Every year in the late March through early May time frame here in the southwestern Ohio Valley area of the country we expect to see Termite swarming. The word swarm usually evokes a biblical picture of locust taking over everything and the panic that ensues.
The subterranean termites common to our area (Typically Reticulitermes flavipes –Eastern Subterranean Termite, Occasionally Reticulitermes virginicus –Dark Southern Subterranean Termite) will swarm on a good warm day (High 60’s low 70’s) in the spring after a wet period. This is the colony pushing out winged cast of the colony specially produced for this purpose. They are basically new Kings and Queens and are meant in Mother Nature to be pushed out of that downed tree or stump by the hundreds. The whole idea is that birds and other insects will consume the majority of them, hopefully a pair of two will make it and get together a King and Queen. They will then drop their wings, tunnel into the wet exposed soil and start producing workers for their new colony.
The first thing homeowners need to do is not panic (I know it is easy for me to say!) but it is true, the new Kings and Queens cannot infest your home. Without contact to soil and moisture they will drop their wings and die. They are evidence that there is a current termite infestation in your home though. I recommend saving a few for identification by your pest control company. The rest can be vacuumed up dead or alive and be disposed of. The aggravating part for most homeowners is they can swarm multiple times in the spring from the same area.
The termite colony, while the swarm is evidence of termites feeding on your home they are probably not living in your home. Subterranean is the key here they live in the ground and tunnel through the soil to find food sources. The worker termites start feeding on the cellulose material and they have to partially digest the material with protozoa in their gut. The digested material is returned to the colony by trophallaxis – the transfer of food among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth. (The termite workers work like a bucket brigade passing the food back to the rest of the castes of the colony) Termites have a caste system that includes Kings, Queens, Supplementary Reproductive’s, Workers, Soldiers, Alates (Swarmers), and nymphs (babies). Termites can enter any home via 1/64th of a inch crack in the foundation so they can enter almost any home regardless of construction.
So you have termites now what should you do?
You have many options when it comes to choosing a pest control company and there are many pit falls you can avoid with some basic information. You need to find a company you are comfortable with so ask friends, family or neighbors about there experiences with pest control companies. Beware of warranties and read them completely to fully understand if warranty actually covers anything. Damage warranties are notorious in our industry for disclaiming damage in any area that is not able to be inspected. This means the interior cavity of all walls as they are typically disclaimed in the fine print. What does that mean in plain speak? You can be sold on a huge $250,000+ damage guarantee that covers very little. There are good companies with good reputations out there that stand behind there work spend a little time evaluating companies. Beyond the basics you will have to choose a treatment method and it can get confusing.
What are my treatment options?
You will have three choices two of which are Chemical Termite Treatments and the last being a Termite Baiting System.
Chemical Barrier Termite Treatments fall into two different categories repellent and non-repellent termiticides. Non-repellent termiticides have advantages because they do not have to be perfect to keep the termites out. You want the termites to travel through non-repellent termiticide and pass it among each other which will affect other termites and deter activity in and around your home. No house is built perfect and repellent termiticides rely on having continuous coverage in and around the structure to repel entry into the structure. Rocks and back fill can cause this to be difficult if not impossible and have a higher probability of failure. It will also require drilling and treatment more often completely on the interior of your structure. A advantage of some of the non-repellent’s is the ability to do perimeter treatments with localized interior treatment at activity reducing the treatment on the interior of your home.
How many gallons are they going to use? The one thing that stays the same among these is a standardized label language for application. The first would be your exterior treatment language it typically reads 4 gallons of solution per every 10 linear feet of foundation per foot of depth up to 4 feet deep. (So a basement would be deeper than 4 feet so here is how it is figured the perimeter of your basement is 144 linear feet and 4 gallons of solution four feet deep equals 16 gallons of solution for every 10 feet of the foundation around the perimeter or 16 gallons divided by 10 linear feet equals 1.6 gallons per foot. To figure your exterior gallons you would multiply 1.6 gallons per foot by 144 linear feet equals 230.4gallons of solution around the exterior of the structure.) This is only a portion of the figures, so read the sample label provided by your company and review it until you are comfortable they can explain the treatment to you. The most common area that bad companies can fudge treatment is not applying or figuring to the foot of depth. So they only apply 4 gallons for every 10 linear feet and that would be .4 multiplied by the same linear footage of 144 so they would mis-figure it at only 57.6 gallons around the exterior.
