Termites

[crackers]

My wife noticed powder in the corner of our bathroom and she thinks the cause of it is termites.We had the house built 18 months ago and had the tube fitted under the house for pest control.When the house was finished we paid a pest control technician to spray the house.I think he said we should do it every 12 months,but the man who cuts the grass says we should have that done every 2 weeks so I take advice from people with a vested interest with a pinch of salt.

Anyone with advice to offer me?

[ProThaiExpat]

A complete application including the foundation areas should be done every year for a few years of new construction. Then you can taper off, assuming you have gotten rid of the many nests of termites that accompany the Thai practice of burying construction trash under a house.

Many services include a once a month surface spraying in the garden and room corners in the house as part of a package of complete control, with emergency response when you call.

Cost is Chiang Mai is about 12k a year.

I skip the monthly and have it done about once a year, 6k, but I had to have holes drilled through my floors as no pipes provided under my house. I use spary can pest control during the rest of the year.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

There is a big difference in the quality and life of the pesticide. Also the technician can save money by over diluting it to the point it does little good. You might take a small jar out when he is mixing the spray and ask him for a sample to test. Then he might decide he had better use the real thing.

They are nasty little buggers and can do very serious damage in a short time. Good luck.

[ignis]

A complete application including the foundation areas should be done every year for a few years of new construction. Then you can taper off, assuming you have gotten rid of the many nests of termites that accompany the Thai practice of burying construction trash under a house.

Many services include a once a month surface spraying in the garden and room corners in the house as part of a package of complete control, with emergency response when you call.

Cost is Chiang Mai is about 12k a year.

I skip the monthly and have it done about once a year, 6k, but I had to have holes drilled through my floors as no pipes provided under my house. I use spary can pest control during the rest of the year.

WOW that is expensive in CM, myself have the BIG yearly takes about 2hrs, then they come for surface spraying every months about 30 mins, Yearly Contract just gone up is now 3,500 baht for the year = 12 visits

[simcity]

They are pest !

The good is the work to fix the problem: change the Gibson / repaint .. exetera is pretty cheap here.

The bad is they are here to stay ! And will go for collection books and stamps is they can, passing to the electric cable / cloth and anything else.

I now get a contract ( 3 floors ) 4000 baht a year , they came 5 time plus one main work at the start of the contract.

no more problem

[chownah]

What is the powder in the bathroom corners? Bathrooms are usually made from block or brick and concrete.....usually no wood there for termites to eat. The bathroom seems like an unlikely place to find termites although the water there would certainly help them to live. Is there wood in your bathroom?

Chownah

Edited December 27, 2007 by chownah

[crackers]

I don't know what the powder is my wife says it is from the wood used in the base of the house.There is no wood in the bathroom all the rooms are tiled except the lounge which is teak parquet,The windows are aluminium,but the doors are teak.

can we do the job ourselves,or buy the insectaside and pay labour only to ensure they use correct amount.

What is the powder in the bathroom corners? Bathrooms are usually made from block or brick and concrete.....usually no wood there for termites to eat. The bathroom seems like an unlikely place to find termites although the water there would certainly help them to live. Is there wood in your bathroom?

Chownah

[crackers]

A complete application including the foundation areas should be done every year for a few years of new construction. Then you can taper off, assuming you have gotten rid of the many nests of termites that accompany the Thai practice of burying construction trash under a house.

Many services include a once a month surface spraying in the garden and room corners in the house as part of a package of complete control, with emergency response when you call.

Cost is Chiang Mai is about 12k a year.

I skip the monthly and have it done about once a year, 6k, but I had to have holes drilled through my floors as no pipes provided under my house. I use spary can pest control during the rest of the year.

WOW that is expensive in CM, myself have the BIG yearly takes about 2hrs, then they come for surface spraying every months about 30 mins, Yearly Contract just gone up is now 3,500 baht for the year = 12 visits

Have you got the phone number of the company?

[chownah]

I don't know what the powder is my wife says it is from the wood used in the base of the house.There is no wood in the bathroom all the rooms are tiled except the lounge which is teak parquet,The windows are aluminium,but the doors are teak.

can we do the job ourselves,or buy the insectaside and pay labour only to ensure they use correct amount.

What is the powder in the bathroom corners? Bathrooms are usually made from block or brick and concrete.....usually no wood there for termites to eat. The bathroom seems like an unlikely place to find termites although the water there would certainly help them to live. Is there wood in your bathroom?

Chownah

I've never heard of termites bringing powdered wood into a room which contains no wood and leaving it in the corners. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to flame you or anything like that but it just doesn't make sense since I've never heard of anything like this and can not imagine why an insect which shuns light would carry powdered wood into a room and deposit it in the corners. If you want to consider doing it yourself (I would want to do it myself to be sure I didn't get poisoned by incompetant workers) then the first thing to do is to positively identify where the termites are living and what wood they are destroying......finding powdered wood (presumably it is powdered wood.....you should collect some and see just exactly what it is) in a room which has no wood is not much help. Could it be that the ceilling has a wood frame (ours does) and there is some bug munching on the wood at the corners and the debris from its eating is falling down into the corners? We have had a bug that left little piles of powdered wood under where it ate but it was not a termite..it was some other bug...no matter as it still needs to be taken care of.....I'd check in the bathroom ceiling at the corners and see what you can see.

