[Cob] FW: the other view...termites

[Amanda Peck]

A friend of mine sent me the original letter a couple of weeks ago.  I 
didn't bother to check but just sent it on.  Someone (from the cob-list) 
sent me a note ("ummm, Amanda," with a URL.)

Glad to see it has now made urban legends, don't believe it had at the time.

A few worker termites wouldn't hurt much.  If they couldn't breed.  Which 
the workers can't.

But the opportunistic and adaptable Formosan termites are surviving 
post-Katrina because in a pinch they can move their 
nests/chambers/whatever--up onto roofs or into trees, so it's barely 
possible that one might import some breeding termites.  I gather that they 
had already--pre-Katrina--moved into the next county to the south of me, and 
they are still headed north.

Which probably means that those of us not in desert areas do need to think 
if we need to adapt our plans for our cob or other natural building so as 
not to encourage them, in the posts of post and beam, for instance.

I lived in houses in Hawaii that you could--it wasn't encouraged--put your 
finger through the all-wood walls because only two films of paint were 
standing between you and the outside, the rest eaten up by the same or very 
similar termites.

(of course, this might even be a benefit--we'd prove that the "pure" cob 
worked just fine after the posts had disappeared--and been replaced by 
cob!!!)