Another Termite Question

[Pappy]

Long story first to get to the question.

I just replaced and tore down an old rusted garden shed. When I started to remove the plywood flooring I saw evidence of termites. The wife called our Orkin man who checked it out and, in turn, had their termite man come in for a look. Confirmed that the damage is active termites.

The Orkin recommendation is to treat the house with a trench/barrier chemical method at a cost of $1800. This is for the house only. No treatmen for the wood floored shed 10' away from the infestation or for the Playpen.

At some point, hopefully in the near future, I want to pour a slab where the old shed was and move the new shed to it. At that time the termites will have lost their food source and are going to find a new one.

If there is an effective method, it seems to me the logical option would be to kill off the colony in place.

Jim, or any of the other bug guys, can you give me some good advice here?

[scmhogg]

I'm no bug guy, but...holiday inn...

Anyway, try this.

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/termite.htm

Steve

[MilDoc]

Actually, the main colony can be hundreds of feet away from the spot you found infestation.

Found termites 3 years ago right next to my shed. Colony was in the neighbors yard, a good 200' away.

We contracted with Terminix. They covered our 2400 sq ft house AND the single car "shed" for around $900. Same barier method. Included having to drill multiple holes in the front walk, driveway, back patio, through concrete to inject the barrier chemical. This barrier is good for 9-10 years.

Yeah, you can try to do it yourself. But if you leave any gap in coverage, they'll get ya'!

[LCHIEN]

Actually, the main colony can be hundreds of feet away from the spot you found infestation.

Found termites 3 years ago right next to my shed. Colony was in the neighbors yard, a good 200' away.

We contracted with Terminix. They covered our 2400 sq ft house AND the single car "shed" for around $900. Same barier method. Included having to drill multiple holes in the front walk, driveway, back patio, through concrete to inject the barrier chemical. This barrier is good for 9-10 years.

Yeah, you can try to do it yourself. But if you leave any gap in coverage, they'll get ya'!

The use of chlordane was outlawed a few years back. The half life of chlordane was quite long -many years - it was a persistent termiticide.
The stuff they use now (Termidor) has a relatively short half life. e.g. the time at which it loses half its potentcy. My termite guy told me about injection volumes, initial concentrations that result and the lethal concentrations. Given the half life he quoted, THe barrier was not good for anywhere near 9-10 years. not even a year by my calculations.

therefore you have to renew the application often. But the guys are limited to how often they can reapply, unless its for a spot treatment of active infestation. So in my view, you are partly unprotected some of the time. You have to be vigilant.

[FL Buckeye]

Sounds like maybe you should get more estimates. Different type foundations, floors, outside perimeter length, etc would affect cost.
\
I had our FL home treated about 5 yrs ago with Termidor for aprox $600 plus $100 annually for inspections. I asked them this year about when the Termidor would be re-treated as I was told it was good for 5 to 7 years. They said that the newest information was that Termidor was proving to have a much better life than originally forecast and could be good for 14 years or more. This has me concerned somewhat as I don't want to find out by seeing termites that it wasn't good for that long. I will talk with them about it next year. I went with a local exterminator as around here the national chains have a large turnover. I know where this guy lives!

[Pappy]

Steve, thanks for the link. Looks llike a lot of info that I will try to dig through tonight.

I plan to make some calls today to get some more estimates. Severeal sites I looked at suggested that local businesses may be as good as the national companies as well as less expensive. You just have to thouroughly check them out for reliability and reputation.

One of the sites I looked at mentioned that fire ants are a natural enemy to termites. I wonder what the results would be if I moved some ants (several shovel loads) from a large mound to the area where they are feeding. The ants could be baited and killed off at a later date.

[jabe]

Here in Hawaii, we had these problems for years. We call them ground termite, a colony can eat a house up in 2 to 3 months. We have had newly built homes infested b4 it was sold. It is std. procedure to treat the ground b4 pouring your slab & homes are built with PT lumber. The bait & treat method has been popular here and was told it was very effective. I usually treat (cover/tent) my home every 6 to 8 yrs. Lot of the pest control co. offer a inspection & treatment plan for a yearly fee. As for using fire ants, you might be opening a new can of worms. There are other species of ants that can do the job and are less harmful to humans.