The goats needed some new things to play on, so an eagle eye spotted a pallet with a solid top and brought it home.
This is how I’ve started treating pallets in an attempt to slow down rot and insect damage:
Put the pallet out in the sun and ensure it’s dry.
Purchase a gallon of Boracare. It’s a borax and glycerin mix that soaks into the wood and will cause any insect that eats it to cease living. Once dry, the wood can be painted to prevent the weather from leeching the Boracare out (mostly by the sun). It’s safe to use for garden wood too (per the manufacturer, I called and checked). I don’t use it around animals that chew (looking at you rabbits) but I wouldn’t use pallet wood around them anyway as you don’t know what has been on it.
It’s a tad pricey, but you mix it 5 to 1 with water (water 5 parts boracare 1 part) for new wood so it goes pretty far.
Here’s my jug (and below is a link to amazon if you’d like to support my blog)
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3U6Kt1N
Then I use a cheap paintbrush and coat the pallets with the Boracare. You only have to do one side of each wood piece as long as they are under 4″ thick as it absorbs that far into the wood.
Then I let the pallets dry and paint them with whatever clearance paint I have on hand :).