Treatment varies with the type of timber pests. The treatment A specification is the basic treatment against the majority of insect pests. Please note the exceptions and modifications.
Treatment A. Surface Treatment with (Organic Solvent or 'micro-emulsion') Insecticidal Fluid (S.T.I.F.)
All accessible timbers (i.e. not those hidden by being buried in masonry, etc) should be exposed by the removal of floorboards at suitable intervals, or other coverings where this is deemed necessary, and must be dusted down (if needed) sufficient to allow fluid penetration and treated by the application of an organic solvent borne or 'micro-emulsion' waterborne insecticidal fluid at the manufacturer's recommended concentration and under the recommended condtions. All flooring boards or other timbers must be re-laid, or renewed where structurally unsound. Any wiring, junction boxes, water tanks, insulated piping etc, must be protected prior to and during the course of treatment.
Where treatment is extended to joinery timbers, the specific details of removal or treatment as individually specified in the report shall be followed.
This Treatment A is suitable for all the common wood-boring insects (except the Wood Boring Weevil) together with suitable modifications, as described below, as applicable to where the following insects are found:
- The House longhorn beetle will, in addition, require supplementary works involving the removal of all defective sapwood (the outer part of the original tree), together with supplementary strengthening of these timbers to comply with any strengthening requirement. Treatment of existing timbers and cut ends of new pressure-treated (e.g.Tanalith) timbers must be carried out.
- The Deathwatch beetle treatment in addition to surface treatment might require selective drilling of large dimension timbers to apply the fluid directly to the site of the attack, the use of preservative pastes and may include or alternatively may only be controlled by several successive annual smoke canister applications of insecticide during the `flight season'.