Paint it black

But not all barns were painted red. Nope, in Kentucky many farmers coated their barns with creosote, which made the buildings black. This kept termites out of the wood, and that wasn’t the only benefit. A black color also makes the inside of a barn toasty, which is really handy when you’re trying to cure tobacco. The idea caught on, so it became a style choice for other farmers in the state as well. Photo Credit: Row17/Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 2.0