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INITIAL INSPECTION
& REPORT involving a complete thorough inspection of the subject
buildings and surrounds. A detailed written report should be supplied listing
areas inspected, high risk termite entry areas inaccessible to inspection
and termite control alternatives and limitations thereto. Recommended as
essential. |
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CHEMICAL SOIL BARRIER
TREATMENT around the perimeter and sub-floor of buildings and
other timber structures in order to block termite entry therein. The use
of Termidor termiticide is highly
recommended. Termidor and the alternative termiticide products are
discussed in detail later on. |
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TERMITE BAITING and
potential TERMITE COLONY ELIMINATION involving the installation
and monitoring of termite bait stations, such as Exterra
and Sentricon. This method relies heavily on
the termites "finding" the bait stations. Usually recommended where a complete
soil barrier cannot be carried out. |
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BUILDING MODIFICATIONS
and MAINTENANCE including some termite risk reduction measures,
such as, improving sub-floor ventilation and removal of timber in contact
with the soil. |
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Regular FOLLOW-UP INSPECTIONS are essential and should be carried out at least every 3 to 6 months where signs of termite activity has been located in the vicinity of susceptible buildings or timber structures. |
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Firstly, it is essential for the termite controller to complete a thorough
inspection of the buildings and surrounds.
The property owner should be supplied with a written inspection report and
detailed specifications for an integrated termite control program. It is
essential requirement that such an inspection and report be carried out
prior to a chemical soil treatment, and only a licensed pest controller
actually apply the chemical soil treatment.
The cost of a termite inspection report and quotation / treatment recommendations
may be up to several hundred dollars for an average size dwelling, depending
upon style of construction and ease of inspection access. Some companies
offer a "free inspection" but many only carry out a superficial inspection
and build the cost into their quotation / treatment proposals.
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A professional termite inspection and report could save you thousands of dollars - specific areas inspected should include accessible timbers within the sub-floor, roof void, exterior and interior of the building and other timber structures, fences and trees within a 50 metre radius of the buildings but within the property boundary. |
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CONSUMER NOTE:
Most home-owners are unaware that their general home insurance policy does
NOT cover termite damage to structural timbers. However, appropriate
professional indemnity insurance is available to some companies to cover
termite damage to structural timbers in a building caused by termites gaining
entry into a building through a chemical soil barrier.
The chemical soil barrier involves treating the soil at the base of a building
with a registered termiticide chemical, in accordance with the product label,
that will deter termites traveling through that soil to get to the timbers
of the protected structure above.
If there are termites in the building, at the time of chemical soil treatment,
they cannot safely return to their central colony nest through the chemically
treated soil. Termites are compelled to regularly return to their central
colony nest in the ground to obtain moisture essential for their survival
and to feed and groom the nymphs (young termites), the king, queen and other
termites.
The installation of a chemical soil barrier requires
expert knowledge and specialised equipment to form a complete and continuous
barrier to protect the building from a termite entry and infestation - as
illustrated below: |
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 | Special care and equipment can be used to detect a subsidiary
termite nest contained within the building structure. This often occurs
in wall cavities where moisture is regularly supplied therein from a leaking
shower recess, broken roof tiles and faulty guttering or plumbing. |
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| There are several types of termite control chemicals registered by the relevant State and/or Federal Government Authority for use in termite control as a soil treatment chemical. |
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WARNING: Some are solvent based pesticides which can cause health problems to asthmatics during the drying process. |
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Termidor and Premise
are the safer effective products recommended - ther are water
based, odourless and of low hazard to humans, dogs, cats and other
mammals. Both are registered as a low hazard insecticide with a CAUTION
notation on the registered label. Fipronil - the active ingredient in Termidor,
has been used in the USA and other countries, such as Australia for flea
and tick control on millions of cats and dogs. |
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Termidor and Premise do NOT have an obnoxious odour or emit airborne residues or fumes. Termidor and Premise represent modern technology... they are NOT organo-chlorine or organo-phosphate pesticides. |
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Some alternative termiticides have a strong repellency action to deter foraging
termites. Whereas Termidor and Premise
are non-repellant to the termites. Termites can enter the treated soil barrier
without detecting the Termidor or Premise chemical. The repellant nature
of some alternative products mean the termites can detect and move along
the soil barrier seeking a gap to gain entry into the building.
