Drywood Termite Laboratory Test Method

 

This method provides for the laboratory evaluation of treated or untreated cellulosic material for its resistance to drywood termites. As described below, the test arrays provide a choice test procedure which may be purely on the test material, or a mixed series of treated and/or untreated materials to provide multiple choices.  This test should be considered as a screening test for treated material and further evaluation by field methods is required. Each replicate array contains alternating test samples and untreated control samples, held together with fine stainless steel wire and closed at the ends with a fine stainless steel mesh.

The drywood termites are introduced into the middle hole in the array and are exposed for 90 days under dark conditions. Care is required that the drywood termites in each array are obtain from the same colony. This procedure is useful for determining the toxicity of materials to drywood termites, especially in determining the threshold concentrations necessary for toxicity, and whether materials are sufficiently repellent to prevent termite feeding.

A published reference to this methodology can be found in the following article:Feeding responses of the western dry-wood termite Incisitermes minor (Hagen) (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) against ten commercial timbers. Yuliati Indrayani, Tsuyoshi Yoshimura, Yoshiyuki Yanase and Yuji Imamura. 2007. J Wood Sci, 53:239–248 (The Japan Wood Research Society).

 


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