DIY "Pro" Termite treatment

[jaxs]

Been using BIFEN It for years. The stuff works great about 2oz per gallon in a pump sprayer. It will kill any insect but will also kill earthworms so be careful around desirable plants and shrubs. Earthworms are great for the garden and show you have healthy soil. I use about a gallon (mixed 2 oz bifen) on fire ant mounds. No more ants.

 

[jyoutz]

Banned because it worked to well. Not banned in other countries.

It also worked well in providing business to oncology hospitals. That’s why it was banned.

 

[newbury]

Do any of these chemicals being discussed here require a pesticide applicator's license? Meaning, can I buy them and have them shipped to me without a license? (I'm in Texas if that matters)

The laws they are a changin' all the time.
For example- in Texas - from State Limited Use Pesticide

State Limited Use Pesticides are designated by the department. Because of their high potential to cause adverse effects to non-target sites a pesticide product containing an active ingredient in the following list is classified as a state-limited-use pesticide:

• 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D); including acid, amine, choline, ester and salt formulations;

and

Exemptions from State-Limited-Use Classification

A pesticide product containing an active ingredient listed above is exempt from classification as a state limited use pesticide if the product:

• is distributed in a container with a capacity less than or equal to one quart for liquid products or less than or equal to two pounds for dry or solid products

But getting a Private applicators license is easy.
I got mine from Mississippi while sitting in my Laz-Boy with my laptop.

 

[MossRoad]

That's why Chlordane was taken off the market. Instructions said to be applied in trench then covered or injected below foundation. Properly applied Chlordane was effective for several decades and if squirted all over the ground would kill everything that came in contact for years. If some people had access to nuclear bombs they would destroy all of us while killing bugs in their yard.

One of my strongest childhood memories is of me lying in bed on a weekend morning. The sunlight was just starting to shine into the windows through the white lace curtains, making patterns on the wall. As I lay there, I realized I was awakened by a strange noise outside of my window...
shook, shook, shook.
shook, shook, shook.
shook, shook, shook.
My father was dusting Chlordane under the sill plate all the way around the house. It had a sickly sweet smell. I remember pulling the curtains back and watching him pumping the duster. It had a long tube with a half-circle thing on the end to disperse the powder out and up.

He saw me and told me to close the window.

This was an annual ritual, as I recall.

 

[jaxs]

Moss if you had been around earlier you could have memories of chasing trucks on your bike as they put out clouds of DDT. Speaking of rituals. A common ritual was fogging the room with DDT to kill flys just before sitting down to eat.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss if you had been around earlier you could have memories of chasing trucks on your bike as they put out clouds of DDT. Speaking of rituals. A common ritual was fogging the room with DDT to kill flys just before sitting down to eat.

I've seen the films.

Around the same time when I was a kid, I remember our neighbor hired a guy to spray his trees for some bug. Don't know what. This guy shows up with a flatbed truck with a turret-looking thing on the back that had a seat and a blower of some sort. He fogged way up in the trees. Then, the neighbor had him point it at our yard and the guy starts fogging up into our trees. Bugs started falling on me almost immediately, as did a fine mist. I ran inside and told my mom. She threw me in the shower and then went out and had words with the neighbor. Hot words!

No one on the block got along with that neighbor. No trespassing signs. Keep off the grass signs. If you knocked a ball into his yard, he'd take it and tell you to send your parents over to get it.... that kind of guy.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep the fog truck and dumb kids riding bikes as fast as we could behind... guilty as charged...

Termidor SC is my go-to for termites and ants...

The problem is using it above ground can wipe out beneficial insects like pollenators.

A neighbor besiege by Yellow Jackets one year had traps everywhere and some were already filling up fast.

He took the lid from a jar and mixed up about a half ounce of Termidor with a little hamburger and soon had Yellow Jackets competing... a few days later no more Yellow Jackets... my guess is it wiped out the underground hive.

Anyone remember Shell No Pest strips hanging in everyone's house???

I came across one unopened in the box and foil pouch recently so I looked it up... scary reading yet found just about everywhere in the 60's

 

[MossRoad]

Yep the fog truck and dumb kids riding bikes as fast as we could behind... guilty as charged...

Termidor SC is my go-to for termites and ants...

The problem is using it above ground can wipe out beneficial insects like pollenators.

A neighbor besiege by Yellow Jackets one year had traps everywhere and some were already filling up fast.

He took the lid from a jar and mixed up about a half ounce of Termidor with a little hamburger and soon had Yellow Jackets competing... a few days later no more Yellow Jackets... my guess is it wiped out the underground hive.

Anyone remember Shell No Pest strips hanging in everyone's house???

I came across one unopened in the box and foil pouch recently so I looked it up... scary reading yet found just about everywhere in the 60's

My dad hung a no pest strip in my bedroom when I was a little kid because of mosquitos. Within a couple days, all of my pet insects in several terrariums on a shelf in my bedroom were dead. Caterpillars, crickets, praying mantises, etc. All of them. I was devastated. Mom and dad immediately knew something bad had happened and removed the no pest strips from the house.

Found this tidbit...

Shell Chemical had to take its “No-Pest-Strip” off the market back in ’79 because . . . well, there was that unfortunate incident of the young man dying. Shell settled out-of-court with that family, but the Environmental Protection Agency was finding hundreds of other cases of poisoning by DDVP–the cancer-causing stuff in Shell’s strip that kills pests . . . and some people. So Shell withdrew the product. But they didn’t withdraw it far . . . Just across the Mexican border.

When a Shell representative was asked if he felt guilty about endangering Mexicans, including children, he said: “Speaking as a human being, sure you feel bad. But I’m not being paid to be a human being.”


And this from a different source:

No-Pest Strips give off dichlorvos vapors, essentially fumigating the space in which they are placed. The strips are designed to be used in spaces that can be closed off and not occupied for extended periods. No-Pest Strips kill household pests such as flies, cockroaches, silverfish, clothes moths, spiders, beetles, and earwigs. Placed properly, they are effective for up to 4 months. The yellow resin strips are enclosed in a plastic holder that can be hung or stood up in the area to be treated. But the area to be treated cannot be:

1. a living space
2. a kitchen
3. a space that people or pets occupy more than 4 hours a day
4. space that is smaller than the minimum treatment area allowed by the label

 

[jaxs]

An acquaintance said flower children came in her pet salon to buy designer flea collars for themselves in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Spike56]

Do any of these chemicals being discussed here require a pesticide applicator's license? Meaning, can I buy them and have them shipped to me without a license? (I'm in Texas if that matters)

3Ts,
I have ordered Termador off Amazon previously. Assume that is still "no license required".