I appear to have some kind of bug infestation (not "infection", oops, can't edit the title) under my house! The dark brown stuff is dirt brought up by something that is probably making a nest behind or under the wall.

It started of like a piece of brown coral growing on top of the skirting board:

After 3 hours, one of the arms had grown a bit more. It's darker than the rest probably because it's still wet:

5 hours later, and they appear to have stopped for a rest, as it has dried out:

Maybe this is the bug equivalent of the Empire State building, and there's a bug standing at the top with a really really small pair of binoculars looking out over "The Great Void" as it is known in Bug World. Soon, they may build little cable cars going up from the floor to the top of "Bug Tower" and... and I really must stop drinking this stuff.

So, anyone know what is doing this? Is it dangerous? Is it going to spread? But, most importantly, what kind of bug spray should I squirt behind the skirting board to kill the little b*ggers?

Edited November 26, 200718 yr by JetsetBkk

Looks rather like termites, break it up and see if there are loads of little white buggers, Chaindrite do one with a long thin metal metal sprayer which get into the cracks and crevices also it is a long term spray

Fabulous pics Jetset !!!!! Think it's termites They'll eat your house if you don't kill them

Fabulous pics Jetset !!!!! Think it's termites They'll eat your house if you don't kill them

Seconded - definitely termites.

Yep termites, what you see there on the floor is called kick outs and is all the waste the ants don't use to build their tunnels. I had them build a tunnel from an electric wall socket across a 3 inch gap into an adjacent wooden cabinet, clever really.

Chaindrite powder may be best, break the tunnel and put a little inside it, the ants will then take it back and feed it to the queen, you can then kill the rest with spray.

Or alternately let Rentokil handle it. Might be more widespread than you think.

If not eradicated will come back.

cheers

onzestan

Thanks all for your posts. I've got one of those Chaindrite cans with the thin metal tube so I'll squirt a load behind the skirting board and see what happens.

This isn't the first time I've noticed the dirt on the floor there, but it's the first time it was growing like a coral. The last time it happened I poured a load of Aswin powder behind the skirting board, as there was a small gap. You can just about see it still present in the pictures. It clearly wasn't the right stuff for this problem.

So I'll give the Chaindrite a go and if they came back again I'd better see what the landlord wants to do about them.

Thanks for the help.

They're here!!!!

...but not in the same place. The Chaindrite has kept them at bay for 18 months in one place, but now they've decided to come out of one of the "injection holes" in a tile. This is the only one of about 25 to 30 of these holes where they've produced their "kick-out" towers. These holes are for injecting insecticide under the house.

The termites themselves don't come out - they just dump their unwanted dirt in my room.

They're here!!!!

...but not in the same place. The Chaindrite has kept them at bay for 18 months in one place, but now they've decided to come out of one of the "injection holes" in a tile. This is the only one of about 25 to 30 of these holes where they've produced their "kick-out" towers. These holes are for injecting insecticide under the house.

The termites themselves don't come out - they just dump their unwanted dirt in my room.

Until I noticed the post dates I was thinking that was pretty weak poison. Kinda surprising they're coming right up throught injection holes though.

Looks rather like termites, break it up and see if there are loads of little white buggers, Chaindrite do one with a long thin metal metal sprayer which get into the cracks and crevices also it is a long term spray

I use that, also. But the problem I have had is that, by the time they do something noticeable to me, they have done who knows how much damage behind the scenes.

One day I saw what looked like a small spot dirt on the wooden moulding around an archway. I tried to brush it off. The paint crumbled in. The termites had eaten right out to the paint. Once I found that damage and did the test poking with a small screw driver, found 25%-30% of the entire moulding gone plus the entire wooden wall inside the adjacent closet (wooden panel on cinder block wall).

The point of my story is that what you see is only the tip of the iceberg and I find the metal sprayed will only kill them in a very localized area. And once it loses its effectivity, the termits come back to get even.

Edited June 7, 200917 yr by noise