The way some people are talking, you’d think there won’t be a wooden house left standing after termite season this year.
The reason: El Nino. Because of El Nino, it was warm and the termites didn’t do whatever termites do in cold weather, and now there will be more of them than one can shake a stick at — if they don’t eat the stick first.
Hey, because of El Nino, peaches were $1.99 a pound in February, gasoline was 98 cents a gallon, I spent $300 to heat the house this winter and I didn’t have to shovel snow.
Anyhow, termite eradication brochures are infesting my desk. And while I haven’t tried any of this stuff — I don’t have termites and wouldn’t want to hire any for eradication tests — I’ll focus on a few options.
I’ve chosen them because they appear to be using similar technology to combat these pesky critters, whether or not there are more of them this year than other years.
Then we’ll talk about what you can do to help get termites to stop bugging you.
The first is a termite-baiting system from Terminix called the Sentricon Termite Colony Elimination System, which is designed to destroy or control subterranean termite colonies around your house.
Let’s talk termites. Of the 41 or 45 (there’s a dispute) species of termites in the United States, there are three that we truly have to worry about:
– Subterranean termites cause 95 percent of all termite damage. They nest in the ground and enter the house either by building mud tunnels or slipping through cracks as small as one-sixty-fourth of an inch. Because subterranean termites need moisture to survive, they must travel between the home and the soil.
– Drywood termites live along humid Southern coastal areas. They live in wood, not soil, and enter the house through just about any gap. And, because they don’t need lots of moisture, they don’t leave the house once they’re inside.
– Formosan termites also are found in the South. Their colonies are twice as large as subterraneans’ colonies, so they eat a lot quickly. Some experts say the Formosans can eat through concrete.
One colony can hold one million termites. One colony of termites can eat up to a half-pound of wood — cellulose actually — in a year. And in Africa, according to a book titled “Insects Through the Seasons,” termites, especially the egg-filled queens, are considered a snack.
Give me a bag of Cheez-Its any day.
Most homeowners’ insurance policies don’t cover termite damage. And treatment and repairs are expensive. Fifteen years ago, termite damage caused me to replace the back wall of the first-floor powder room on my South Philadelphia house.
The work cost $2,300.
Treatment has usually involved injecting the soil around the perimeter of the house with a chemical that creates a barrier through which the termites cannot pass and continue to live.
However, Dow AgroSciences has come up with the Sentricon system, a three-step process designed to monitor the perimeters to get rid of subterranean termites. The focus is on termite biology, which I’m sure people who snack on them regularly know much better than the rest of us.
A wood-filled plastic device is placed in the ground to monitor for evidence of termites around a structure. If termites are discovered, the system “uses the biology and natural behavior of termites along with a unique bait (a chemical called Recruit II) to eliminate or control the colony,” according to John Chapman, an entomologist at Terminix in Memphis.
The bait is then removed and the system continues to monitor for new colonies that may invade the area.
Price of the treatment varies from region to region. Depending on the severity of the problem, the range is from $300 to $1,000. Usually, this includes monitoring every six months to a year and re-treating if the problem wasn’t controlled with the first treatment. For more more information, call: Terminix 800-937-3783.
I’ve never thought about battling termites myself. And I’m not sure whether you should either, even if you are so inclined, because I am not certain what the long-term effects on your health would be.
But there is a do-it-yourself treatment on the market I at least should tell you about with the warning that you think long and hard before you do it. It’s called the Terminate Termite Home Defense System and is manufactured by Spectracide.
The system, which the manufacturer says has approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, uses stakes that are treated with TransFlur, an insecticide also known as sulfluramid that kills termites in the soil. Homeowners place the stakes in the ground at 10-foot intervals around the perimeter of the house, according to the directions on the package.
Worker termites foraging to feed the colony find the food in the stakes. The workers consume the insecticide-coated food and die, thus cutting off the colony’s source of food. The remaining termites starve to death.
A tool is used to push the stakes into the ground. Each stake kills up to 30,000 termites, and the company promises that 99 percent of them will be dead in 40 days.
Terminate, which has a money-back guarantee, comes in three package sizes — 20 stakes for houses under 1,500 square feet; 40 stakes for 1,500 to 2,500 square feet; and 60 stakes for over 2,500 square feet. Prices range from $50 to $125. More information is available by calling 888-545-5837.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cheese, so here’s what you can do to discourage termite activity:
– Look for conditions such as wood touching the ground or siding that traps moisture and correct the problem.
– Remove tree stumps from around the house.
– Fix leaky plumbing or drainage under the house.
– Stack firewood off the ground and away from your house.
– Don’t let outside faucets drip onto the ground.
