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How To Kill Termites?

Can I kill termites with natural gas?

  • I know it sounds dangerous. But I have a small closet outside the main house and I have termites in one corner inside. Very hard to get up into that tight area. I could easily flood the air with natural gas from the house without any risk of spark or flame and keep it sealed for a couple days. Wondered if anyone has any thoughts on that. Again, not worried about the fire hazard, Even if it caught, it would not put anyone at risk. Would natural gas kill the buggers and how concentrated do you think.

  • Answer:

    It isn't a bad idea for a killing method (except for the obvious explosion hazard) but it probably won't work at all. Termites live in enclosed spaces and get by on very little oxygen. The amount of gas you could get into the wood probably won't displace enough oxygen to begin killing them in your time frame. Still . . . 1 First up, make sure that they are drywood termites and not subterraneans as the latter will just head for the soil until you give up. 2 There are aerosol termiticide cans with long hoses that can inject fairly benign poisons into the wood and kill all termites that contact it. Term-Out is the oldest. 3 Some have suggested injecting kerosene. Don't. It smells horrible for years. You might try natural turpentine or d-limonene (from citrus peel) or a mix of both. These essentially do horrible damage to the insect skins before evaporating away. You'd need to flood the wood cavities and the fire hazard would be quite high. It would smell strongly for some days and would need to be well vented. Personally, I'd rather you engaged a professional to inspect it and give you personal advice. Remember it is highly unlikely that these are the only termites in the house.

Jake O'Malley at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Some city workers had the same idea (after drinking their lunch). They had rats in the sewer system. They thought that filling the pipes with natural gas would kill the rats. It did. When it exploded. If you're absolutely sure that you can keep the gas contained, without any possible source of ignition, you might want to think again. At the very least, record it on video. It would be very interesting to watch. You might even make some money on AFV.

Bruce A

i wouldn't do it. pesticides come with special nozzles that get into cracks and crevices. you couldn't effectively administer the gas. not worth it. don't do it. do it right.

imlyn

I would suggest a pesticide. It's not the flooding the area with natural gas that makes it so dangerous; it is the part you mentioned about keeping it sealed. BOOM!!!

Mike

Yes, but only the surfaced ones. That would be like trying to kill an ant bed by stepping on them as they came out of the bed, ya kill the ones that come out but the 100 bazillion that are down deep in the bed there will be no effect = waste of time and intellectual resources. Gonna contain the natural gas without worry of explosion? Ever hear of static electricity? And the arc established by turning on the light switch? Here’s a better solution, jack-up the external unattached closet two feet in the air and keep it raised off the ground. Place a large rock over their entry and listen for them to starve to death since you have moved their food source two feet in the air out of their reach.

Danny

Natural gas will not gas you or any living thing. What it will do is to suffocate you. That is the difference between natural gas and the old coal gas. It will displace all the air in a room and sufocate you.

nosdda

You can buy Insect Bombs,dont use Gas,you could take your house off the map !

SIR ROY. .K.G

Of course, go ahead, this is a great idea. Don't worry anything about any old fire hazard. Nothing will happen because of your brilliance. I'll check it out later on the Darwin list.

Tomcat

Dont even think about GAS, I dont want to think about you flying over my house some day!!! Use a spray bomb!! We would like to have you on Q and A again!! Know what i MEAN???

biff

the smell wouldn't kill them. Dont you have something less volatile? Kero or lighter fluid.

Don S

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