Our home is on the Big Island of Hawaii, but sadly, we’re not, so the place is rented.
Termites are a regular scourge there and it’s time to tent for termites. Our tenant doesn’t want the usual treatment and is proposing an “organic” treatment instead, giving us this link:
Frankly, I see no evidence of anything in that website - it could be all woo. I’m all for the “natural” solution as opposed to chemicals that can damage the environment and the living creatures in it, but I’m not paying for something that doesn’t work.
Does anyone have any experience, knowledge, and especially SCIENCE to offer up in order to assist in evaluating this? What hard questions should I be asking before making a decision?
ETA - I suppose this could be a GQ thread, but I’d like people to feel free to offer up opinions and experience, not only hard facts, so I put it in IMHO.
The only experience I have is that I had a spot treatment done for termites once. Then, after that didn’t work, I had my house tented.
There are different kinds of termites. The ones I had travel by swarming, and get into small cracks to infest the home. I’m not sure how well the barrier they are talking about would work for them. It might work for subterranean ones, though. I guess that’s one question I’d ask - does it matter what type of termite they are?
Speaking as someone who once upon a time had to have his house in Texas covered with a tent and fumigated to kill termites, it’d certainly be nice to have an “organic” option.
I’d want to check out effectiveness and safety with an authority on the subject, maybe a state extension service that deals with termite control.
“Organic” options are not necessarily non-toxic. Orange oil for instance is sold as a paint stripper (I used it once and it’s pretty rank). Having it pumped into crevices all over a home might not make for a pleasant environment, at least for a while.
So true - it’s easy to think of “organic” items that are toxic and “chemicals” that are perfectly wonderful. The bottom line here is safety and efficacy.
We’re probably going to punt to the property manager on deciding, but I like the idea of contacting the extension service to see what they have to say.