Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) as a natural raw material for artificial bait of isoptera sp (termites) / Chia Yark Kim

Project paper (Bachelor of Civil Engineering) -- Universiti Malaysia Pahang - 2007

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is a lignocellulose waste from the oil palm mill. It is generates during the process of extraction of palm oil from palm fruit EFB has a great potential to become a natural raw material for artificial bait of isoptera sp (termites). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential of the EFB as a natural solid resource medium as artificial bait to eliminate termites and to determine the composition of the EFB as an attraction to termites. There are two types of EFB fiber used as bait material in this experiment which are EFB fiber before shredded and EFB fiber after shredded. During the experiment, the EFB fiber was divided into two categories to attract the termites which are treated with solution AntiPestI and without treated with solution AntiPestI. Solution AntiPestI is one type of slow-acting chemical. It was found that only EFB fiber before shredded and without treated with solution AntiPestI able to attract the termites within three days. Result analysis reveals that EFB fiber contains 34.1±1.5% of cellulose, 67±1.5% of glucose, 32±1.8% ofpentose, 32±1.8% of hexose, 33.7±2.6% of xylose and 16±2% of ethanol. The moisture content of the EFB without shredded is 56.1 % and the moisture content of the shredded EFB is only 18.3%. The sample used in experiment contains O.7695g/L of oil and O.8415g/L of glucose for one sample. The presence of these compositions is the most important reason the make the EFB fiber able to attract termites. EFB fiber has a great potential to become artificial bait for termites. It is an effective alternative way to reduce the production of solid waste in Malaysia as well as to reduce the building damaged by termites and also decrease the environmental issues created by the abundance of EFB. -Author