Treating for termites and bugs! Boracare, a must do before closing up your new home  

Doing the same thing 😁

I'm sure you thought of this, but when I put down my wood and tile flooring, leaving the expansion space along the walls, I squirted boric acid in all those spaces before installing the baseboards. No bugs, thank you very much. Love the way way you think and plan.

Hey there! I wanted to just let you know something I just discovered before applying this to my own home. Like you, I have built my own home and was about to apply the boracare with mold care after watching Matt Risinger’s video suggesting it. I just wanted to let you know: the Bora-Care treatment alone can be used around all materials including PVC, Pex, metals, etc. However, the Bora-Care with Mold-Care cannot be sprayed on anything other than cellulose based materials(wood)- it is corrosive and over time will eat away at any wires, plumbing, iron pipe, ductwork etc. If you were to apply Bora-Care with the Mold-Care, it would need to be done before any systems were installed. It has this information on the labels of both products and the producer Nisus will tell you the same thing if you call in, but like you probably did as well- I trusted Matt’s professional opinion. I don’t know if there is anything to do after walls are up- but I just felt the need to tell you in case you ever have an issue in the future- it might help trouble shoot a leaky pipe or failed wiring. I left a comment on Matt’s video in hopes that he would revise his video so others don’t make the same mistake.

Nora are is a great product for treating for termites, Very effective product.

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I would have expected no less, you are doing it right the first time.

Good education Andrew Thanks!! 🇨🇦

Great job sealing up the house

Good stuff. I plan on using the same stuff for my basement rim/band joist before applying a spray foam application.

that is such a good idea to put boric acid down in the relief cuts I would have never thought about it but you know Critters come in from anywhere they can

you could also lay down a good line of diatomaceous earth along the bottoms of your headers and the inside of the outerwall sheeting. It will kill cockroaches, spiders, sand fleas, etc. AND its cheap!

I have to use non toxic stuff because we have Parrots that live in our house. They are pretty sensitive to any pesticides and other irritants to their respiratory system. . Always good to know about non toxic stuff. We do use DE food grade powder outside the exterior doors and around outside of the house. I wont use fungicides around our yard. I know many peiple who spray their roses with fungicide and then had their small dogs start having seizures.

Florida is a bug haven with the heat and humidity. You are doing an awesome job of protecting your house from pests. Thanks for this information. Take care.

Once again above and beyond! Making the extra effort now is awesome. I really doubt if the day to day contractor does this.

Sikaflex® Self-Leveling Sealant. And a powered caulk gun.

Andrew you just keep on Amazing me. I've seen a few subcontractors build homes in Upstate New York and some expensive ones at that. None have ever given the amount of care that you've put into your home in building a home, that i've seen. I'm not saying that all contractors don't go all out like you do. The love and care and consideration that you put into making your home"your home" it's just amazing. A wealth of knowledge went into your making of these videos and it surely shows. Ps. I'm glad to see that you're slowly reducing the Lowe's advertisement on the side of your house. Lowe's should pay you for the advertisement time for you being a gem on RU-vid. Well that's my 50 cents and God bless!

Another thing I learned for ants, and you can even use simple borax like you would use on your laundry because it’s got boric acid in it, you can mix some of that with sugar and cook it on your stove to make a syrup, you had 2 cups of sugar and half a cup of water and One and a half to 2 tablespoons a borax. The kind you buy as a clothes detergent will still kill the ants it’s just an unrefined version a boric acid but it’s still deadly. You just throw it in a pan and cook it together and make a syrup and then you drip blobs of it around. It’s not going to hurt pets unless your pets are bugs. You can also just mix it in sugar water and let it sit for a few hours and sort of dissolve and then you can dip a cotton ball in there and throw it around but I’ve always made the syrup. I just use it around the house. You don’t wanna kill all the ants in the area because if you do then you’re probably going to get overrun with fire ants. If you have fire ants you want to treat just their colony but you don’t want to kill everything in the yard because that gives the fire ants a huge advantage and in that case the other answer your friends because they compete with them. At the last two places I lived we had those little tiny sugar ants they just kind of walk around randomly they don’t usually travel in a line like other aunts will and they’ll even just come in for water. That was the only way I could get rid of them I bought ant granules and everything else and nothing worked, but I would make up a batch of the syrup and drop blobs around the house in planters and stuff where the ants can get to it and usually does a pretty good job. You can also just mix borax and peanut butter or honey or syrup and put that around. With something like that you probably want to put it in a little container or bowl and punch some holes in it that only the ants and bugs can get in otherwise something else is going to try to eat it. I’d be very careful with the honey because bees are very attracted to honey and will eat it if you just spill honey or have it sitting out around your house and it would probably kill them as well. But it works pretty good and I’ve successfully gotten rid of ants that I couldn’t get rid of with store-bought ant powders and granules. A lot of exterminators will take boric acid and put it in one of those little squeeze balls like you would use to put hot water in your ears or something like that and just kind of shake it up in the blow it around windowsills and stuff like that just to get a light dusting of the boric acid on there and that’s good to keep Beatles and ladybugs and stuff like that under control. Ladybugs are actually very strong and will literally push their way under your window rubber seals and get in. Of course then you have white powder sitting on things but if you’re having some sort of ladybug infestation or something like that you can just dust everything with the boric acid powder and it’s not gonna hurt dogs or birds or squirrels or humans. In fact that’s what they use to make a wash, distilled water and boric acid to make a wash, And it’s used to treat infections, it’s got natural antifungal anti-bacteria properties and it’s used in a lot of body powders and creams, it’s also used to treat yeast infections and other things medically. It’s basically boron which is a nutrient or mineral and some people actually take boron supplements I believe. But it’s definitely safe unless you’re a bug. For wasps though you want to put a couple of cups of blue Dawn dish washer liquid in with about a gallon of water. It’s way cheaper than that wasp spray and it works every bit as good and you can put it in a more powerful sprayer that can get up to the edges of your roof and you can use a lot of it because it’s cheap. I use that all the time and it works great on wasps. It doesn’t do anything for those carpenter bees but it might for other bugs, in theory it will kind of dry up there exoskeletons and clog the little pores that they breathe through I believe, however it works though it works really well for wasps and I remember you’re not real fond of wasps yourself. Lol

