TermiKill & Green Termite Bait
System Similarities
- Both companies began offering DIY systems about the same time
- Both founders know their termites
- They both offer monitors to intercept scouting termites
- They both offer treatment to kill off the colony
TermiKill & Green Termite Bait
System Differences
- Monitors:
A polypropylene box containing timber which is placed on gardens, on pavers, over expansion joints in concrete slabs (anywhere but a lawn) - Detection:
Is by observing termite mud in a hole - Life:
of the box is 10-20 years and only the bottom edge of the timber is in contact with soil moisture. - Cost: Monitors
22 for $475 Including P&H & manual $21.50 ea
- Monitors:
A timber stake is driven into the soil of gardens and lawns to be flush with the surface. - Detection:
is by observing termite mud in a window. - Life:
is dependent on the degree of soil moisture causing rot to the stake in the soil. - Cost: Monitors
6 for $198 P&H extra. Includes manual$33.00 ea + P&H
TermiKill & Green Termite Bait System Summary
Before about 2000, termite control was about using barriers to prevent termites from getting into buildings. The problem was (and still is) that barriers can be bridged or crossed or they degrade. The insecticides before the late 80s lasted 40-50 years; the replacement insecticides have warrantees or expected life of 8-10 years.
Every time you see or hear about termite destruction it is because a barrier has failed. Monitors around the outside of buildings are there to intercept termite scouts looking for food and to aggregate termites in sufficient numbers to allow the introduction of a treatment which is carried back to the nest by the continual rotation of workers.
It is crucial that the monitors be found by scouts. Termites come up out of the soil to find the timber inside buildings and scientific papers and trials have confirmed that monitors on the surface are found sooner than those buried in the ground. The on-ground TermiTraps can also be put in more places around buildings so the whole perimeter is defended.
The two main types of chemical used are either a slow action insecticide that does not kill the worker before it can get back and hopefully contaminate the queen and nymphs causing death. The second type is using an insect growth regulator which interrupts the moulting process; this is also fed to royalty and all the other castes causing the death of the colony. The Green System uses the first, the TermiKill system uses the second type which is generally used by the vast majority of the professionals because although it takes longer, it is more reliable.
I have just read with interest your latest blog .you have forgotten to say you only use a fraction of the amount of “kill power “ingredient that the professionals do .Therefore it will take five times the amount of product & time to kill the same sized colony!!!! Your cost five times what you are quoting!!!! How has this been got so very wrong ? Human error?
Thank you .
I think I can see what you mean: the Intrigue dust supplied with the Greenpest system is a one dose to kill whereas the IGR bait we supply takes maybe five applications to kill.
That part is understood and agreed, however when a DIY person is choosing between the Greenpest and the TermiteTrap Systems, the cost of purchasing the treatment component is close to the same and this money has to be outlaid before you begin the treatment. Both being DIY, there is no outlay for labour cost.
I don’t quite understand your reference to the “fraction of the amount of “kill power “ingredient that the professionals do. ” Professionals use both forms of Treatment, (Intrigue and Chlorfluazuron); the thoughtful ones would seldom use Intrigue into a single piece of damp wood such as is usually the condition in a GreenPest stake in damp soil — simply because the dust tends to adhere to the damp surface of the wood. This results in less dust being picked up on the feet and cuticle of passing workers for transfer back to the colony. An additional concern is that dusting has more consistent success when it is applied into multiple areas of termite workings: the bigger the dusted area, the more will be transferred by more workers. Lastly, if the dusting is overdone, the termites often avoid the treated area which means not much if any, gets back to the nest and what is more, the abandonment of such an area gives the wrong signal to the human observer checking on the progress of the treatment: no termites = success. Wrong. They’ve just left to go look and work elsewhere.
The IGR baiting is consistently more reliable.
If you begin baiting termites and need to replenish the bait a few times it is only because the workers are conveying it back to the nest. If consumption gradually slows before it stops and then stops, it is because the colony has been killed. The exceptions are if the tunnel back has been severed by gardening or landscaping or, if the pair replenishment process is unduly disturbing the termites at the site. So, no gardening or digging while baiting is in progress.
The cost of our baiting process is therefore not five times what we are quoting. The GreenPest product is $220 plus $55 for a puffer to apply it; ours is $260 and if the result from both is a dead colony, that’s close enough to the same cost.
I’m hoping this has helped.