Performance of sintered glass screening as a potential physical barrier against subterranean termites in the laboratory and after 4 years of field test

IRG/WP 08-10646

J R J French, B M Ahmed (Shiday)

This paper describes the performance of sintered glass screenings as a potential physical barrier against the subterranean termites, Coptotermes acinaciformis and Mastotermes darwiniensis in the laboratory and after four years of field testing in active above-ground mound colonies of Coptotermes lacteus. The laboratory results suggest that sintered glass is a viable control option against Coptotermes species in Australia, particularly against the subterranean termites C. acinaciformis and C. lacteus. There was a marked difference between the C. acinaciformis and M. darwiniensis termites’ ability to tunnel the sintered glass physical barriers in the laboratory bioassays. After 8 weeks of laboratory bioassay, the result suggested that C. acinaciformis was not able to tunnel through the sintered glass physical barrier, while M. darwiniensis tunnelled through the barrier within less than 48 hours. These laboratory and field results indicated that the sintered glass physical barrier can protect structural timbers from attack and damage by subterranean termites.


Keywords: sintered glass screenings, termite physical barrier, Coptotermes acinaciformis, Coptotermes lacteus, Mastotermes darwiniensis, laboratory bioassay, field evaluation after 4 years

Conference: 08-05-25/29, Istanbul, Turkey


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