Premise has been used as soil treatment barrier
against termites for more than eight years in the USA with excellent results
for long term termite control. We are not aware of any significant problems
during this period.
Premise will act to kill termites, in the higher
concentration treated soil areas abutting the building. With Premise, termites
that forage in the lower concentrated treated soil areas, will become disorientated,
stop feeding, and are fatally diseased by natural fungi and micro-organisms
in the soil. |
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The Termidor fipronil product works quite
differently from other termiticide active ingredients. Most other termiticides
are repellents, which means they keep termites away from a treated area,
rather than killing them. This means a gap in the barrier is more easily
detected by the termites, a major short-coming of the old-fashioned termite
control alternatives.
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 Termites tunneling
in the Termidor treated soil area abutting the building (of high concentration
- near the point of application) are killed outright.
Termites tunneling in the outer parts of a Termidor treated soil area (of
low concentration) will not detect the Termidor which adheres to their bodies
and has a delayed lethal effect of several days - enough time to be transferred
back to the central colony nest.
After 250 million years of living underground, subterranean termites have evolved with a very thin waxy skin (called an exoskeleton) that readily absorbs moisture. The Termidor fipronil chemical adheres to the termite exoskeleton and is readily adsorbed through the exoskeleton and into the termite's body to immobilise and kill the affected termite within a few days. The termites spread the fipronil to other termites during regular physical contact, particularly when working together in close proximity, grooming and feeding the rest of the colony, a regular function of their daily life. The termites cannot detect the fipronil as it has no odour, taste or smell to the termites. Termites carry away or cannibalise other dead termites, further spreading the deadly effect of the fipronil chemical throughout the colony. |
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The Sentricon termite monitoring and baiting
system was developed by Dow AgroSciences. The Sentricon bait is an insect
growth regulator, which is designed to be spread throughout the colony by
the worker termites. The Sentricon bait is
only 0.5% concentrate, due to repellency problems with the Sentricon bait
used at higher dosage rates.
An insect growth regulator affects termites
by stopping the moulting process required for the termites to grow. As the
worker termites die off, the termite colony declines to the point where
it can no longer sustain itself, ultimately leading to it's collapse and
elimination.
The Exterra termite monitoring and baiting
system was introduced by Ensystex into the market. The Exterra termite bait
is also an insect growth regulator.
Both Sentricon and Exterra
systems have their own plastic bait stations which must be used with their
product. These bait stations can be placed in the ground and checked regularly.
Termite colony elimination in favourable circumstances may take several weeks to a few months. However, in some cases, termite colony elimination is unsuccessful or may take years, depending on the circumstances. Where a large number of termites find and consume the bait, then colony elimination is virtually assured within a few months. This is where the experience and skill of the termite controller is paramount to decide if and where a baiting program is implemented and properly monitored.
Both the Sentricon and Exterra
termite baits are designed to be slow acting, non-repellant and therefore
spread to other termites in the colony before the colony can detect where
the deadly effect is coming from. Termites have acute survival instincts.
The location of a toxic food source if detected, will be abandoned. Too
much disturbance of the foraging termites (workers and soldiers) in a particular
location, will alert the termite colony to abandon the area. The termites
appear to be gone, but may in fact be entering the building in other areas.
Your home is a much bigger bait station.
Both the Exterra and Sentricon termite baiting systems are subject to regular
inspection and monitoring by the termite
controller. The larger the number of termites that consume the bait, the
quicker and more certain is the termite colony elimination process. It is
usual to reinspect the bait stations and the buildings and surrounds every
month to reposition, reapply or replenish the bait, if necessary.
This process is labour intensive so that the long term cost of the monitoring
/ baiting system may accumulate out of hand before the chance of success
or otherwise, is realised.
A termite baiting program can be integrated with a range of methods including
drilling susceptible trees and eradication of any termite nest located therein.
