Termites. How to get rid of them.

[wiley coyote]

Thanks for all your feedback guys. I'll try a few of your suggestions. Like Moneybox I haven't got a lot of faith in exterminators. In the early 90s I got one in to check out the place. when he turned up he was pissed out of his brain. He climbed up onto the back of his ute to start the geny to run an electric drill. No battery drills back then! He pulled the rope start on the geny, and went arse over kyte off the side of the ute. Picked himself up and started drilling the tree. Lost his balance, fell sideways, and snapped the drill bit, which, of course was the only one he had. It would have been hilarious if I wasn't paying him! I can laugh about it now! I had got his phone number out of the local paper, so I spread the good word about him, and about a year later his ads disappeared. I guess he wasn't cut out to be an exterminator. I think it interfered with his drinking! wiley.

 

[Tathradj]

Found a piece of wood in the front yard and when I picked it, Had white ants in it.
Pest controller said to get a cardboard box about a foot square, Layer it full of
card board with a square hole cut in the middle. Dig a hole about a foot deep in
line where I found it to the house.
Put the box in the bottom of the hole, soak it full of water then bury it.

He came down a few weeks later and checked it.
Full of them. He placed a bait in it and went away for a month.

Killed the lot of them.

checked the house and none found so we got the bloody things in time.

They cannot resist the wet cardboard apparently.

 

[The geezer]

In Cairns were the termites will attack any unprotected wood and cardboard etc. I tried cresote which is available in town but is enivomentally friendly ( the trouble is that it doesnt work. However if you go 1 hours drive to Mareeba or Babinda you can buy the old brew ( s3 or 2 poison) and you dig a hole around the post dilute with oil or diesel and your problem will go away.This is a cheap barrier that works For our farming folk and many others. It wont kill the nest but they will head off looking for an easier feed.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Dyno mite :lol:

 

[Nightjar]

Spray your sump oil after oil changes.

 

[Whisp]

The nest can be up to several hundred metres from where you spotted them.

The only way to kill them is to kill the queen so that it breaks the breeding cycle. The only way to ensure that is to use something that they will carry back to the nest.
When I found the lil critters at an old place where I was living the pest dude fed them with a toxin that contained enzymes that effectively stopped them moulting and thus broke the breeding cycle, ergo one dead queen = no more termites.

This was quite a few years ago so the memory aint what it used to be but I think chlorfluazuron was in their somewhere and what you do is put out bait stations with this stuff and they carry it back home with them.

 

[Mungass]

Spray your sump oil after oil changes.

save that for the snakes.............

 

[Badge]

Any poison with the active ingredient Chlorpyrifos will kill termites/white ants stone dead. And you too if you don't use it carefully.
It kills all types on insects and spiders, and is used by the pros as a perimeter poison. I use it on my small acreage and have no problems with them.
Getting a pro in is costly, but safer.
Bob

 

[wiley coyote]

Badge. Do you have to dig a trench around the perimeter and pour it in, then backfill it? Or do you just spray it on the surface? wiley.

 

[Badge]

Badge. Do you have to dig a trench around the perimeter and pour it in, then backfill it? Or do you just spray it on the surface? wiley.

Hi wiley,
what the pros do is dig a trench around your perimeter, fill it with loose gravel and then saturate the perimeter trench. The trench can then be accessed easily each time you want a top up.
All I do is saturate the perimeter of my house, stray the footings and any timber exterior, then repeat each year. My old Dad was a pro and I helped him a few times and he died from cancer which would have been because of the prolonged use of pesticides, so cover up if you decide not to use a pro which is the best advice. And don't do it if there is any wind, stay away from water tanks and gutters etc. That stuff is lethal. BTW, Pidgeon Brand poison has Chlorpyrifos in it if you can find it.
Bob

 

[MegsyB007]

I work for a pest control company

It depends on how extensive and where the activity is, and what type of termites they are, on how best to treat it.

Not knowing your situation, I'll just give you some treatments/products we use. These are mostly used for subterranean termite jobs in Victoria.

There are different types of termites, often depending on which state you're in...

For a spray barrier treatment use Premise 200SC that has the active ingredient imidacloprid.

For other treatments look up Exterra above ground and inground baiting stations with Exterra Requiem Termite bait (active: Chlorfluazuron). You attach a bait station over the area where you've seen the termites (or evidence of activity) and they feed from it and take it back to the nest that eliminates the colony.

Another preventative and baiting system is "Sentricon Always Active" (active ingredient: Hexaflumuron). That is installed around the property with stations that you bury and looks like an inground sprinkler system with the lids visible on the surface. They eat from the bait rod in it and same result - dead termites. Hexaflumuron is a chitin synthesis inhibitor which prevents termites from moulting. If a termite is unable to moult they die. They pass the bait through the colony and eliminates it, including the queen.

All are effective treatments depending on whatever is required for your individual situation.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Megsy

 

[wiley coyote]

Thanks for that info Megsy. I'm up in the G.T. in Victoria. The name of the termites here are coptotermis acanaciformis if I remember rightly. I'll take your info into consideration, along with all the other great feedback I got. I'm thinking at this stage to get a professional in to eliminate them. Then, I'll use some of the options given on the forum to keep them at bay in the future. Thanks to everyone who offered me advice on how to beat these little *****. wiley.

 

[Wishfull]

Coptotermis. Their hungry little buggers. I've seen them almost destroy a house.

 

[Capertee gold]

Build a new shed out of steel ???