In every corner of every continent, with the exception of perhaps Antarctica, if you are building with wood you need to think about termites.
The modern mainstay of protecting your home from termites has for generations been chemical treatments of the soil and building. If you are dreaming of a truly green house like I was, then using toxic stuff to solve the problem is not an option!
There are some encouraging low toxicity and non-toxic solutions emerging built around increased understanding of the biology and behavior of termites.
When I was building my non-toxic home I focused primarily on the physical barrier approach because, based on my geography, I only had to be concerned about subterranean termites.
It turns out that grains of sand of a specific size and shape are extremely irritating to the termites in my location. If they head toward the sand bed, grains cut the termites’ fragile skin and they simply turn around … and walk away from the building!
My house was designed with a slab on grade foundation, so my strategy was to put 4” of graded sand under the entire footprint of my home.
Subterranean termites don’t like the open air – it dries them out. So if they must move from underground they build tubes – tiny little mud structures, to move through. So, on my home, between the foundation and the sill plate, I also added a continuous metal shield around the entire perimeter. With regular inspections it is a very simple task to see if any little mud tubes are being built on this metal barrier.
When I decided to try the graded-sand method for termite resistance, the idea was still very experimental. In the ten years that I have lived in my house, I have not once seen a single mud tube being built on the metal barrier, yet a tree stump at the back of my yard is clearly being broken down by termites. So I suppose in my situation one might say they are actually working for me productively as tiny ‘composters’ right where they belong!
Epilogue
In the ten years since pouring my foundation, there have been some advances in technology that I would likely include if I was doing it again today.
From the land down under, where termites grow the size of small dogs, comes a product called Termimesh, and now that there is a US supplier, it would be worth comparing cost and ease of installation to that of my graded sand solution.
I would also probably treat the framing with borax as a backup plan.
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