A Glove in the time of Cholera

Hurrah! I have completed a room. Just one room remember, but it’s now looking all swish and rather New England beach house meets shack in the bush.

Therefore, I can looking at which room to work on next, but before that I need to examine my termites. And to do that I need to rip huge chunks of weatherboard of the walls.

True, the pest report said that there were no active termites, but there’s a little distressed wood around some of the weatherboarding. Right now I think it is the home owner that is becoming a little distressed.

The planks just fell apart: it’s quite apparent that it is just the paint holding the place together, and inside the wood is a pleasant track of termite runs where they’ve eaten away my house.

Thankfully the builders who rebuilt this place in 1993 after it closed as a pizza restaurant had some boards cut up to just the right dimensions and profile, and even better stored some in the loft! That’s saved me a fortune from nipping down to the woodyard to get some more cut. Oddly, it’s these new planks that have been nibbled away wholesale by the pesky little mites, and the old 150 year frame and older planks are untouched.

I've been advised to wear gloves doing this sort of destroy-your-house with one tug type operation, however I'm made of sterner stuff: their may be the remains of Cholera in the walls - or at the very least some of these pesky spiders - but they aren't going to come near me.

However, I’d like to protect the lot: among the myriad of termite control solutions are sprays, barriers, and baits. Bring ‘em on – all I need to do is get all my ducks in order and lined up in a row before I shoot them.