Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Termites!

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?