Palatability of subterranean termites coptotermes curvignathus holmgren treated pine wood (Pinus merkusii)

Abstract

Background and Objective: Baiting method can be used to evaluate subterranean termite presence, in which one of the most favorable wood species to termite that has been studied is pine wood. The high resin content in the pine wood reduce termite palatability. Thus, several treatments were employed to observe termite palatability to the treated pine wood. Materials and Methods: Samples of pine wood were treated with presto (0.4 bar, 100EC), boiled (100EC) and steamed (100EC). Each treatment was carried out for 5 h. Before being fed to the subterranean termites C. curvignathus, the wood sample was sanded to remove the resin that adheres to the surface of the sample test. The wood sample was fed to subterranean termites C. curvignathus based on SNI 7207: 2014. In this study the hardness of wood samples were also based on BS 373 1957. Results: The results showed that the 3 treatments could increase the palatability of subterranean termites C. curvignathus on pine wood. The percentage of weight loss in the treated wood sample was greater (12.48-30.39%) than the control (10.07%). Meanwhile the hardness of the wood sample with treatment were smaller (332.56-391.91 kg cm-2) than the control (417.82 kg cm-2). Conclusion: The best treatment was presto treatment. The presto treated pine wood has the lowest hardness value, thus the wood become softer and increasing the palatability of C. curvignathus.