Cob: Creepy Crawly Things...

[Meagan McAleese]

How about a request...please stop talking about creepy crawlies and how they 
can eat through peoples innards etc. I find it disturbing.
Meagan






>From: "Joe Skeesick" <joe at skeesick.com>
>Reply-To: "Joe Skeesick" <joe at skeesick.com>
>To: <coblist at deatech.com>
>Subject: Cob: Creepy Crawly Things...
>Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 11:34:08 +0100
>
>I'd like to point out in this ongoing discussion of what evil creatures
>"might" find cob appealing that while you MIGHT get rats able to bore into
>the walls of your home, and you MIGHT get dirt daubers setting up shop in
>some crack along the eaves, and you MIGHT get an infestation of South
>American mud urchins (ok so I made that one up). The fact of the matter is
>that all of the creatures that have been talked about would find a wooden
>cavity wall system house MUCH preferable to any monolithic home. Properly
>maintained a cob home is much less susceptible to animal infestations
>because of the nature of the hard monolithic construction. There is no
>"natural" home for these animals to take advantage of.  The reason they set
>up shop in homes so often is that with a little bit of work they can open 
>up
>large protected areas to inhabit (a wall cavity) With a cob home they would
>have to effectively bore out their entire living space.
>Animals are a lot like us in that they want to get the most reward out of
>the least effort. Boring into a cob wall doesn't often fall into the "least
>effort" category. The only thing that would then motivate them to do so is
>there are no other local suitable habitats for them OR, you're a less than
>tidy person and there is significant food resources within the house that
>they want to get at.
>So, can these animals make their way into cob homes? Yup. Can they get into
>any home? Yup. Is cob by nature more susceptible to infestations? Nope,
>quite the opposite.
>So, build with mud, store your food well and leave the mousetrap purchases
>to the stick built home crowd.
>:)
>Joe
>
>


_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail