What is Bora Care ?
Bora-Care is a low toxicity wood preservative that has a low environmental impact. It protects wood and whole structures from most wood destroying organisms including:

Subterranean termites, Formosan termites, Drywood termites, wood destroying beetles, carpenter ants, and wood decay fungi.

The active ingredient is the natural borate salt and micronutrient disodium octaborate tetrahydrate (DOT).  It’s a fancy way to say “DOT”, Bora-Care’s active ingredient. More simply stated, Bora-Care is a combination of the naturally found mineral borate and a patented mixture of glycol-based components that easily absorb into the porous fibers of wood and draw the borates with it. And since borates don’t break down, the protection from termites and their ability to tube over wood and cement remains for the life of the wood. In addition, this patented product provides you with a low toxicity solution. And that means that Bora-Care can be used with confidence in and around homes, apartments, schools, hospitals, kennels, farm buildings, trailers, warehouses, non-food areas of supermarkets, restaurants and food processing plants. 

DOT is a natural form of elemental boron, which is essential for the healthy growth of plants and believed important in human calcium metabolism. Because animals and humans simply take what they need from their diet and rapidly excrete any excess via the kidneys, DOT has a low acute toxicity and Bora-Care is about half as toxic as sodium chloride or table salt (in a laboratory setting), but it’s very effective against insects and fungi that do not have the same excretion mechanisms. DOT maximizes the solubility, the rate of dissolution and the boric oxide content to give a borate active ingredient far superior to traditional boric acid or borax. At the levels used in Bora-Care applications, it prevents pest infestation by inhibiting pest metabolism on a cellular basis.

Bora-Care's enhanced borate salt combined with a patented mixture of alkylene and polyalkylene diols provide superior penetration and improved efficacy. The resulting borester compounds have superior penetration into dry wood because diffusion can take place at a lower wood moisture content than if the active ingredient was by itself occurring at above 15% moisture content. But more importantly, this results in much higher efficacy against wood destroying organisms, especially against subterranean and drywood termites. As a result, Bora-Care is the only borate material that is EPA-registered as a primary termite pretreatment in new construction and provides by far the best remedial treatment against drywood termites.

How Does Bora-Care Work?
The active ingredient in Bora-Care is a borate salt. Borate salts work by taking advantage of a unique feature in the biology of termites, ants and other insects. If ingested by ants, beetles or termites, the insect becomes unable to extract nutrition from its food and starves to death. And because of this unique mode of action, insects cannot develop a resistance, ever. Bora-Care works differently than most other insecticides, termiticides and even other borate products on the market today. For starters, it isn’t applied to the soil but to the structure itself. Secondly, it isn’t just a repellent or a bait but a little bit of each. Bora-Care’s unique patented blend of glycols in combination with a borate salt provides results that are hard to beat. As soon as beetles and ants attempt to consume treated wood they die. Subterranean termites won’t even try to eat treated wood and if they attempt to build a tube on treated wood, the termites start to die. This alerts the termite colony and they abandon the wood.

Bora-Care Treats The Wood, Not The Soil.
Bora-Care is applied directly onto wood surfaces. Bora-Care then penetrates the wood, protecting it throughout. Because the active ingredient in Bora-Care is a mineral salt, it doesn’t break down over time, so it remains in the wood for the life of the wood, providing long-term protection. By keeping the wood sealed or protected from moisture, as in the wall voids of a structure, you eliminate the need for re-treatment. Soil treatments are not only more difficult to apply; they lose their effectiveness over time. Then a costly re-treatment becomes necessary. Unlike soil treatments, Bora-Care is not pumped into the ground and poses no threat to lakes, rivers, aquifers or the environment. Bora-Care can even be used on lakeside homes where soil termiticides may be prohibited. Bora-Care’s active ingredient is a natural mineral salt called Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate (DOT) which contains the element boron. Boron is an element (chemical symbol B) on the periodic table that is already present in the environment – not only in the ecosystems outside of your home – but also in many of the products you use inside such as soaps and cosmetics. Boron is also found in many of the vegetables we eat.

How Long Does Bora-Care Last ?
Twelve years of efficacy studies and treatments in the field since 1990 have shown Bora-Care’s ability to prevent termites and other wood-destroying insects from consuming wood or tubing over treated wood to reach untreated wood. Bora-Care simply eliminates wood as a food source. In addition, hundreds of studies have confirmed the effectiveness of borates as a preservative, including more than 40 studies confirming its wood-protecting power.

Bora-Care Is Up To The Building Codes
In addition to EPA registration, Bora-Care wood treatments are HUD-allowed and listed for use under the 2006 International Residential Code, Section R320 Protection Against Subterranean Termites. Only Bora-Care’s EPA-registered label allows it to be used on wood as a stand-alone two-foot barrier termite pretreatment. Bora-Care also meets the sill plate end-cut requirements set by building codes and the American Wood-Preservers’ Association (AWPA M4).


12/25 BoraShield Warranty
The new BoraShield 12-25 warranty offers coverage to registered pest control companies on five levels. The first level is a subterranean termite warranty of 12 years for Bora-Care applications. In Levels 2 and 3, the warranty extends to whole house treatments covering drywood termites, wood destroying insects and decay fungi. Level 4 applies to coverage against mold when using Bora-Care with Mold-Care. Level 5 combines the coverage of Levels 3 and 4 for complete whole house protection.

For registered pest control companies registered under the BoraShield program, Levels 1-3 cover product replacement, labor and damage repair up to $2500 for a period of 12 years. The mold protection in Levels 4 and 5 covers product replacement for 25 years.

Level One: Subterranean Termite Pretreatment • Coverage against subterranean termites for a 1+1 (one part Bora-Care to one part water) dilution of Bora-Care used in a two-foot band termite pretreatment barrier.

Level Two: Whole House Drywood Pretreatment • Includes a whole house pretreatment using a 1+5 dilution of water and Bora-Care, covering drywood termites, wood destroying beetles, carpenter ants and fungal decay.

Level Three: Combination Pretreatment • Combines the coverage of both Levels One and Two for unprecedented warranty protection.

Level Four: Whole House Pretreatment with Mold-Care® • Provides an additional 25-year product replacement warranty on mold, and is offered only to PMPs who are participating in the Mold-Care program and are treating homes using Bora-Care with Mold-Care.

Level Five: Total Whole House Pretreatment • Combines Levels Three and Four. Delivers whole house coverage as described above for subterranean & drywood termites, wood destroying insects, decay fungi and mold when using a 1+1 dilution of Bora-Care in a two-foot perimeter pretreatment barrier plus a 1+5 dilution of Bora-Care with Mold-Care in a whole house pretreatment.