I'm posting in solidarity with myrison, whose recent shower leak caused him some grief.

We've begun to see termites in certain downstairs areas of our house. My wife had a guy out today and he recommended treating below the slab, which require drilling. Through the slab. From inside the house. I have to figure out whether it'll be feasible to remove one column of the laminate square tile flooring I put in last year to give him the access he wants.

If you've ever put in a floating laminate floor, the easiest way to remove it is by starting with the last row you installed and working backwards. Doing it this way would mean taking out every single row. It should be possible to jimmy off the one column with enough wiggling, though.

Before I can even do this, I have to practically empty half my living room and pull half the quarter-round trim off the baseboards.

This ruined my weekend. The treatment appointment is for Monday morning.

You should move your house up here. We don't have termites because they can't find boots that fit.

Peter, if I may suggest one thing, have the folks apply a product called .... Termidor .... best defense against termites one can ever spend their money on and I'll guarantee you that.

Termites, Oh boy .... I wish you could have seen the first added on room prior to our patio conversion which was framed and built back into what is now our TV room that I constructed a couple of years back.

I treat my own home every five years with Termidor after my own initial treatment that included drilling parts of the slab, driveway and garage floor with a big rented hammer drill from Home Depot and digging an 8" deep trench around the perimeter of the house and flooding the trench with the Termidor/water mixture ... I'm thinking a 4 gallon mixture for like 20 linear feet or something similar. The cost of the Termidor was around $400.00 and whatever the hammer drill rented for is all I paid, other than my time. I talked my immediate neighbors to use the Termidor and we've yet to have had nary the first termite problem in over 8 years.

Good luck.

Hearing things like this really makes me appreciate our environment up here that much more.

There are lots of places in Iowa that have the termite problem. Even our first house had this problem. They tried the drilling method, and in my opinion, I would pass on that method. The only thing that will do is scare the colony off to the neighbors, and they will come back later.

You need to kill the termintes. The only thing that worked for us and many people I know is the bait stations they put around the house in the ground. This is the most popular method around the midwest.

For starters they place soft wood in the bait traps, and come back monthly until they see which traps are being eaten. Then they are replaced with the material the termintes eat, carry back to the colony underground, and eventually the workers of the colony will disapear, and wamo, they are dead.

A lot better than just them moving to the neighbors. I would do some more research and get another opinion.

Randy, the bait stations are ancient history .... Termidor and another product called Premise is what any reputable termite applicator will use nowadays.

Drilling the slab does nothing but provide an avenue for whatever pesticide one is using to reach beneath the foundation of a building constructed on a concrete slab foundation, drilling isn't meant to kill termites, the pesticide does that ... maybe your folks used the wrong pesticide? Probably a strong poison that killed those termites it only contacted and left the rest of the colony back at the ranch to make a full on assault at a later date. Applicators liked using that stuff back in the day, it made for repeat customers.

Read the Termidor label and understand how it works, I friggin' guarantee you it does and will work to wipe out a termite colony in any part of the country ... I may not know much about this A/V stuff but I do know a little about pesticides and application methods, I've only been doing this for the past twenty years and am certified to buy and apply restricted use pesticides in about six different states.

Gosh, we are lucky to have each other here.

Rick, you're awesome.

Peter, you have my sympathy.

Then scoot your butt up there and help Peter

Tom, if it's all the same to you and you don't mind much ... may I print this up in bold letters so that I can magnetize it to our refrigerator so my lovely wife of the past 26 years will read it? Your thoughts of me and her thoughts of me are not making the same connection for some reason.


Rick, my brother .... you know darn well if I were capable and had the time to do so I'd go up there and do that job for Peter myself, I like doing that kind of stuff.

I'm sure you would Rick. I really do feel sorry for Peter, of all things.

Rick,

Help me please! I live in a 45-year old neighborhood where the ants have set up shop. We have more ants than we have soil. They've nested right around the perimeter of our house and have managed to come in through our basement slab. The whole neighborhood is infested! I'm worried our house will fall through a deep hole into the bowels of the earth .

