Termites! Advice?

[e9999]

time to kill some house termites!

Any advice about the best way to do this, things to avoid, ways to handle the companies foibles, save $$ etc?

Spot treatment and fancy zapping, orange peel stuff and all seem more like fancy to this uninitiated than real long-term solutions. So tenting may be it.

But tenting also seems likes a rather troublesome proposition unfortunately. Some issues come to mind:
- gotta make sure the company has insurance, is properly bonded etc in case somebody falls off the roof
- they want us to sign a waiver about breaking our roof clay tiles, as in they break we pay. Not great.
- they have/want full access to your house with nobody around
- how do you know the termites are all dead?
- can one bypass the pest control front contractor and deal directly with the actual fumigators without trouble?
and more

So any practical advice on how best to handle the job?

 

[pb4ugo]

I don't know if you're termites are the same as the ones in the midwest. I had a house w/termites, It was treated by spraying in the walls and foundation and the ground around the house. Several years later they were back. I found, that kind of treatment created a barrier to stop the termites from coming in to the house and killed the ones in the house. The barrier breaks down after a while and doesn't kill the colony which lives in the ground. The second time around, A company put bait stations around the house in the yard, when the termites started hitting the bait they changed the bait to some sort of poison to kill the colony. When they ate it, they took the poison back to the colony, which killed the colony. I never had a termite problem after that. The process took about a yr. to happen. I think the name of the system was sentricon or something like that.

 

[e9999]

mine are drywood termites I believe. Never saw any evidence of subterranean activity before, but a good reminder I should go check again.

 

[tputterman]

I own a pest control company and worked for one running the fumigation for 15 years. For 100% elimination fumigation is the way to go for drywoods.

 

[e9999]

Good to hear from a pro! Yes, I will do the full tenting in a bit but may go with a spot treatment for now to gain some time and peace of mind until then. Had a tech just tell me today that he uses termidor dry for spot treatment and had 100% success so far. Is that a good way to go to kill that colony until I tent up?

I was asking the tenting guys about their insurance on the phone but I got some sort of reticent statement about having workman's comp (only?). If I may ask, how do I make sure the tenting guys are insured enough that if -god forbid- somebody falls off the roof I don't get sued for all I've got?

 

[tputterman]

A spot treatment will hold you over. Termidor is good. I use that or Premise.

What state do you live in? Here in az and my old company that was in Florida also, require through the state to have insuance. So depending on what state and what department they fall under will be who requires the insurance. AZ depth of agriculture requires it of us.