After having my home fumigated my son has repaired the termite damage in the attic. Question is: Any harm in leaving the old wood members there, just laying around? Since the house was fumigated I assume any eggs contained in that old wood are dead, and that there is no hazard to leaving the replaced boards behind. Access is very difficult, via a tall ladder, and considerable work would be involved in cleaning up the area. Therefore I'd prefer just to leave the old boards behind.
Comments?
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Should be no problem. Termites don't nest in the wood, they just feed on it. If you prevent the moisture or other problems that led to the infestation, there should be no further infestation.
Fumigation doesn't kill eggs.
If you ever want to sell the place, a pile of termite-damaged wood in the attic may cause potential buyers heartburn. Other than that, no real downside.
If you have a roofing job coming up in the next few years, make a note to pop off a bit of decking and clean out the mess.
The eggs aren't in the wood, anyway.
The wood would be good fuel for a fire. TB
That isn't so .. dry wood termites nest above ground and can infest anything made of cellulose, including paper and furniture. I wouldn't leave the debris, but dwt chambers aren't as long as subt. so the poison probably got them all.
Actually, I suppose there could be drywood termites for which the nests are in the wood. They're a real problem to get rid of permanently and known to have done so...
For a rather discouraging read, try
In article , snipped-for-privacy@swko.dot.net says... :) Should be no problem. Termites don't nest in the wood, they just feed :) on it. If you prevent the moisture or other problems that led to the :) infestation, there should be no further infestation. :) :) He was dealing with dry woods that would be nesting in the wood itself.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@post.harvard.edu says... :) :) After having my home fumigated my son has repaired the :) termite damage in the attic. Question is: Any harm in :) leaving the old wood members there, just laying around? :) Since the house was fumigated I assume any eggs contained in :) that old wood are dead, and that there is no hazard to :) leaving the replaced boards behind. Access is very :) difficult, via a tall ladder, and considerable work would be :) involved in cleaning up the area. Therefore I'd prefer just :) to leave the old boards behind. :) :) Comments? :) :) I'll ditto what Andy mentioned to you.
I see no reason to do it right, The next guy will get it.
Would be interesting to take a couple of the worst boards out and dig around in them - if you find any live termites, the rest of the boards should definitely be taken out of the house.
How hard can it be to remove wood debris from an attic that you certainly had access to to make the needed repairs? The new material got in didn't it? I bet you never cleaned up your room when you were a kid, did you?
Do the work. It's good for you.
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