I'm worried about my Axioms. What if the ants get at them?

Having friends complicates things. It's supposed to be FUNNY when bad things happen to other people.

Do you know what kind of ants they are Tex?

That's a great question. The ones that are coming in are tiny buggers that I don't see in the yard. The visible ones are normal...black...average size. I have to go on an ant web-site and hunt for pics and names. Then I can be more specific.

When I went to the old country two years ago, I was astounded by the size of the ants there. They grow HUGE in warm climates. I'll take ants over roaches any day though. I was infested with roaches in Taiwan for a whole week. I slept under the covers with heavy items weighing the covers down so that the big red buggers wouldn't get in and feast on my eyeballs. It was 35 degrees and no air conditioning. A week in hell!!!

Argentineans, I would bet. We generally have plagues of those.

I'll start cursing them in Espagnol and maybe they'll vacate.

It looks like they may be little black ants. Argentines too maybe from what I remember. We don't have any right now 'cause it's too cold.

Rick, this was 13 years ago, back then stations were the thing. Our new house has no issues. Anyway, looks like Iowa uses Termidor now as well.

Bugs suck.


Did that help at all?

All I can say is that I feel for you, and think I know just how you feel. I just got everything set up again in our media room this weekend after days of parading contractors in and out to tear out baseboard, rip up carpet and pad, cut drywall, and then trying to reverse all the damage they did... To top it off, they spent some time Friday night treating for mold (oh joy).

If there is any silver lining to the mess you're facing, I can tell you that getting back into my HT after about 4-days off was almost as exciting as first receiving the speakers. On the other hand though, the downtime was awful.

Rick, thanks for the tips. I'm staying home tomorrow morning while the guy's over with his drill and poison. I wish I'd known to ask about the pesticide sooner. Even so, I'll ask him what he's using.

Good luck, Peter! Add my sympathies/well wishes, for all the good that will do against the critters.

Rick, thanks for the heads up on the bait stations. That's what we have now at my house, although Orkin treated the place first, then set up the stations, and gave me a 7 year guarantee with a contract. I'm sure I'm a great revenue source for them, although I did get a little peace of mind.

When I get home, I'll check to see what they treated with at the onset. I certainly get nervous about those little bugs, living as I am in the woods.

The bait stations did work for us in our previous home, and the critters didn't return in the 10 years we lived there. However, it looks like there is other products on the market as well. The drilling methods back then didn't help much, just scarred them to the neighbors.

Good news. I checked out the Termidor website and the company that's coming over to do the treatment tomorrow is listed on their site. The treatment will run us slightly more than $500.

Thanks again for your input, Rick. I won't feel so bad about tearing a part of my living room apart knowing we'll have the best product available under our foundation.

LOL
As I am renewing my termite bond in FL

The section of floor came up much more easily than I expected last night. Much easier than the trim I had to take out first. Now I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for the guy to show up.

Similar story here. Several years ago, our neighbors warned us that their pest-control guy found a infestation in their home and said we might want to have ours checked out. A week later and, sure enough, a termite guy found a place where they had gotten in. Lucikly the damage was minimal, completely cosmetic, and easy (cheap) to repair.

It is a horrible feeling when you realize that your home is being eaten. Horrible.

The options for treatment varied tremendously. We had a company that rhymes with 'dorkin' come out, and they wanted $2,500+ to treat it. Involved lots of drilling into concrete, lots of expanding foam, and lots of scare tactics of what would happen if we didn't go with them. Another company, who's name sounds kind of like 'Termite' wanted $1,800 to do basically the same thing, but mainly to control them with the bait traps. Our neighbors had that going on when the termites were found, so it didn't really seem to help. A local pest control company wanted $500 to spray, but they insisted on using a chemical that I researched online and found out that it wasn't very effective.

