Indyrose wrote:

One of my 4-H wood working kids turned up with treated lumber for
making a bird house. It's the new stuff, AC2-- not CCA -- but I still
don't trust the new stuff.

I'm in the process of telling him why that is a bad idea, and to use
just about anything else instead -- even cheap pine with a good latex
exterior paint for protection.

Although it is touted as being "less toxic," that still doesn't put my
mind at ease. Personally, I wouldn't work with it indoors, use it with
animals (birds) or let kids handle it much. I certainly wouldn't want
to finish sand the stuff.

Am I being too cautious, as the kid's parents seem to think I am?

Indyrose

Reply on the wreck or to my "real" email at indyrose at milmac dot
com.

I think the big problem is that birds are quite sensitive to substances that
a human wouldn't even be aware of. For example, miners used to use
canaries as warning of the presence of toxic gases--the canary would die
long before the buildup was high enough to harm the miners, so they'd know
to get out or ventilate in plenty of time. That being the case, with
anything that birds are going to live in I think it is best to err on the
side of caution.

Googling "birdhouse pressure treated" got one 8 year old extension service
link that said it was OK, the many, many others said not to.

http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/bhbasics/bhbasics_index.html has lots
of good information on birdhouses. Since it's part of a research project
being conducted by the Cornell Ornithology lab which is one of the top
avian research organizations in the world, I think anything they say you
can pretty much take as gospel, and one of the first things they say is
"untreated wood".

I suspect that heart cedar with an asphalt shingle top would last a good
long time.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)