In addition, a chemical soil barrier using Termidor
or Premise soil treatment chemical at the base
of a building or other structures is also recommended in high risk termite
areas.
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Ring the Experts: successful termite protection of a building using a baiting program often requires expert skill and judgment, based upon years of field-work experience in termite control in a wide variety of circumstances. One critical aspect is the bait stations should to installed in areas where termites are more likely to be foraging. The termites must "find" the stations to have any chance of success. |
| CONSUMER PROTECTION NOTICE: Be wary of any
advertising or promise that a timber replacement warranty applies as regards
subsequent termite damage to a building using a termite colony elimination
system. For example, some pest control companies promote a $100,000 Timber
Replacement Warranty as regards to the use of a particular "termite
colony elimination" system - But be careful to
read the Contract carefully! Does this Contract stipulate in the
fine print that the so called "warranty" may (or may not) apply at
some future point in time to be decided by the company?
As with all so called "termite colony elimination" systems there can be no absolute guarantee of protection of nearby buildings. There may be other termite nests nearby the building that do not find the bait stations. Your home is a much bigger bait station. Other termite nests may exist in trees, under concrete on-ground flooring and in-fill patios of your home or neighbouring properties. |
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The Sentricon
baits are placed in their in-ground bait stations after removal of the termite
infested timber therein... which involves major disruption of the termites
and thereby cause them to avoid the in-ground Sentricon
bait station, entirely.
This serious short-coming is overcome by the patented Exterra
Termite Stations where the timber is aligned around the cylinder such that
the bait can be inserted without such disturbance of the termites present.
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS include the Exterra
termite control baiting system, where a complete chemical soil barrier treatment
using Termidor
or Premise is not practicable or desired, and
where a sufficiently large number of live termites ingest the Intrigue or
Exterra termite bait. |
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Rapid termite colony development and building infestation is usually associated
with a readily available timber food and moisture source nearby the central nest.
In addition, buildings are often constructed in a way that allow termites to gain undetectable entry from
the soil to the structural timbers of the building. Listed below are some useful recommendations for the home owner to carry out in order to reduce the risk of termite activity inside a building.
Moisture exclusion from inside the wall cavities, around the base of the building and sub-floor area (if any). Water run-off can be excluded from a sub-floor area by the installation of ag-drains. Make sure there is adequate cross flow ventilation in the sub-floor area. In addition, a qualified plumber should be engaged to ensure there is no water leakage from plumbing pipes in the bathroom, the shower recess, kitchen, down pipes, guttering and air conditioning unit overflow. Look for signs of dampness in the wall cavities, broken roof tiles, faulty guttering and the like. Please note: high humidity, dampness or moisture accumulating in a wall cavity is of high risk to encouraging large scale termite activity inside the building.
Removal of any timber in contact with the soil. Timbers should be
stored above ground to allow full inspection of subterranean termite activity
(coming from the soil thereunder). Any landscaping using timber chip mulch
and railway sleepers should definitely be removed, as they provide ready
food source to assist in rapid termite colony development.
Ensure inspection access is unimpeded, particularly
in sub-floor areas (suspended floors) in order to look for evidence of termite
activity. If your property is on a concrete slab on ground flooring, make
sure you can inspect the entire external slab edge for evidence of termite
mud-shelter tubes. Do NOT allow this area to be covered by pavers, landscaping,
planter pots, etc, as termites often gain entry into the walls of a building
via this locality, particularly through external weep holes and minute (2
mm) gaps in the mortar in brick-work.
If you find live termites or termite damaged timbers
DO NOT disturb the area. DO NOT use spray can or insecticides on
the termites. If sufficiently disturbed, the termites are likely to move
elsewhere, and may not be rediscovered until further obvious damage has
been done. The termite controller can introduce Intrigue termite dust or
Exterra termite bait directly to the live termites present in an attempt
to eliminate the entire termite colony - as discussed in detail above. |
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PLEASE NOTE: the installation
of a chemical soil barrier does not negate the need for regular competent
inspections - at monthly intervals or atleast 3 to 6 months where the termite
risk is high. We usually recommend 3 or 6 monthly inspections be carried for the first 24 months following a chemical soil treatment. |
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