Q: I recently built a raised garden using untreated wood. I applied five coats of paint to each piece. Later, while I was congratulating myself on making the wood more rot resistant it occurred to me that I didn’t do anything about termites.

Since this is a vegetable garden, I don’t want to use anything that could contaminate the vegetables. Do you have any ideas?

A: Although I do not recommend them for protection of your home, this may be a situation where using sulfluramid (Terminate Termite Detection Stakes) might be useful. The bait chemical is in very low concentration and you can place the bait stations outside your beds.

For more information on Terminate Termite Detection Stakes, see Do-It-Yourself Termite Baits: Do They Work?, from the University of Kentucky.