Termites?

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I believe most exterminators use Dursban injected around the building as protection.)</font> It's my understanding that Dursband is no longer allowed. A friend who owns a pesticide company used to use it in their roach spray, but Dow Chemical had to stop making it. I hear that the newer stuff is not as good against termites, but I'm not sure. John
Follow Up: upon further research, I found that Dursban was banned in 2000, due to the risk of nerve/brain damage in children. I'll keep looking to find what's being used for termites since, but if you have any old Rid-A-Bug, it was dursban. John

 

[KiotiJohn]

Here's an interesting, informative article on termites and treatment:
Termite Treatment

 

[KiotiMutt]

Permethrin and Fipronil are very popular for termite control. Termidor is 9.1% Fipronil, which is also the same strength as Frontline Flea Spot-on for dogs.

KiotiMutt

 

[Soundguy]

I bought the permethrin emulsion mix at an ag supply store and pre-treated the area where my pole barn went.

There are also 'do-it-yourself' companies around here that will sell you the professional stuff and you put it down.. stuff like 'demon', etc.

So far the permethrin has worked well for me. That an PT wood. I go around a couple times a year with a garden sprayer and hit the perimeter of the building, as well as water treat it once a year. I also hit my fenceline with a defoliant mixed with permethrin. The neighbor put in untreadted fence posts ( why?!? ) and termites got him after 2 years. I paid the extra bucks and got cresote posts so far holding up good. I also sealed the post tops with asphalt paint, as the cersote posts usually only die after the middle/top rot out from rain..

I relocated a few posts to add a gate last week.. and after four years of being inthe ground.. no bug or rot activity.. and some of the posts were still 'bleeding' cresoted resin after being stacked in the sun. I expected that though.

What made me spend the extra money on the cresote posts was something i saw at my day job. I work for a GC and we had to tear out a dock built by the county. It was 20+ years old, and had quite a bit of cresoted timber that was used as pilings, and jetted in ( I guess ).. anyway... -0- of the posts were rotted.. and after piling them on the job, they too bled cresote. That was when I made my decision.

Soundguy
Soundguy

 

[EastTexFrank]

I doubt very much if they'll go that high though I have seen termite damage on stringers 4' off the ground. Their mud tubes should be easy to spot though.

I had heard that they were going to restrict or withdraw Dursban but didn't know the timetable. I don't use the stuff and haven't for years. My information was based on my experience in Dallas about 7 years ago where we had to have our house inspected and treated every year for insurance purposes. I would have thought that any "good" insecticide, injected around the foundation would work although with PT lumber it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[mopower440]

this got me wondering about my home, we have a double wide mobil home, it sits maybe 3 feet off the ground, naturally no wood touches the ground as they are on blocks, wonder if the termites will bother it?

 

[Soundguy]

Do your blocks have a metal shield on top?

In any case.. And I'm sure the's many opinions on this.. I've only rarely seen termites in mobiles. I would think it would be fairly easy to keep them out.. as tey will have to mud tunnel up the blocks.. etc. A good permethrin treatment around the blocks should be a decent 'dead' zone for you.

Soundguy

 

[AndyM]

I've found from past experience that termites are lazy creatures...

They will go for the easy stuff and leave the harder to digest stuff. If there's 2x4's laying around on the ground, they won't build mud tunnels up the pressure treated lumber or concrete blocks to reach something up high.

They will also go through wetter or softer wood, if given the choice...

Don't used scraps of wood as fill material in the ground. It will get wet and attract termites.

On our old house, we had some sort of Masonite-type siding that was nothing more than glued compressed sawdust. Total junk... But the termites burrowed several feet up the house through it, but didn't touch the old wood siding or 2x4's underneath! Why go for the hard stuff when you can eat through the easy stuff! We stripped all of that junk off and replaced it with vinyl siding and never had another problem.

By the way termites don't like light. They burrow through the wood, and the build the mud tunnels to go through any place where they can't tunnel through, like concrete. Watch for the mud tunnels on those types of things.

 

[SPIKER]

My GF's place has some termite damage in the city. we got orkin out and treated, so signs of life yet but I also treated with about 4 different products, tried the spectrcide stuff at lowes, which didn't seem to work. (bait traps don't work unless you can get them right in the active tunnel areas. they also live under ground and NOT int he wood/house.) they prefer wet/moist areas and moist wood is easier to eat. and unlike ants termites actually EAT the lumber/wood! ants only chew through it to make homes but can make as much of not more damage as the tend to expand faster than termites. also ants are psycally larger than termites by 2~3 times. more room needed and larger tunnels.

anyhwo we had both black and red ants with the termites in her house. so cost about 2 grand plus monthly maintenance fees of 80 bucks for the ants. was a LOT of money for the 3 hrs the 2 guys were there on-location but you can't get the chemicals by you're self, anyone caught selling the chemicals to unlicenced people can get into trouble with state fed agencys, EPA or somethign similar...


I'll have to post a pic of her main support beam, luckly it is laminated 2x lumber, they ate one 2x hunk but left the others alone... I have ot cut it out and repair it yet... One thing I did find when searching the net for useable chemicals, one of the longest still in use chemicals for treatment of almost any and all inds of boring insects is "Boron/BORAX" as in the 20 mule team soap!. it works wonders according to many sorces on the net! I ended up buying about 10 boxes and treated around her place with it but only a few weeks before we got ortho involved. there are still a few little red ants, but none of the black ones or termite evidence any more... I still had a few boxes so I spread it out in my pole barn around all the wood posts even though they are treated... figured might as well use it... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I also have T1-11 with in 6" of dirt. not sure if they would KNOW it was there or not??? anyhow off to more threads .


Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[stuart]

They DO eat pressure treated wood from my experience. We had large 6x6 pressure treated timbers around the garden area in our yard and they were full of termites. Learned that after 10 years or so even pressure treated wood can be attacked by termites. I "seen" it with my own eyes.