I'm planning on building a 12' x 12' wood frame construction shed on a concrete slab. I live in South Louisiana where termites could be a problem. Is there anything I can do to prevent/ slow down the migration of termites into the building ?? I have read about a metal termite shield that goes under the bottom plate ?? Any good advice would be much appreciated. Ray
when i built my shed/garage in the back yard.. one week later the termites came and kept coming.. i forgot about having the ground flooded before i built.... the termite man came out and dug a trench around the concrete slab and flooded it with dursban(at the time) it was about 15 yrs. ago... one week later they came back.. he came back and did it again... and one month later he did it again.. i guess the $140 i paid him was not enough, or he was using too much water.. i went to home depot (at this time you could buy dursban(a chemical that kills termites) and bought two bottles of the stuff and put it in a sprayer and flooded the same area he did.. that lasted for about 15 yrs.. and they came back.. i sprayed again and in the past 2 yrs. did not see any termites at all.....
This is Turtle.
Like Jim said get you some Durban which comes in a bottle made by T-N-T bug killer company. They sell it everywhere in hardware stores and a 16 oz. bottle sells for about $10.00 and will make 6 gal. of termitie killer. Good stuff for it kills everything else including you if you get in your system.
Build your building but put down a sheet of the thickest plastic sheeting that you can find and have no splices or connection in it and have the form lined with the plastic sheeting. Then mix up a whole 16 oz. bottle of spray and only have it mixed in about 2 gal. of water and spray the forms before the plastic and then spray the top of the plastic with the other half of the Durban. Then pour your concrete over it and you will have this stuff coming out for years to come to kill anything that hits the edge of building. This includes roaches and all sorts of bugs. Now if you wanted to get wild here mix you up 2 -- 16 oz. bottles of the durban to spray it with. I know some people who have done this here in Oakdale, Louisiana on 2 houses and 1 shead and they have never been bothered with termites in 15 years. Now they could just be lucky too. Now on the houses they used 10 bottles to cover sheets of plastic. Every area where the water pipes came up through the concrete. they would flood that area real good.
I spray around my house and carport every year with Durban and termites have no chance here. I saw some looking at my place about 4 years ago by getting in a tree out back. I spraied the tree and my house and you could dig the dead termites out of the hollow tree by the hand fulls.
Now Durban is to be stop being sold to the public in the year 2004 or when supplys depleat. I'm quoting my bug man that sprays my house for roaches. I have 30 something bottles for the bad times to come when they stop letting it out to be sold. I sure wished they would still let the stuff call Arab still be sold. 4 ounces did a 2000 sq. foot home for termites. The stuff was just too good to let it still be manufactored.
TURTLE
I dont live near termites, but I believe that treated lumber is not affected by them. Why not just build the shed using treated lumber. Particularly near the ground. Treated lumber is not that much more in cost than standard lumber. Maybe 15 to 25% higher. Well worth the price in your case.
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