Short attention span have we??

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 20:36:36 -0800, Mary Shafer
wrote:

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 14:24:45 -0800, (Harry
Andreas) wrote:

In article , wrote:

Rejoice with me. They've got the rafters and roof sheathing on our
house, having put up the load-bearing walls in two days, and have
started on the non-load-bearing walls and the water lines and wiring.
The sheer-wall sheathing is being done today. We have the pre-drywall
walk-through on Tuesday, a week from now.

If your area is as prone to termites as the South Bay (LA county) you're
at just the right time to have your new house tented. All the wood should
be in, electrical and water in, but not drywall.
It turns out that the lumber yard is termite central.
(Where would you choose to live if you were a termite?)
The wood is not treated. This from a contractor friend.
Most new houses in SoCal start showing termite signs in 2-3 years from
the wood carried in from the lumberyard.

It's apparently not a huge problem here. Maybe termites don't like
the 118 degF summer weather; I know I don't. Anyway, they did
saturate the soil twice with some sort of anti-termite chemical before
they poured the slab and this, it seems, is good enough.

Termites are exceedingly rare in the High Desert, too. Not
non-existant, but certainly far from common. My neighborhood is full
of houses built about 30 years ago and a fair number have been sold
recently, meaning termite inspections for escrow. No one has had any
found so far.

I understand it used to be a problem in wooden-frame aircraft
back in the day (just to keep on topic).

That doesn't surprise me at all, although I hope it wasn't
subterranean termites, with their little mud tunnels from under the
ground to the airframe. A good pre-flight should catch that one, I'd
think.

Then there are the mud-daubber wasps that build their nests in such
inopportune site as pitot tubes and static ports. Apparently, this
happens without being caught on the preflight now and then, usually
with unpleasant results.

Mary