I had some construction work done on my house, and one of the workers (who used to do professional pest control) sprayed some kind of boric salt in between the walls. He said it was an organic treatment for termites (which I had some damage from). Well, apparently some of this salt managed to find itself in the grass and weeds around the house where the spraying was done, and it quickly killed some of the thick saint augustine and crabgrass/bermuda I had. My question is do I need to do anything to the dead spots to encourage the grass to fill in the dead spots? Should I dig up the topsoil which was poisoned, and lay down some compost? What was the boric salt substance used for treating the termites?

Borates and other boric acid products are used to kill termites and other insects in structures but are harmful to plants and the soil. That's the reason they should only be used indoors. For the soil contamination use the NORIT Grow Safe product.

The only treatment I know of for boron poisoning is to dig up the soil and replace it. Boron is one of the few permanent poisons for plants. I am not aware of any biological remediation.

Norit is an activated carbon product. It might work.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

Thanks. I've been waiting to see if the grass is starting to grow in the contaminated dirt again, it has been over a month and nothing yet. One spot is probably 4 foot diameter, the other 2 foot. I'll probably dig up the first four inches of topsoill, and replace with compost. I haven't located the Norit product locally.

The compost you use will eventually disintegrate completely leaving you with a hold. I'd use a sand/compost mix.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum