Life just got mores expensive

[twistsol]

Last night my wife emailed the photo below to me.



For those of you who haven't kept up on your Entomology those are in fact termites, and that corner is the base of one of the main load bearing walls in the basement. Just to make things extra special, there was also a mouse in a trap under the stairs that morning.

[chopnhack]

eep.... my sympathies. My termites are very expensive as well. They eat not just wood, plywood but glue, household consumables like tissues, toilet paper and books. They also go through food and tuition like there's no tomorrow.

Did you have a lot of rain? The critters start to migrate with heavy summer rains, finding new homes. Sometimes simple things like overgrown vegetation that borders your house can be there source of entry. Did you find any mud tubes?

I've never seen that species before, quick search shows they may be western subterranean.

[twistsol]

It has been raining pretty much all summer this year. I'm traveling as usual so I haven't seen them in person. I just called in professionals this morning. This is too expensive if I screw it up to be a DIY project.

Our house is basically in the woods and while they aren't a common problem in Minnesota due to cold winters, although they do exist. They could eat dead tress in the woods for centuries without running out of food.

[capncarl]

I didn't realize that termites went that far north! Do you have a termite bond on your house with and exterminator? All wood is fair game to termites down here. I had a buddy that had an old British Morgan car with a wood frame that termites eat up and it was in his garage!
capncarl

[chopnhack]

I agree with you twist, its not a DIY. The point of entry is important to gauge the scope of affected area. If you find the mud tubes and they have spread laterally far from them, you may other damaged locations as well. In the south they tent homes and fumigate with a gas that displaces all the oxygen effectively suffocating them. It kills all critters inside the house, which is good as a total house cleaning ;-)

Best of luck and keep us updated on the process and cost.

[capncarl]

The way that I was taught about termites is they don't build mud tubes if their route is in a dark and protected environment. If they entered your house through a crack in the foundation or a dark crawl space you may never be able to find their route in. Mud tubes may be visible if their route passed through a lighted area. I've seen some walls in a house that were completely eaten up by termites and all that was left was the vinyl wood coating on the paneling.
capncarl

[Kristofor]

Hmmm, in two days new regs kick in that require termite control measures for southern Minnesota for all homes being financed by FHA/other government backed loan programs though the local pest control guy quoted in this Strib article made them sound like overkill... http://www.startribune.com/u-s-housi...tes/306331041/

[pelligrini]

So if we say 100K for an average new home, 1k for termite prevention isn't that big of a cost up front.

[capncarl]

Termite protection, i refer to it as a termite bond, covers the scheduled termite prevention and the repairs in the event that termites do get into your property. It might not seem like it, but it is cheap insurance, as is flood insurance for those of us stupid enough to live on a river or beach or sinkhole insurance for our Florida friends. Pretty soon the cost of all the insurance equals the mortgage payment.

Lessons learned? Don't be like the man that bought my house that had previously flooded ( it had flooded me several times in 29 years I lived there) and he failed to make the required flood insurance payments 3 months after moving in! It then flooded him out 2 times in 3 months.
capncarl

[twistsol]

I wasn't able to see any mud tubes, but if they're coming up through the foundation, I wouldn't. My wife hit the ones she saw with RAID, and the walls under the stairs are open. I pulled everything out of that closet which is our Christmas storage and opened up the panel that leads to the corner where they were spotted and saw no evidence they were in that wall. I found a few in some boxes. The exterminator is coming on Wednesday this week but said they were likely swarming and looking for a new home, but hadn't set up shop yet. He'd gotten a number of calls about them that day. When I finished the basement, I used all pressure treated wood, except for the stair case which was pre-existing. We might have gotten lucky and caught them before they had a chance to do any damage.

[pelligrini]

Some of those prevention practices can not be a good thing either. Years ago up until 2010 it was against the law to harvest any fish from a stretch in a local river. The fishes had unhealthy levels of chlordane and PCBs, which was widely used as termite prevention around here. There is still a Dept of State Health Services advisory to not consume any species of fish from portions of the Trinity River.

[pelligrini]

The exterminator is coming on Wednesday this week but said they were likely swarming and looking for a new home, but hadn't set up shop yet. He'd gotten a number of calls about them that day.

It looks like they had wings. Hopefully I am wrong, IME those guys were swarming and looking for a new home, but that many with their wings still intact makes me think that they were swarming, from your home.

Be careful, I had a wall in my living room near a fireplace that got some termites. During a spring swarm (when I first found out I had termites) a few must have made it into a half wall near the entry. Later that summer I noticed some evidence of them in that half wall. I didn't do any whole house fogging treatments due to the cost and my fish tanks.