Bora-Care - Questions & Answers

Boracare is the best wood treatment product on the market. It can be used at a 5:1 ratio for preventative treatment and will last for the life of the wood. 

The interior wood pieces that are exposed will have to be stripped prior to the application if they are painted or stained. The manufacturer has told us that Boracare is not corrosive and it should not harm the interior of the fiberglass that touches the wood. For more information you may want to contact Nisus directly by calling 800-264-0870

Boracare would work great as a pre treatment for wood you are using. To pre treat the soil you are laying the foundation on, we recommend using Termidor SC. You want to dilute .8 fl oz Termidor per gallon water. Apply one gallon diluted solution per 10 sq feet.

No, you cannot save the diluted BORACARE solution. Once mixed, BORACARE should be used within 24 hours or discarded.

Boracare does need to be diluted depending on what you are intending to use the product for. For an active infestation of a wood destroying insect, you will use 1 gallon of hot water with 1 gallon of Boracare. The percentage of active ingredient is 23% in that dilution.

2:1 parts water to Boracare – 16% - foaming or misting application for termites or carpenter ants; hardwood floors for some wood-infesting beetles

3:1 parts water to Boracare – 13% - remedial control of Fungi and Algae on wood less than 4 inches thick

5:1 parts water to Boracare – 9% - most preventative or pre-construction treatments.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Yes, Boracare can be shipped to HI. For exact shipping costs, we would recommend calling and speaking to one of our representatives. The phone number is 866-581-7378. Our business hours are Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST. They will need to know the exact quantity you are ordering and your shipping zip code. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

For powder post beetles, we would recommend using Boracare. The wood you are applying this product to must be untreated, meaning no sealants. You will use 1 gallon of Boracare with 1 gallon of hot water. You can either spray the wood or paint it on. Once the product is dry, you can apply any type of sealants to the wood.

The regular Bora Care will not prevent mold growth. However, the Bora Care with Mold Care will kill and prevent future mold growth on a variety of surfaces including wood, cellulosic drywall (sheetrock), and concrete. You may paint surfaces after you have treated with Bora Care with Mold Care and allowed it to fully dry whichshould take about 72 hours.

We are not very familiar with the process of tenting a home and how it affects the powder post beetles, their larvae thats in the wood, and if it prevents at all or just kills the ones within it. This would be a question you would definitely want to consult with the company that did the treatment on to find out how their treatment was supposed to work for your home. Typically if a customer was not tenting their home and had powder post beetles somewhere within it, you would only treat the wood that has them currently in it with a product like Boracare. Boracare is a wood treatment product that will absorb all the way into the wood and will kill any insects that are currently infesting it as well as last for the life of the wood to protect it from any future wood destroying insects like powder post beetles and termites. Boracare must be applied to raw wood only though so you cannot apply it to any beams or wood that has been painted, stained or finished in any way as it will not soak into the wood. If the wood you need to treat has paint or some finish on it, you would either need to remove it by stripping it or sanding it and apply the Boracare to the raw wood before refinishing it, or use a product like Jecta which is for sealed wood and is drilled and injected into the wood. Even after applying a product like Boracare to all sides of the infested raw wood (ideal situation) you can often still see signs of activity of the powder post beetles for a few years after treatment. This is because the product works through ingestion so as the larvae emerge from the wood (which is whenever they are good and ready) they eat the wood on their way out and ingest it and die. No new adults will be able to leave them in any holes in the wood as again, once they ingest it they will die. Normally tenting is used when the whole home is so infested with Powder Post Beetles that treating with products like Boracare and Jecta would be unreasonable. Please review over our article on treating for Powder Post Beetles and let us know if you have any questions.

Boracare will treat for drywood termites. First, we want to make sure these are drywood termites. Most folks will have a PCO come out and make an ID no charge. Once this termite species has been identified we can make the best recommendation for you.

Bora-Care should be applied only on raw, natural wood with no finishes (stain, paint, sealant, varnish, etc). Bora-Care cannot penetrate into sealed or finished wood. After wood has been treated with Bora-Care, you can paint, stain or seal the wood with no problems. We recommend waiting at least 3 days before sealing (but not longer than 6 weeks). Outdoor wood should be sealed after application of the product.

Yes, you may stain wood that has been treated with BoraCare. You should allow areas treated with BoraCare to dry for 24-48 hours before touching or painting them. 

Boracare is labeled for the follwoing types of beetles, Old House Borers, Longhorn Beetles and Ambrosia Beetles, Anobiid and Lyctid Powderpost Beetles.  It is best to apply to the entire piece of wood and surrounding raw wood to treat current infestations and protect from future infestations.

Boracare can be applied only to raw wood. Any stain, paint, or seal would have to be completely stripped in order to treat the wood with Boracare. You may drill into the wood to spot treat with a ready-to-use formulation of Boracare called Jecta.

Bora-Care is a very safe product and it is considered a green product as well.  Typically, it takes about an hour for the surface of the wood to dry.  After application has dried completely, it should be perfectly fine for children and pets to re-enter the house. Please read the BoraCare product label for complete usage instructions.  Boracare does have to be applied to raw, untreated, unpainted wood.

As long as the top is sealed then you can safely apply Boracare to the underside if unsealed and it will penetrate through the wood.  It would be recommended to allow the butcher block to dry for 24-48 hours before using again. Any food contact surfaces treated with Boracare must have a sealant applied after the Boracare has dried.

No Bora-Care,  like any other borate product, cannot be used on trees or plants.  It is for cut lumber only.  Borates will kill any living plant, shrub, grass or tree.  Termites do not attack live, healthy trees.  If you have termites in a tree you would need to treat the nest directly by drilling holes into the dead parts of the tree where the colony is infested.  This can be done with something like Dominion 2L.  Most people are primarily concerned with protecting the big investment, their home, and Dominion or or Termidor would be the best product to use for that.  Termidor is the top product and can last 10 years in the soil, whereas Dominion will only last 5-7 years.  It is only labeled to be used adjacent to the structure, though.

Borcare can be applied to untreated wood only. 

No, Boracare should only be mixed with water and applied to raw wood.

Any untreated or unstained wood, including plywood, would benefit from an application of Boracare to help protect it from wood infesting pests, fungi and dry rot.  If you do have an active infestation of pests in the wood Boracare would be the best treatment for that as well before you stain. When treating wood that may be exposed to rainfall, be sure to apply a water sealant after the Boracare application has dried.