Termite Control Termites tend to be most prevalent in the warmer countries more than the cooler ones, but if where you live is infected by timber-eating termites, regulating them ought to be towards the top of your priorities, particularly if you are a home-owner or a farmer. Of the 4,000 species of termite, about 400 of them pose a serious threat to wood buildings and crops. Ants and ant-eaters are the termites natural enemies, but this does not help man to control them, so we have resorted to chemicals. Most of the chemicals used to control termites are quite safe to humans, their pets and their livestock, although it does no harm to exercise a little vigilance whilst spreading them about. The first thing you should do if you would like to exile termites from your home, is understand a little about them. They like to consume a plank of wood beginning at the end-grain and tunneling up inside it, so before you next redecorate your house, saturate all timber in preservative and termite poison especially the end-grain. Then repaint, stain or varnish everything as normal. If you make it difficult or unappetizing for them, termites are apt to go for easier plunder. Similarly, if you have walkways, crawling spaces or air ducts, spray them with termiticide. If you have wet patches near the house cure the cause of the damp, because termites are partial to damp soil. Clear up any clutter from about the base of your house such as old leaves and weeds, because that retains moisture too. If you have a stack of garden rubbish, burn it; if you have a compost heap, turn it over regularly and inspect for termites (and carpenter ants). In a termite colony, it is only the female workers that go out and forage. They then take this back to the colony an give it to the nymphs, the soldiers and the king and queen. If you poison that food source, all those insects will die and the nymphs in the unhatched eggs will starve to death. Most termiticides act on two levels, there is the poison to get eaten, but there is also an element to the poison that kills on contact, although it might take a while. If a termite rubs up against this contact poison, it will go home sooner or later where it will groom and be groomed by its fellows, which passes the contact poison all over the nest very quickly. It can take a week or more for say 90% of the colony to get wiped out, but it could take another month or so for the remaining 10% to die, because they might be procuring their food from another source. However, sooner or later they will begin taking the dead bodies of their fallen comrades outside and as soon as they do that, they will get a brushing of contact poison too.
Once this occurs their days are numbered even if the poison is a little bit older and a little bit weaker. The trick is not to give up too early and keep checking for a reinfestation, because if they came one time, they may come back again. Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a lot of topics, but is at present concerned with the cost of termite treatment. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like? Please go to our web site now for some more information.