Chemical Treatment Question List for a possible provider:
- What type of chemical would you use a repellent or non-repellent?
- I recommend non-repellent it is more forgiving and allows for perimeter plus localized interior treatment on most labels.
- Did they provide you with a label and total gallons figured for your home? Did they explain it?
- Make sure they highlight the parts of the label that apply to your home so you understand the treatment. If it does not make sense have them explain it again. If it still does not sound right you might want to find a provider that you understand and trust. It may be confusing because they don’t want you to understand they are not figuring the total gallons properly. Did they provide you with the percentage of chemical in solution and are you on the low end i.e .06% vs.125%.
- Did they discuss your homes construction with you? Did they ask if you have a sump pump, well or cistern?
- All of these will require specific treatment options and my even rule out treatment via this method. Sump pumps remove water from around and under the foundation the chemical would be treated like water and can contaminate a sump pump, well or cistern. Make sure they are being addressed and either treatable on the label or not. If you have a sump pump you would not want to do treatment when the ground is saturated. It would not be able to dry and attach to the soil prior to being removed by the sump pump and contaminate the sewer or a local creek.
- Did they explain the entire treatment? The warranty or coverage for re-treatment?
- If you don’t understand everything ask more questions, with your bids are they extremely lower than the other estimates. Bids should be competitive but beware of extreme bids because they are not giving you a deal either they have cut corners on personnel expense, chemical expense – there are many ways to effect this cost.
Termite Baiting System: There are various termite baiting systems and they are a viable treatment option. There are various versions of termite baiting systems but there are significant differences between systems. In my opinion you want termite bait that has proven its ability to eliminate termite colonies. There are many bait’s available on the market and not all of them eliminate termite colonies. Labels vary among these products and they work in different modes of action for example chitin synthesis inhibitors and stomach toxins are the most commonly used.
Chitin synthesis inhibitors: These products inhibit the worker natural ability to molt and work on the termite’s natural biology. Worker termites as they grow molt and shed there chitin shell like a snake sheds its skin. Once a worker consumes the cellulose treated with the inhibitor it will digest it as normal and pass the bait back through the colony gradually. As each termite molts it will be affected by the bait and workers will gradually die until the colony collapses and is eliminated. Without workers to digest the food the colony cannot survive. Dow AgroScience has actually dug up a colony and proved the collapse with their products Sentricon and Hex-Pro termite baiting systems. There are other products that are similar but I am not sure if they have proven elimination like Dow has.
Stomach Toxins: Stomach toxins must be slow acting and sometimes will allow for additional treatment with their application. When I mention additional treatments I specifically mean chemical barrier treatments in addition to the bait. Stomach toxins can deter termite activity but there is no data to my knowledge that shows colony elimination. Bottom line, Stomach Toxins have proven control in studies and have labels for their application. (My opinion is I would not place it around my home!)
Termite Baiting System Question List for a possible provider:
- How many bait stations will be placed around my home?
- What interval will they be installing them at you want to know what is required for proper treatment studies have been done to determine proper interval.
- Did they provide you with a label for the product to be used?
- This is where you can verify station placement interval. Baiting options and techniques.
- Do you add any auxiliary stations when you get termite activity?
- In my experience termite baiting can work quicker and more effective when you add auxiliary stations adjacent to the active baited station. Often you will get more termites in the adjacent auxiliary stations more bait going to the colony. The colony is affected sooner.
- Termite baiting is only as good as the company providing the service you need to be comfortable with your provider, ask about the company, get references.
- Did they completely explain the terms of the service, how often the product will be inspected? What happens when it is baited is inspected differently? Do they manually check stations or do they use electronic monitoring systems. You will have to decide on what technology you are most comfortable with.
- What happens if I have activity after the system is installed?
- What will they do if the system is installed and there is no activity outside but you have activity inside. Will they provide remedial treatment or a interior bait station to solve the activity problem?
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO TREAT FOR TERMITES CHOOSE A PROVIDER WHO FULLY EXPLAINS YOUR TREATMENT IN A WAY YOU UNDERSTAND AND ARE COMFORTABLE W ITH. CHECK REFERENCES, CHECK WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU FOR COMPLAINTS. DO YOUR HOMEWORK BE SUSPICIOUS OF EXTREMELY LOW OR HIGH ESTIMATES – IF YOU DON”T HAVE A GOOD ENOUGH BASELINE AND ARE NOT COMFORTABLE GET MORE ESTIMATES!
