In my research on straw bale construction, termites have not had much recognition or at least not much has been printed.

In the southern half of the United States these pests are a real problem to homeowners or owners of any building containing materials they will eat. Their appetite can stretch from wood to sheet rock.

When I lived in Wyoming we did not give termites much thought, although in some of the larger communities, such as Rawlins, Wyoming they were making problems.

I noticed in south central Missouri they are not given a lot of thought either, but they should be.

According to my International Building Codebook we live in a moderate to heavy infestation probability area. A lot of the old houses still around were built with oak, which leaves a bad taste in their little mouths, so they left them alone to a large degree.

But any self respecting termite loves the taste of the soft woods we are building with today.   Still, I see little determent built into these houses. It may be easier to depend on chemicals but it is not cheaper or safer. It makes no sense to saturate the ground with insecticide around the house and then drink the water drawn from the same ground.  Just another nail in our coffin.

I have heard said that there is no food value in straw therefore termites won’t bother. I don’t see anything delicious in a pine 2×4 but termites sure love them. I would not bet my straw bale house that termites won’t eat straw.

My advice is to take precautionary measures when building anything that contains plant fiber building materials such as wood or straw bales.

When building a straw bale house it is not hard to keep termites out of the walls.

Termites will not come out into the light and must seek water frequently.

If you are building on a basement or crawl space

• put a metal flashing on the concrete foundation wall extending over each side one to two inches separating the wood from the concrete work ,
• be sure to use petro based tar around sill bolts and a two inch, tarred lap, on the flashing joints.

Using treated lumber for sill plates doesn’t get it; I don’t care who says different. I recently helped take down an outside stairs and railing built with treated wood. One of the 4×4 posts, setting on a concrete block, was almost completely hollow. The termites had come up through a crack in the block into the end of the treated 4×4.

On slab structures

• first  measure in from the outside edge of the beadboard insulation and it’s protective cover the width of the straw bales you are using,
• next chalk a line and apply a good layer of petro based tar on the concrete  you have measured
• then cover that with 36 in, wide, 30# felt paper. Fold the paper over the outside edge about two inches, leaving the excess on the inside and remove when you are done plastering.

If you can improve this method, by all means do so. Nothing will be 100% fool proof, but this low cost, low labor approach  sure beats doing nothing. I will discuss part of this over at Straw Bale Construction in Missouri, our sister blog.

Thanks for reading and keep your bales dry, Richard