Termite Treatment

[3RU]

A mate has upgraded his late 30's timber house and, as he is going "up" has offered his entire lot of old redgum stumps to this redgum wood turner. "The lot (~2m3) for one pepper grinder". .... Sounds good to me !

I have turned a fair number of redgum pieces including fence posts and the like, but anyone know about pre war termite "poison" house stump treatment ??? He bought the place in the 70's and there have been a number of extensions over the years before and after, so who knows what we are dealing with.

Does this stuff soak into the timber, or sit close to the surface? No question about precautions, this is understood, but I am looking for some enlightened advice. How far into the timber?

If I resaw how much should I remove?

Easy to say but what am I dealing with here??

Maybe I should burn the lot in someone else's fireplace??

Any advice would be valued

Dave

[ian]

Dave
is red gum naturally termite resistant?
even if it is, it is possible (Probable?) that the stumps, or the soil in contact with the stumps, were at one time treated with one of the organochloride pesticides.

personally I'd send the old stumps to land fill

key words for your google search include: heptachlor, chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin

[RufflyRustic]

If the stumps are black, it might be creosite, which means I'd be sending them off to landfill too.

[3RU]

If the stumps are black, it might be creosite, which means I'd be sending them off to landfill too.

No not black at all, just look like redgum. I might add that a few have a white powder like tide mark around. But is that as a result of water??

In those days before "ant traps" they drizzled the bad stuff around the base.

Just too good to burn. Mind you they would burn very nicely - in someone else's fireplace.

Dave

[ian]

Dave

the white powder could be arsenic trioxide (aka arsenic) -- and no I don't know of a simple test

what probably no one knows is: were the stumps soaked in something before being placed in the ground
I expect most self respecting termites are capable of finding their way to centre of the part of the post that is in the ground -- which suggests to me that previous treatments might have involved standing the posts in a bucket of "stuff" for a couple of days before placing them in the ground

If the place was built in the 1930s and your mate bought the place in the 1970s, it's possible you've inherited some replacement stumps

[3RU]

Thanks Folks,

Not sounding too good from my point of view. Especially the "white powder" news. Its a real shame because there is some really nice fiddleback in there.

Maybe I could cut, discard the bottom and use/turn the top half above ground level?

Dave

[ian]

IMO if you have no way of testing for any nasties that might be present, it's not worth the risk

[jimbur]

As everyone says it's not worth the risk but the white powder could be salts drawn up and then dried - the sort of thing you see on walls without damp course.
A common treatment at the time was arsenic but usually 'blown' into runs.
Cheers,
Jim

[Stef]

No not black at all, just look like redgum. I might add that a few have a white powder like tide mark around. But is that as a result of water??

In those days before "ant traps" they drizzled the bad stuff around the base.

Just too good to burn. Mind you they would burn very nicely - in someone else's fireplace.

Dave

It sounds like a salts line to me but if your worried i would be happy to take them off your hands.

Cheers Stef.

[bonox]

any update on this?

I note that test kits are available

Arsenic Quick™ Wood Field Testing Kit | Industrial Test Systems, Inc.