Replies

1. 
   pantalones868 | Jun 18, 2022 02:00pm | #1

   Boracare is borax..think 20 mule team..and polyethylene glycol. I always think of it as pretty safe. Once it's absorbed into the wood its there it's not going to gas off. It's a seemingly permanent solution ( so to speak) for wood eating insect infestations,as in- I kill the termites but they just come back...boracare kills off the bugs and the ones that return as well. You just want them dead...a gas like vicane(sp) that is supposedly gone after a short time would maybe be a better choice. Or heat or micro waves... One problem with proprietary chemical formulas is while you may know the main ingredients you never know the adjunct additives that may be present.
   So, I doubt that on a dining surface with a finish over it it would be much of a health problem but I wouldn't personally use it where I prepare food. Since you have just added a mineral to the wood is there some danger that it would effect the finish.? I have no idea.
   As to other pestcides..poison is poison, you need to be specific. But you don't want to introduce live powderpost beetles into your home.

1. 
   user-1124261 | Jun 19, 2022 11:47am | #2

   Thanks for replying, your information is extremely helpful. Do you know what is recommended in terms of temperature and duration for kiln use to kill posthole beetles? Thanks!

2. 
   pantalones868 | Jun 19, 2022 02:13pm | #3

   No, beetles is tougher than termites and I've been in attics that had to be 120 degrees and the termites were having a block party. They use microwaves and have apparatus to do it ..call the orkin army or someone in your area.

3. 
   user-1118538293 | Jun 19, 2022 07:13pm | #4

   My state (WI) university has an entomologist on staff in the extension service who regularly helps members of the public with questions like this. Perhaps your state (assuming you are in the US) has something similar. It’s a wonderful service!

4. 
   DRBWWing | Jun 20, 2022 12:01pm | #5

   140° will kill the larva.

   pantaleone is correct there would be no danger to anyone. If boric acid and PEG are the ingredients, the only one I would give a thought to is the PEG. That is an organic compound that should degrade over time. Its antifreeze.

   Boracare and similar products kill the larva that hatch from the eggs the beetles lay on the wood.

   It needs to be done fairly soon after the lumber is sawn. Larva can emerge up to 4 years later.

   I've had personal experience with this. Built some replacement doors for a couple built ins, to find little holes about 2 years later. Found dead adult PPB's on the floor, I'm assuming b/c we have regular pest control in our house. The larva can't go through paint or finish, at least I hope so!

   The sawmill had a kiln and I assumed the poplar was kiln dried.

   Bad assumption!!

1. 
   john_c2 | Jun 22, 2022 05:47am | #8

   Years ago, lots of folks used PEG (polyethylene glycol) to stabilize green wood, to prevent it cracking while drying. I don't know if it's still used that way.

   PEG is also a laxative. It's the ingredient in those horrible preps they have you drink the night before a colonoscopy. Maybe that's why the beetles flee.

5. 
   pantalones868 | Jun 20, 2022 02:12pm | #6

   I had a friend that had an old colonial era log cabin , well not a cabin but an inn that had been in his family since forever. He decided to redo it as it had been abandoned for many years. I helped with a few things and we sanded and refinished the oak floors. Within a few days all across the floors thousands of little dust pyramids appeared from the beetles!

6. 
   rob_ss | Jun 22, 2022 03:55am | #7

   Unless you are planning to eat the table then anything currently available legally will be fine. High levels of arsenic or lead not so much.
   It might be possible to consume trace amounts of a treatment if you were actually eating off the table as opposed to using plates AND the table had no finish on it AND the preservative had been very thickly applied after sanding the top.
   Just apply a film finish and you'll be fine.

7. 
   pantalones868 | Jun 22, 2022 03:02pm | #9

   Rob ss, you must be a trusting soul.
   Last night when feeding my dog a dog treat I looked to see the ingredients and then pulled a box of cereal off the shelf and read the ingredients on that. Beast - wheat flour,rolled oats,vegetable oil, cheese. Man - whole grain oat flour,wheat starch, calcium carbonate, salt, trisodium phosphate,caramel color,zinc oxide,,thiamin mononitrate,reduced iron and it goes on and on.
   I think the op nailed in the beginning with boracare but then said "other pesticides" . As to whether these unknown chemicals have residual effects or gas off ,sealed or otherwise how can you know? I suspect that boracare is pretty safe but I can't really know for sure. I'm not a chemist,I don't have a spectro analyzer. In almost all of these products there can be "other" adjunct chemicals that are not always or required to be listed , this I guess, is to protect proprietary formulas. Coca Colas secret formula...
   Prefinished engineered flooring that gasses off formaldehyde, sulfuric acid leaking out of dry wall that wrecked peoples plumbing and electrical systems after Katrina but didn't matter because their houses were unlivable. Bayer has a flea collar out that's supposedly knocking off dogs left and right. The forever controversy about Round Up, also Bayer. They're hiding the fly ash from coal fired powerplants in All the concrete and concrete gasses off for decades ---that's also where the bad sheetrock came from. Then there's the ever popular " If after taking your itchy skin medication you find yourself standing on the wrong side of a bridge railing consult your physician! " This is a forever list. I personally am not convinced that just because something is offered for sale that someone was actually looking out for me before it hit the shelf.