Homes for Wildlife Can I use old decking boards to create animal houses?

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Can I use old decking boards to create animal houses?

Lyle 05/04/2020 20:50

Hello

I've got a bunch of old decking boards and I am keen to use them to create houses for animals. The one thing I'm not sure about is will it likely to have been treated with something that means I shouldn't use it? I don't know it's history unfortunately. I'm thinking about making birdboxes, bat boxes and a hedgehog house.

Thanks

0 Whistling Joe 06/04/2020 06:10

I've used old decking boards to make a hedgehog house without any problems. Wood for external use was tanalised with an arsenic compound some years ago (I seem to remember it was banned in the mid-noughties), so anything that dates from after that time should be absolutely fine (even stuff that pre-dates it is probably going to be ok for a hedgehog house, but maybe not a bird box as the birds peck away at the entrance). The potential for arsenic compounds are why you shouldn't burn old tanalised timber
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0 Lyle 07/04/2020 23:48 in reply to Whistling Joe

Thanks Joe!
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