TERMITICIDAL ACTIVITY OF CHITOSAN ON PAPER

Abstract

Termites are insects that can damage buildings, paper and plants. Termites are controlled by using termiticides (chemicals). Besides polluting the environment, termiticides may have harmful effects to organisms, including humans, and destroy metal. The use of chemicals will be environmentally and economically profitless. A joint effort to utilize biodegradable material will help to reduce the negative impacts of termiticides. One of the materials that can use to control termites is chitosan. The purpose of this study was to determine the termiticidal activity of chitosan on paper against termites. The termiticidal activity test followed method JIS K 1571 2004. The resistance of paper to termite damage was determined by calculating the percentage of weight loss and termite mortality rate. The following concentrations of chitosan in acetic acid were used: 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%. The test result showed that weight loss percentages were 20.49%, 16.37%, 15.77% and 10.80%, respectively. On the other hand, the weight loss percentage of paper without chitosan was 32.69%, which shows that termites do not favour chitosan used in the paper. The activity of termites was successfully inhibited when the concentration of chitosan was increased, and the percentage of paper weight loss decreased from 10.80% to 20.49%. Paper without chitosan had a termite mortality rate of 18.3%; The addition of chitosan increased termite mortality to 28.2%–30.4%. The percentage of weight loss decreased with increasing termite mortality. The termite mortality rate show that chitosan is nontoxic and potential as biotermiticide for paper.