To Kill a Termite Colony you can’t find?
When you find termites, you want to kill them.
However, there is little point in tearing apart the timbers and spraying the scurrying termites with the evilest concoction you can think of, because, back at the nest, the queen is laying about 1000-2000 eggs — a day!
The few thousand you kill are soon replaced and the access to the damage you’ve caused is sealed off within minutes while they regroup to re-attack the replacement timber you provide — or they begin attacking undisturbed adjoining timbers.
Insecticidal Dust, Sprays or Foam
Application of insecticidal dust, sprays or foam can work, but too often it disturbs termites to the extent they abandon that area.
A week or so later when, on inspection, no live termites can be found, the job is declared successful — when it isn’t. A few months later, if new termite action is discovered, you have to get the company back and argue about responsibility and money. And then, this time you might decide to use a termite bait.
In contrast, termite baiting gets the termites to do their own dirty work.
Termite bait attached to the outside of timbers in which termites are ‘happily eating’ does not threaten or disturb the workers. Once you’ve made a small opening into the wood, the termite bait pouch, which is more edible than the wood, is placed over the opening.
The bait pouch then becomes an extension where the good food (moist and easy to harvest) is provided. Take away for termites!
Multiple feeds are always necessary, each time you replenish the termite bait and see busy termites tunnelling through the termite bait, you should feel reassured the termite bait is going back to the nest.
When the harvesting rate slows and then stops, you can feel really confident it is because the nest is dead;
The termite colony is no more.
But can’t termite baiting take months to kill?
Yes, it does take longer and owners are uncomfortable at the wait.
However, in consolation, because the termite bait is a much softer option than chewing off solid wood, the termites concentrate on the bait and less on the wood.
The Australian Standard for termite control calls for the first effort to be directed at the treatment of live termites for a very good reason:
Live termites will harvest food and take it back to their termite colony
And once the colony is dead, the immediate threat is over and other measures for prevention of new colonies can follow, including termite monitors.
White Ants & Termites Baiting Experts
If you’ve found live termites, attempt to kill the colony first and termite monitors later.
That’s the crux of the Standard after thousands of hours of expert committee meetings!
Peter Lam says
Dear Ion,
My pest controller has found a nest of coptotermes frenchi (using infra-red imaging) inside our house. It’s 3/4 the way up inside the wall in the ensuite bathroom. He’s been baiting for 4 months now and every time the covering is opened (right at the nest on the wall), we find that the small opening (drill holed) where the bait is introduced, is covered with mud, effectively blocking the entry to the bait. It’s as though the workers are so smart and worked it out that their front door is knocked down every month during inspection, that within the 5 minutes of the hole been opened up again, they close it up with mud as soon as they can. I also have a feeling that they don’t like the taste of this bait (Nemesis). I’ve read that this particular species is very fickle and timid, but I didn’t know they can be this intelligent as to avoid the bait all together. Is it true that given the bait is properly prepared and changed regularly, they may just decide not to like the taste of it? Or am I just a typical and frustrated owner, who has less patience than the experts? Well, it is my house afterall and the thought of been outsmart by the termites month-by-month whilst they continue to chew down the house is absolutely heart-breaking. My wife can’t understand why they can’t just take the whole nest out with spray. If the queen is eliminated, doesn’t it mean the end of the colony?
Peter.
Ion Staunton says
Hi Peter,
Your wife is a down to earth smart woman. C.frenchi mostly build their nest in a tree and these dopey ones have, it seems, mistaken your home for a tree. If it is a nest (with a queen inside the mass) there doesn’t seem to be any reason to try and force-feed them bait to take to their nest — it’s right there! So, remove it. Another option is for the pest man to use say Termidor dust powdered all through the mud mass — or Termidor foam — followed by a six months later inspection to see if they have headed into adjoining timbers of the house.
And lastly, as these termites are usually tree dwellers, it is a good idea to drill holes into nearby trees about shoulder high and if there’s a nest inside, flood it with insecticide as shown on our website.
Your wife is going to say “I told you so”
Hoping this helps, Ion