Q-This past spring, my neighbor’s house was invaded with termites. I am concerned that my house might be next.
Even though my neighbor’s house was treated with chemicals, is it possible for the termites to come over to my house? Also, I am concerned about the chemicals that are injected into the ground to kill termites. Is there another way?
A-There’s a strong possibility that your house may already be infested. Being quite the social insects, termites are constantly expanding and attempting to start new colonies. The termites that your neighbor saw may actually have originated from your house.
Termites do more than $1 billion worth of damage a year to structures in the United States. Termites like to live in warm, moist soil near wood food sources, such as fallen trees, wood piles and houses. In the forest, termites help make top soil by munching on dead trees.
There are more than 40 species of termites found in the U.S. The termites live in colonies that have highly developed social systems dominated by a king and a queen. Special termites care for the queen, which can live for up to 50 years and lay thousands of eggs each year. Other residents of the colony include worker termites, soldiers and reproductives.
The worker termites are the ones that eat wood. They supply food for the entire colony. The king, queen, soldiers and reproductives all stick around the nest doing their jobs. Worker termites leave the nest to pick up the carryout meals from your home.
Worker termites labor 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can travel through a crack in concrete or steel as small as 1/64th of an inch in their constant search for new food sources. Once a worker termite gets his fill from your floor joist or wall stud, he heads back to the nest, where he shares the food and gets a drink. Termites are quite thirsty, because they must revisit the soil or nest every 24 hours or so.
Chemicals used in the past, and still in use today, simply provide a barrier around your house. They do nothing to actually wipe out the entire colony. In fact, some of these chemicals can actually harm other wildlife.
But there’s a new system that can kill an entire colony. Small plastic monitoring stations are inserted into the soil around your house. A professional checks these periodically for termites. Once termites are detected, a growth regulator that’s toxic to termites is installed into the monitoring stations.
The worker termites eat the tasty toxic food and share its location with the other workers. Soon, many workers die. This is a major problem for the termites back in the colony, because they depend upon the workers to bring them food. This system can wipe out a colony completely within six months.
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Have questions about the remodeling process? Write to Tim Carter, c/o The Chicago Tribune, P.O. Box 36352, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236-0352. Questions will be answered only in the column.
To learn more about termites, sources of termite literature, the manufacturer of the monitoring system and other termite tips, send $2 to Tim Carter at the above address. Ask for Builder Bulletin No. 80.
You also can obtain a free order form for a wide variety of individual job bid sheets by sending a business-size, self-addressed envelope to the same address.
