insect prevention

[trogo]

Hola todas

Great site and mucho info to boot well done. For what its worth I have just constructed some fairly large pergolas from recovered house beams. Obviously there was a fair amount of insect munching going on in the beams but all has stopped after a good coating of used engine oil. I use car oil as used oil from tractors is a tad on the pungent side. I stripped the beams back using my angle grinder and this let the oil penetrate and left a decent water/insect proof finish.

trog

[Julie]

Hola Trog

Sounds ok too me

[10RDan]

Any suggestions re. "munching" that I can hear going on now. At night I can hear it in a beam, it can best be descibed as like hearing a slow drip into a bucket. The beam is easily got to and was wondering if there is anything I can spray / treat it with.
Thanks

[Julie]

Why not used the old oil same as trogo the first poster, it appears to have worked for him

[trogo]

Hola
I have used old engine oil on all the outside pergola beams and the finish looks good and the oil smell has now gone so I suppose you could use it on interior beams. Personally I brought over some large cans of Wickes insect liquid in the car and have used that on all my exposed interior beams. I then seal with a heavy coat of mat varnish. There is a Spanish equivalent from places like Brico Depot or even your local feretera but i couldn't tell you the name of it. Remember to drill into the beams so the liquid can get all the way inside.

Trog