I researched the heck out of the various chemicals and termite control techniques, and called around to a few local pest control places to get their opinion. Almost unanimously, the opinion was to go with Termidor. Effectiveness wise, it's apparently much like Chlordane, which is now illegal. My parent's home was treated with Chlordane back in the 50's and they haven't had any termite problems. While it may be a nasty chemical that causes god-knows-what-kind of cancer, it was an exceedingly good at getting rid of termites. But anyway, the research I found about Termidor seems to indicate that it is safe when used as instructed. Of course, I'm sure Chlordane was too. It's still a chemical that can cause harm, so I would still want a professional to do it. As I recall, there are warnings about using it near wells or potatable water supplies, but that's somewhat common sense.

So I had one of the afore-mentioned places do a full Termidor treatment. They did like a 'dirt-injection' of Termidor all around the foundation around the outside, and then along foundation on the inside (part of home has a dirt floor in the basement - that's where they got in). The termites dissapeared within about a week, and the neighbors commented 6-8 months later that their termites disapeared too. We have an old wooden fence in the back that had some termite damage, and they stopped munching on that too. It seems that between both of us, we killed the whole colony. 5 years later, we still don't even get crickets in our basement any longer. We had our yearly inspection a few weeks back and I talked to the inspector about how Termidor was working in general. According to him, he knows of homes that had it done 10+ years ago that have still not had any termite problems since. So apparently it can be very effective.

So anyways, I can sympathize with your situation. It's one of those things that you hate to admit, 'The house has termites!' But tons of homes have them. Just be happy that you found the problem when you did.

Seriously, good luck!

Is there anything alive around the perimeter of your house????

I can joke because we don't have termite problems here. I can sympathize though as earwigs are becoming a big issue. They don't eat your house but get into EVERYTHING. If they get into your well water, it becomes unusable until treated. They take can take over a home like army ants and are not dangerous on thier own but their pincers can leave you with a mark.

I used to think earwigs were cool when I was a kid. They were all over the place in Southern California. The pincers looked scary but didn't hurt. Perhaps they get bigger up in your area?

Great to hear that your problem will be soon solved Peter, 500 bucks for the treatment? Whoa, that's a heck of a good deal! Whenever I treated last (five years ago) I bought 4 20oz bottles for $110 each at a you do it pest control place and I see now they are down to $65 for each 20oz bottle, that's not bad at all. Whenever I very first applied the Termidor to my house the product was less than a year old and I couldn't find one exterminating company that used it, I see that most do now, so that's an excellent plus.

Back then, my immediate neighbor had termites and I tried to get him to use the Termidor but he said the applicator he contracted for about a million and a half bucks (can't remember the name, but the initials were TERMINIX) told him they never heard of Termidor, that I probably didn't know what I was talking about because their treatment would be much better and would also last longer 'cause for an additional million and a half bucks they'll bond the house and come out every so often to check and change the bait stations ... that got old and the neighbor finally agreed to let me help him treat his house with Termidor. That was almost 10 years ago and he has yet to retreat and has not had any termites since!

65 bucks a bottle


.

Oooh, he even burned a little under the bug with a soft brush to make a shadow.

The living room is completely put back together and the whole process went soooo much smoother than I expected. The bug man, as the kids refer to him, drilled six holes about the diameter of a nickel evenly spaced across the length of the living room and then used a narrow tube-like injector to deliver the payload into each hole. He then patched the holes and I went to work.

Part of the reason the treatment was so inexpensive is that my house isn't too big.

Ummmmmm.... describe what you're wearing, Peter..........

Random thoughts on a Tuesday morning:

* Mark, are you picturing Peter dragging on a cigarette and doing his ironing with the phone tucked between his head and shoulder? I am.

* When the tube is narrow, it's easier to gain access to each hole.

* I bet the bug man left Peter's house exhausted ...

* ... yet very satisfied.

* Anybody else bothered by Peter's voyeuristic tendencies?

* Anybody else glad that he chronicled it for our pleasure?

Ha Nice picture. The earwigs here are certainly not as big as that one. Ours may be slight different looking too but but let me assure you from personal experience that their pincers can, on occasion, break the skin. I don't think they have the muscle power to really utilize them but I have had one hanging off my hand by one pincer that got under the skin after reaching under a palate of lumber. Watching him squirm while hanging from his embedded pincer was probably less pleasant than the minor sting it caused.