Termites also require a high humidity to survive as water will evaporate through their soft shells. The mud tubes they build up walls and stone are to get to the wood and the dark. While it would be uncomfortable and impractical for us to dehumidify a residence continually, definitely keeping the humidity out in your environment will be a massive deterrent. With bugs as in security you need multiple layers. The tight house and the boric acid with regular outside treatments will get the job done. Looking good Andrew. Enjoying the series.

Good planning and investment Andrew. Appreciate the information! Take a look at Suspend SC for outside also. Use it myself and does a great job. Van even use it indoors, pet safe when dry for Bandit!

Pretty cool we do this alot hints what I do for a living and tim bor is a borate treatment and is not corrosive has a substitute in it that will not cause metals to rust but bora care can be corrosive to metals and some pvc pipes if used with the mold stopper added just a tip to remember

Very good video!

It isn't sodium chloride salt. boric acid doesn't typically cause corrosion like sodium chloride does.

That is a good investment to protect your house especially at this stage you are at. That's funny how already the ant wants to be a problem. It's better to do it now then later especially with the termites. Good video buddy. You take it easy.

I bought a battery backpack sprayer from Ryobi to spray for mosquitoes once a week and I am in love with it.

I have used Termidor SC for termites around here, along with a termite company. I also use IIRC Cypher? Demon for other pest. I also watch Matt’s videos. Will be building my super insulated, forever home in 3-4 years. Keep up the good videos.

Boric acid has another feature: it is a fire retardant. And kills bugs. It anhilates roaches. It's very cheap in it's bulk form, lasts forever, and it is harmless to people and pets. For humans, a boric acid solution is used as an eyewash. That is how safe it is. Great stuff. Truly underappreciated just how amazing it is.

Andrew what did you treat with under the slab?

Hi Andrew and family. Greetings from Jamaica 🇯🇲🇯🇲

Will you use this on your wood posts outside? I have some Douglas fir post and I’m curious if it would be worth spraying them also.

Flooring - Have you thought about Acid Stained Concrete? I have a full Basement in Georgia (~200sqft). I did the Acid Stain myself for about $800.. We then use area rugs where needed. We love the results and get many compliments.

I have been using boric acid for years. For tight spots I use a fat straw to get in tight places.

Hi, Andrew! Your home is going to be as solid and strong as an Army tank. Thanks for the excellent content. See you Sunday.

I just had another thing to think about. When you were talking about the cuts in the concrete, does the foam underneath the wall fill that gap? I justWondering if there was a nice little tunnel cut through that concrete for bugs to get in, that would probably be worth putting some caulking in at least or you could use some superglue and baking soda which basically becomes plastic. They also sell a compound that comes like Coke that’s made for pudding under those boards and it’s supposed to say soft for a long time, like decades and it’s made to keep bugs out but I guess it stays semi soft that way it can expand and move as your wood dries out in your house settles over the years but I think just about anything that would plug that hole if there is one would be beneficial to keep ants out. 🤔

I would love to see you get a little intro for the beginning of your videos, maybe you could get in contact with Daniel Arms and see if he could help you. Someone helped him with his product launch with a nice little video. Still love your channel either way. God bless

Yay! Get rid of all the bugs. Lol. Wasps as well

You are devious when it comes to insect control. I love it! Any tips for rodent control?

Thorough as ever:)))

I’m guessing u treated the ground before it slab was laid.

In Kentucky we pretreat under the slab for termites

Was wondering if there was something that needed to be done about those relief cuts, specifically where they meat the exterior walls. Thought maybe some sort of epoxy filler would be used to full the cuts, not just for bugs, but also if ants can get through, so can air.

Salt is not the problem, its salty water, thats a problem. As your having it foamed, itl be dry and having dry salt on galvanized metal is not an issue. IMO.

fill the cracks with diatomaceous earth. There are many different forms of this stuff. Its safe for anything except insects and arthropods. Its basically death to them. If they try to go over or through it, it scratches their exo skeletons open and then it absorbs the moisture in their bodies, killing them. You might have to do some research on which particular diatomaceous earth to use, but it might be worth mixing quite a bit of it into the ground surrounding your house, to create a significant density of it, several feed down for two or three feet out. Insects and arthropods will die trying to dig through it.

They are OCD ants. They don't like a dirty highway 😜

Glad your seeking an ounce of prevention with boric acid, but I was wondering if you had anything that can grow hair. Maybe I should try some of that boric acid on my head....lol get er done....God Bless

bugs are going to hate your place!

No spiders in you home:) tfs:)

and fire ants

You definitely went above and beyond with the treatment which is great.....We normally treat the soil when pad is prepped and ready for concrete especially around plumbing footers and wood poles if barn with a termiticide (termidor, cyper tc, bifen etc.) Best to treat soil and interior walls with a borate some builders or homeowners want one or the other sometimes both.....great video

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