BioProspect touts trial of termite solution

As new Australian restrictions on use of the treated-pine preservative copper-chrome arsenate (CCA) white-ant the profits of New Zealand's arsenic industry, stakeholders in Brisbane biopesticide company BioProspect (ASX:BPO) have cause for optimism.

On a 2ha site in the native woodlands near Narrandera, in southern NSW, where BioProspect is testing its natural termiticide and termite repellent AP778, the teeming termites prefer their pine stakes rare and tender. But all but one of the AP778-treatred stakes is still standing 18 months into the experiment.

The sole casualty, according to BioProspect CEO Matt Kealley, was from the low-concentration group, which was impregnated with a 0.415 per cent solution of raw AP778. The termites have shunned the well-done stakes, which were treated with a 1.14 per cent solution.

Kealley said the 1.14 per cent solution stakes, like CCA-treated stakes, appear to be completely untouched, where 30 per cent of the untreated stakes have been "hammered".

"We went down to Narrandera to see how it was looking, with the trial due to finish in August this year," he said. "The 1.14 per cent concentration is looking very good, and even the lower-concentration stakes are still looking good. We now believe we have a product.

"And remember, this is just the raw oil product, impregnated into timber. We think that with proper formulation, it will do even better."

Data from the field trial will support the company's application to the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary medicine Authority to register AP778 for commercial use.

The natural termiticide was purified from the wood of a native tree species after Kealley discovered an ancient wooden-posted fence in tropical north Queensland in 2003. It had resisted at least 100 years' exposure to the elements, wood-rotting fungi and the termites that abound in the area.

Unlike CCA, which has is a repellent, AP778 has two complementary modes of action: it kills termites on contact, and acts as repellent. It is also highly selective, and harmless to non-target species, including humans.

Kealley said if registration is successful, its first commercial application is likely to be as a barrier repellent to protect new houses against termite attack. Unlike long-lived organochlorine pesticides used for barrier protection in the past, it has very low toxicity if ingested, or absorbed through the skin, and unlike creosote, another common wood preservative, does not irritate the skin.