the exposed wood that you can see.  The other main benefit is that Bora-Care stays in the wood forever, so you will not have to worry about termites or beetles infesting the wood that you treated ever again.

Bora-Care:  http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/boracare-p-100.html

It depends on the thickness of the wood and the moisture content of the wood.  Powder Post Beetles can be very deep into the wood.  Bora-Care can take up to 30 days or more to penetrate all the way through a piece of wood and this will vary depending on how thick the wood is and the moisture content.  So 2 weeks has definitely not been long enough.  You should only need two coats if the wood you were treating was thicker than 8 inches.  You should give it at least another 3 weeks, and even then it could take a little longer if the beetles are all the way in the center of the wood.

You should allow areas treated with Bora-Care to dry for 24-48 hours before touching or painting them. Most applicators apply two coats of Bora-Care for best results.

Yes, Boracare can (and in many instances MUST) be used on pressure treated wood.  As a termite barrier under Section VI of the label it is required to be applied twice to exterior wall sill plate and that is always pressure treated.  
All pressure treated wood that is cut or drilled MUST have a field treatment or end cut application in order to meet building code (including sill plate in a home - see IRC 2016 and AWPA Standard M4). 

It is also  useful to treat pressure treated wood as the heartwood is not treated properly by pressure treatment (especially refractory species such as Douglas fir, and the transition wood of pine decking is often the first to rot out and will greatly benefit from a treatment with Boracare with Moldcare at 5 years (see Lloyd et al., 2013).

Posts, piles and poles also have the heartwood issue and can be treated but this is often best done with Jecta.

Some of our customers have used this method, but it does not stay in the wood as long as the turf mark blue will and the color is not as bold.  But it is an option although you do need quite a bit of food coloring from what our customers have said.

You can use Bora-Care for this application and it will protect this log against any future damage.  However, it is meant only for raw wood, and although there are cracks in the log if you sanded off the stain somehow you would get much better coverage and therefore better protection.  Since it is outside, you should seal the log after applying Bora-Care.  This will allow the product to last longer outside.  If an exterior piece of wood is exposed to weather over the years, water can force the Bora-Care out if it is not properly sealed.

Bora-Care can only be used on wood that has not been painted, stained or sealed. We are unfamiliar with the diesel/motor oil treatment but we will assume that the oils have penetrated into the wood a bit and Boracare can most likely not be used on the wood. Unfortunately, Bora-Care is the only product that can penetrate into wood and provide long term protection against termites and other wood destroying pests.

When applied according to the product label, Bora-Care will penetrate into unfinished (unpainted, unstained) wood and will last for the life of the wood.

Yes, you can use Boracare on wood that has been stripped. After the Boracare has dried for a couple of days it will be ready to be repainted.

Boracare MUST be diluted using hot water. As you noticed, cold water will not allow the Boracare to dilute with the water and you will just wind up with a clogged sprayer. You should dilute the Boracare with hot water in a bucket and then add the dilution to your sprayer to avoid clogging. (Never mix Boracare directly in your sprayer)

When treating a crawl space you should treat 1:1 boracare to water, and you can expect to get about 500 square feet of coverage per gallon of Bora-Care concentrate.  This is the estimate from the manufacturer.

Bora-Care will penetrate some into the lower portions below the poured concrete, but it all depends on how deep the beams go. Of course any penetration into the part of the wood that is underground is of course better than not treating the wood at all.  You can ensure the product spreads deeper into the wood if you drill some small injection holes at a downward angle into the center of the wood from the exposed part at the concrete level down into the center of the wood below the concrete level.

Bora-Care would be the best product to use for the termites and the dry rot.  Bora-Care, as well as Timbor which is made from the same company, can only be applied to raw wood.  It can not be applied to any wood that is painted, stained, or sealed.  You do not have to remove the wood, but you would need to sand the finish off of the side you are going to re-treat.  Bora-Care is better than Timbor because it dries clear whereas Timbor leaves a white residue.  Also, Bora-Care penetrates into the wood deeper ensuring you get to all of the termites and insects in the wood.  Termidor will not penetrate through wood at all, so Bora-Care is the preferred method for treating drywood termites.

What you are describing does sound like powder post beetles. You can get rid of them by using a product such as Boracare but this will require you to strip the piece of furniture to get rid of any paint, stain or finish (Boracare will not work on finished wood). Boracare is the only insecticide that can penetrate into the wood to kill the immature beetles before they chew their way out of the wood and damage the furniture. If it is just one piece of furniture that is infested and you do not want to strip off the finish you can also contact local furniture finishers or pest control operators who may offer a heat chamber. Heating the sideboard up to over 140 degrees for several hours will any pest that is inside.

Bora-Care can be applied to any raw wood that is not painted, stained or sealed.  It will only prevent termites from entering the wood that it is applied to.  Most of the time termites would have to eat through the sub-floor to get into the hardwood floors above, but there is no 100% guarantee that the termites will enter this way.  Treating the sub-floor would only ensure the termites do not get into the sub-floor.  If you want the hardwood floors protected as well, you should treat those also as long as they are unfinished.  Bora-Care dries on clear and is used for this purpose all of the time, so it is no problem to stain and seal the wood after Bora-Care has been applied.

One gallon of Bora-Care will treat approximately 100 lineal feet of 2 x 4 stud wall. This includes sill plate and header. For other dimensional lumber, logs, or siding and plywood, please see the product label or the supplemental tech bulletin. Typically, one gallon of concentrate Bora-Care will treat 800 square feet of a 2x4 stud wall, and 500 square feet of a crawl space or attic.

Actually the 5:1 Boracare treatment is only if you wanting to prevent against drywood termites and powder post beetles.  If you live in an area that has subterranean termites which you probably do since subs are much more common than drywood termites and powder post beetles, you should use a 1:1 treatment for treatment of existing termites and for prevention of subterranean termites.  We always recommend a 1:1 treatment because then you have the highest level of protection no matter what you are dealing with or what is in your area.  Also, if there is something active in the wood that you don't know about, the 1:1 treatment will take care of it. Most people apply using a sprayer but it is completely up to you.  Typically you only have to wait about 4 hours before mounting the wood you treated. It does dry quickly most of the time.