Saturday was operation termite. I bought Terminate while still in a state of creepy crawly willies after discovery. I was told Sentricon and Termidor can only be bought by professionals, well, since then I found Termidor on Amazon. Got some bait stakes drove (auger broke, so more next weekend), tore out the closet, sprayed and shop vac'd those nasty lil guys during demo and WWW burned the lumber & vac bags in a burn barrel. Then he foamed the area, even drilled some holes in the floor and put some down there. This addition from 1960's as well as the third addition in the 1980's are all wood just an inch or two above the ground, too convenient for the little buggers. Interesting, we did not see any soldiers, not one. Also, I have a grey water line for my washing machine right next to where the termites were found, WWW moved away from the house. I am hopeful we caught it early, pulled down a few more boards in the closet frame to check, none there. And, no I have not seen the flying ones nor the shedding of wings. There is a dilapidated house across the street, and two other homes down the road that are flooded from filling the lake back up. Also, another home down the road was demolished last fall. Wondering if thats when the colony expanded/migrated here...... Crossing my fingers, and the pest guy said we should bait for the next 20 years, we will as long as we live here anyway.
The winged ones are "swarmers." They come out of the wall/ground etc by the hundreds or even thousands, and they head off to establish new colonies. Fortunately they only do that once/twice a year; and if they dont get into the ground soon, they die. Glad you got some protection for the house!
Was weeding around our new patio are where I put some Iris and lilies that Chvymn99 generously sent, as well as some Iris from my previous home and other stuff, OMG WWW spotted a soldier termite on the patio!! I was shaking off the the good composted dirt from the roots before I threw the grass and weeds into the trash bucket for burn barrel. He went for another tank of water and I continued pulling out some grass clumps. Yep, one more weed/grass pull revealed tiny undeveloped workers and some flying ones I sprayed them with the termite spray. We now know the new target area for bait stakes. AAAAaaaackkk!! After house termites, then fleas on new bunnies (I have never experienced or seen either) and more termites today, I have the the heebie geebies creepy crawlies so bad
Termidor is great stuff. Been using it for years for control of ants and all other non-termite listed species on the label. Perimeter spray the house = no ants. Not cheap but there are generics.
Well darn, was 100' away from the house last night, picked up a rock I liked, and there they were, worker termites. Guess we will need to put more bait stations out and extend the perimeter? The kid that came out could be right, the whole peninsula could have a secret underground termite world under this neighborhood.
I "liked" your post, but don't like the termites around your place. The bait stations will only work within a certain distance. As long as they aren't close to the house or other structures, you should be alright. Of course, with all the land around you, 100' would seem too close. Around here, that means it's in the next person's yard and their problem
I'd leave them be...the ground is full of termites, and the best defense is a nice tight perimeter at your house. If they're undisturbed out in the yard, that means they aren't looking for a new home, i.e. your structure. The termite bait stations don't work like ant stations, they're more of an indicator that you have termite activity. Now, given that you have confirmed termite activity in the ground around your home, I would for sure spend the money and have Termidor applied around the perimeter. It will come with the protection bond from the company that applied it, and would be peace of mind. But also, the Termidor has been proven to stay where it was applied for over 15 years- I think that's a good return on investment. The other thing to be sure you do is keep your wood pile as far from the house as you can, and only bring wood in that's going directly in the fire. And, don't put wood mulch up against the house, keep it at leat 6 inches away from the perimeter.
