Protecting buildings and construction materials against subterranean termites in Europe relies on combined physical and chemical approaches. Buildings can be protected by physical or physico-chemical barriers such as gravel aggregates, steel mesh or plastic films impregnated with insecticides. Wood and wood-based materials are traditionally protected by insecticides applied on the surface or deeply impregnated into wood. However, physical protective systems directly coated on wood have not been developed so far. In this work, different thermal spray-coatings were used as a new physical protection of wood against termites. The coatings were sprayed using a Master Jet flame spray gun. A first coat from pure copper was deposited on all wood samples. Then a top coat was sprayed on the copper coating using Flexicords. Three topcoats were studied: i) pure Al2O3, ii) 87% of Al2O3 with 13% TiO2, iii)75% of Al2O3, 23% of ZrO2 and 2% other. All coated samples were exposed to the attack of European subterranean termites according to EN 118. After 8 weeks of exposure, samples were assessed in comparison with uncoated Scots pine blocks used as controls. Results show that all treatment were effective against termites: at the end of the test, none of the samples was damaged and none of the termites survived. The hardness of these coatings probably explains that termites were not able to damage them.

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