Got a call from wifey yesterday saying we had two termite swarms. We called a well known national company that specializes in such and they sent a man out immediately. He said that we almost surely have them in our 8 year old house but there’s no point of origin or attack yet where any destruction has come through a wall.
He continued that our options are two… he can spray the entire house but they still could be doing invisible damage behind a wall or we could go with the Sentricon system. Basically, it involves leaving bait traps outside the house to draw the little bastards out and kill them. The spraying’s definately cheaper but could miss the colony and offors no guarantee. The Sentricon is much more expensive initially, around $2200, and requires continuing maintenance, about $350/year, but also comes with a structural guarantee for our house.
Anybody have any experience with either of these methods and was your choice adequate or overkill?
I have a bait system around my house, done by Terminix. A bit cheaper than the prices you quoted. Bait systems are for subterranean termites. I’ve also had my house tented for dry wood termites - that supposedly takes care of them for a year for dead certain, but there’s no guarantee that another swarm won’t find your place again. In this part of the country, house tentings are routine - the stuff they fill the house with is truly nasty (sulfuryl flouride is commonly used), but it apparently does the trick, and dissipates rapidly afterwards. It kills anything living inside the tented house, basically.
Tenting wasn’t even mentioned and I hope to heck not required. It’s a brick house with Hardyplank upstairs and composite shingles, pretty standard for the area.
Just curious… did you have to remove furniture and everything for the tenting? Sounds like an enormous pain in the a… an enormous inconvenience.
You have to put your food in sealed plastic bags, remove potted plants, move out for three days. You don’t have to worry about furniture, etc. The reason they use the stuff they do is that it dissipates and doesn’t leave a residue. They actually fill the house with the sulfuryl flouride (sold under the tradename vikane) for a day. The other two days, they are airing the place out. Methyl bromide is another thing that is sometimes used.
It IS a pain. Around here, it often happens when a house is sold, and therefore empty.
As I mentioned, there’s drywood and subterranean. The subterranean ones live underground, and build little mud tunnels that they crawl into the house through - the bait traps are good for them. According to the claims they take the yummy bait back to the colony and feed it to the queen - bye, colony. Drywood termite swarms settle down in things like eaves, and start chewing on them. Bait doesn’t do any good, but you can spot them and take care of them before they spread by spot application of pesticides.
This is what Sweety and I did. A lot of companies around here will do this, too, but since he has a pesticide license we opted to do it ourselves and save $1000.
We dug a six-inch wide by about 10-inch deep trench all the way around the house. We then poured termiticide in the trench, thoroughly soaking the ground. As the backfill was placed in the trench, each shovelful was soaked again with termiticide. It took us about 2 1/2 days with 2 to 3 folks working at a time.
This trench creates a ‘barrier’ which will poison the nasty things as they pass through. Even if they are already in the house, they will have to go out for water and pass through it (this is the difference, IIRC, from the ‘drywood’ ones yabob mentioned.
I figure it worked because later that spring a bunch tried to swarm in but died all over the floor instead. Theoretically this will keep ants out too.
However, if I could afford the bait traps I would get them. It’s just a more efficient way to keep them defeated.
What they look like. I’m not suprised he seems to think you need the more expensive option. What I am suprised about is that he is offering both options, when it’s pretty clear that each option has a specific application. If he offers traps; it’s subterranean, sprays; and it’s dry wood. Since he says that they are behind the walls, it sounds like dry wood. And wouldn’t ya know it, that’s the cheap one! He better instill some fear, so you can spend some real cash.
May I suggest you pull his tee shirt over his head, jam his head down to hip level, and create your very own fumigation tent.
I believe he thought they were in the house because they swarm towards light. No way they’d swarm from outside to in.
The trench isn’t an option for us. I’ve landscaped very heavily all the way around the house. There’s hardly a spot one where layered beds, fig ivy, or a combination of the two don’t exist. Plus, there’s huge shade trees. Herein lies the problem as he told me that I’ve created the exact conditions termites love… low wind, humidity, cover and shade.
