We are building a new home and if it would be helpful, I would like to treat it with boric acid or borax before the walls are finished. Is putting it in the walls before sealing helpful? toxic to anyone? what about around the foundation before backfilling? How would if be applied, how much, and where do I get it? Thank you!!!

-- Amy DiFiore (kimico@aol.com), May 26, 2000

Answers

Twenty mule team borax from your local grocery store kills any insect that walks in it or drinks it. Ive used it a number of times and it works quite well.

Oddly enough, Ive given the thought of building some into the walls quite a bit of thought. At first I thought it would be a good idea too but now Im not so sure. I noticed that the borax in my refrigerator drip tray builds full of borax crystals when the pan dries out (I keep some in there because often times new immigrants to your home are thirsty and it keeps them from setting up a colony). If the borax in your walls met with condensation and crystallized then you would have poison pellets in your walls anywhere that the moisture might build up that might someday poison a child inside your house or if you are doing renovations outside it could kill a chicken or something. I would also have concerns that the moist borax, an acid, might damage the materials used in the building of your home (which ones would be dependant on where the vapor barrier goes in your part of the country).

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), May 26, 2000.

A man named Howard Garrett does an organic gardening show on WBAP radio out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. He often gives directions for putting boric acid in the walls of new construction. Try sending him an email and asking him for help with this problem. I believe the website is www.wbap.com. I don't know Mr. Garrett, but we are both from the same home town.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 26, 2000.

I read an article YEARS ago that had Dr. Joyce Brothers in it and she had said that she and her husband had built a house and mixed Boric Acid in with the insulation and had it blown in and that they never had another bug in their house. How much is the question....

-- Louise Whitley (whitley@terraworld.net), May 26, 2000.