One of our projects for the Christmas vacation was to take out the old wooden laundry/storage room we had built on to our house a few years ago and put it in a new concrete one. Our main reason for this was that we were pretty sure the wood was infested with termites. You can see from the pictures that we were right. So a couple days ago Joyce and I, mostly Joyce, tore out the old wood, including shelves, frames and everything wooden. We had to get them out completely before they got inside our house. You can see the devastating job they do from the pictures.
This is (or was) a pair of wooden-handled garden shears that we had stored on the shelves for a couple years. The metal was a little rusted but still fine, but the handles are completely gone. Most of the wood in the entire structure just crumbled to dust when we touched it. Joyce built a very hot fire and burned all of it to make sure we got all the termites. You can see why nobody builds wooden houses out here. We will block in the structure this coming week and use metal or plastic shelves in it.
1 comment:
Ugh. Those bugs! Look at that destruction these pests can cause us. As far as I know, there are three species of termites in Guam – Drywood, Subterranean and Formosan. Among the three, the Subterranean is the most common. They’re the ones that build those mud walls you see on walls and trees, and I believe they’re also the ones that got into your stuff.
Bridgette Adair
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