Do I have termites on board?

[scevrog]

I've recently took possession of a 1986 Catalina 30. I've been cleaning it down.
Behind the dinette seat cover near the top of the storage area there is a perfectly shaped square hole. It looks like it was manufactured that way because behind the settee on the opposite side there is the similar square hole. In one if the holes it looks like a small termite mound. I threw it out. I don't see any termites around or any obvious signs of damage. Is there anyway to verify if termites are somewhere on board?

[Steve Bean]

I would suggest looking around for little piles of droppings, called frass, in places where they would fall when pushed out of the termite galleries. They look like tiny pellets of wood. If you find some, clean them up and look again after a day or two. Look above the pile to find the hole they were dumped out of.

[Butler]

Scevrog,
Keep an eye out just beneath the hole, maybe put down a sheet o white paper. If there are termites present you will find frass, tiny hard pellets expelled from the site where they live and eat. With a very new infestation you can often stop them with localized spray... get the can that has the little WD40 like straw and spray it into the hole.
Where do you live btw as dry termites, the ones most commonly infecting boats have a warm weather range. If it's been going on for awhile you wtll have to have the boat tented and you will have to check for possible structural damage... particularly the deck, or if you have one the mast compression beam or post.

[CaptTom]

Could it be wasps? Their nests are usually more of a grey color, and not so much a mound as a clump. Just a thought.

[JPA Cate]

Any exterminator company should be able to identify the stuff, tell you what it is, and how to get rid of the beasties.

[Cheechako]

Also, There little small "bees" in the south that make more of a mud style nest in small holes.. not big nests. Could be those. The plugged all my tank vents in 3 months in florida.....

[zeehag]

some of those little small bees are huge things that bore into wood--i have seen a picnic table eaten by these in one day---is quite interesting, a slong as they remain away from my boat.

[Suijin]

Are you sure it's not just a mound of sawdust that got wet and then solidified? It's not unusual on an older boat to find little piles of sawdust that fell down from a hole drilled or whatever.

I think termites arriving on a fiberglass boat would be beyond unusual, given their lifecycle (larvae burrowing underground to the nearest source of food/wood), but I'm no expert.

[Cheechako]

My trawler in Florida had some kind of old wood burrowing damage... just a small amount in the floor beams... but obvious a bug that did it.... long gone when I got the boat.

[SkiprJohn]

Termites are a pretty common occurance on older ply cabin/deck boats with fiberglass hulls here in Hawaii. They do not have mud nests but tunnel in the wood. The droppings (frass) are very consistent and very round all the same color and will be easily rolled under your finger. They leave a small hole finish nail sized that is sometimes plugged with a mud filler. There are ants and other insects that leave droppings but not consistently round or of the same color. A mud dauber or wasp can leave a paper or mud type nest. Carpenter bees are like bumble bees and make a little finger sized hole in wood. They can devastate ply and other dry wood pretty quickly. The females can sting but only if provoked.

Good luck in sorting it out.

[rigormortis]

I have an old Passport 40 with a lot of nice wood inboard. (Steel boat). Thought I had termites, although coming from Canada I'd no idea what their feces looked like or vomit or whatever it is. I cleaned up the little messes, but they reappeared within days. Turned out it was a spice bottle of oregano or some such fine spice that had fallen to the cabin sole without lid and was rolling around in its merry way. So, no termites, and after 7 months on the hard in the Philippines (not living aboard) having the interior redone with all manner of solvents and abusive chemicals my cocka roaches are history. For now.
Pete

[zeehag]

my ex husbands chris craft had termites behind some cabinetry----fiberglass boat with wood stringers--yes that can happen.
friends westsail 32 had termites under the sprit--- wood sprit. yes fg boats can have termites--i have found evidence of them on this boats coach house--which is gassed over wood. the hull is solid fg.

[minaret]

The pics I put on this thread are pretty badly out of focus, but they may give you an idea of what termite frass and termite larvae look like. As well as scaring the hell out of you!



http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...d-61592-2.html

[endoftheroad]

I had my boat tented, it cost $950, they can do it at a dock or on the hard, it doesn't matter much.
If you have termites it isn't a forever problem, the problem can be 100% eradicated with fumigation/tenting.
The only real threat is the possible structural damage already done by the bugs should they exist in your boat but even that can be repaired.
So it is what it is but it isn't the end of the world.

[ericoh88]

Hi

Termites are common here in warm weather. They migrate at night and shed their wings at a new location. Usually their presence bring a musty smell. You can hear them chirping the wood. Best way to kill them is not to disturb the worker termites. The pest control people will bait them with cynide which will be brought to the queen termite. When one dies, the others will eat them and dies. Hopefully the colony is wiped out.

Well at least that is what my friend Matt told me on how he got rid of termites in his boat.

I hope you catch the bugger before they take down all the soft wood, if termites exist in your boat.

Eric