Chownah

[thaipete]

I don't know what the powder is my wife says it is from the wood used in the base of the house.There is no wood in the bathroom all the rooms are tiled except the lounge which is teak parquet,The windows are aluminium,but the doors are teak.

can we do the job ourselves,or buy the insectaside and pay labour only to ensure they use correct amount.

What is the powder in the bathroom corners? Bathrooms are usually made from block or brick and concrete.....usually no wood there for termites to eat. The bathroom seems like an unlikely place to find termites although the water there would certainly help them to live. Is there wood in your bathroom?

Chownah

I've never heard of termites bringing powdered wood into a room which contains no wood and leaving it in the corners. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to flame you or anything like that but it just doesn't make sense since I've never heard of anything like this and can not imagine why an insect which shuns light would carry powdered wood into a room and deposit it in the corners. If you want to consider doing it yourself (I would want to do it myself to be sure I didn't get poisoned by incompetant workers) then the first thing to do is to positively identify where the termites are living and what wood they are destroying......finding powdered wood (presumably it is powdered wood.....you should collect some and see just exactly what it is) in a room which has no wood is not much help. Could it be that the ceilling has a wood frame (ours does) and there is some bug munching on the wood at the corners and the debris from its eating is falling down into the corners? We have had a bug that left little piles of powdered wood under where it ate but it was not a termite..it was some other bug...no matter as it still needs to be taken care of.....I'd check in the bathroom ceiling at the corners and see what you can see.

Chownah

if there is wood above or below the little buggers will come there

[thaipete]

I don't know what the powder is my wife says it is from the wood used in the base of the house.There is no wood in the bathroom all the rooms are tiled except the lounge which is teak parquet,The windows are aluminium,but the doors are teak.

can we do the job ourselves,or buy the insectaside and pay labour only to ensure they use correct amount.

What is the powder in the bathroom corners? Bathrooms are usually made from block or brick and concrete.....usually no wood there for termites to eat. The bathroom seems like an unlikely place to find termites although the water there would certainly help them to live. Is there wood in your bathroom?

Chownah

I had full teak parquet tiling but Thai termites have learnt to eat it with vigour and could be heard munching it from a distance

[ignis]

A complete application including the foundation areas should be done every year for a few years of new construction. Then you can taper off, assuming you have gotten rid of the many nests of termites that accompany the Thai practice of burying construction trash under a house.

Many services include a once a month surface spraying in the garden and room corners in the house as part of a package of complete control, with emergency response when you call.

Cost is Chiang Mai is about 12k a year.

I skip the monthly and have it done about once a year, 6k, but I had to have holes drilled through my floors as no pipes provided under my house. I use spary can pest control during the rest of the year.

WOW that is expensive in CM, myself have the BIG yearly takes about 2hrs, then they come for surface spraying every months about 30 mins, Yearly Contract just gone up is now 3,500 baht for the year = 12 visits

Have you got the phone number of the company?

Yes but do you live in the Sai Noi area ?? [50 km North/West of BKK]

[Rimmer]

The 'powdered wood' is called 'kick outs' and is the waste excrement from the ants that they kick out of their tunnel.

[JetsetBkk]

The 'powdered wood' is called 'kick outs' and is the waste excrement from the ants that they kick out of their tunnel.

Correct - have a look at this other thread (with pictures!): http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...155551&st=0

[chownah]

JetsetBKK's picture is believable....there is wood there to attract the termites....the original poster said tha there was no wood in his bathroom but there was wood dust in the corners....I'm still waiting for verification that indeed it is wood dust and if so where is the wood that is it's source?

Also, my experience is that often termites make the structures like in JetsetBKK's picture from dirt and sand particles and not from wood....they are making a tunnel so that they can stay in the dark while looking for more wood I think.

Chownah

[Eff1n2ret]

Could it be the door frame? We have a modern concrete/brick/tile/laminate house, but termites have attacked the door frame of one of our bathrooms, the only bit of wood there.

[Lazy Sod]

I was surprised to discover they eat the paper either side of older gypsum ceilings, perhaps the bathroom has a gypsum ceiling and the powder is falling down from the join with the wall. Seen it before. We bought a 2nd house and discovered it was infested with termites. Had to change the wooden floors and gypsum ceilings downstairs. They had not reached upstairs. Tell tale signs of them eating gypsum are bubbles appearing in the gypsum, when you press on the bubble you discover there is nothing behind, it's just paint. We employed ads.co.th and they seem to have got rid of the termites. We ripped out the wooden floors and gypsum, then ads drilled about 15 holes all around the ground floor and flooded it with pesticide. We then laid a marble floor and new gypsum celings. That was 2 years ago and no sign of termites since, the ground floor is resprayed every year. By the way, I heard that now is the dormant season for termites, they are most active through the rainy season as they need lots of moisture around the nest, so perhaps you don't have termites, or perhaps you do and have a leak.

My advice, don't have wooden floors, especially on the ground floor, as it attracts them, and have upvc or teak doors and windows. I heard there is also a new type of gypsum that is treated for termites. At the end of the day, you've just gotta get rid of the food and water source, and flood the ground with pesticide regularly, or they'll eventually come back.

[JetsetBkk]

Also, my experience is that often termites make the structures like in JetsetBKK's picture from dirt and sand particles and not from wood....they are making a tunnel so that they can stay in the dark while looking for more wood I think.

Chownah

Absolutely - the stuff they made the 'tower' from was dirt, not wood. Once sprayed with kitchen cleaner, it collapsed and formed a very, VERY gritty mess that was easily wiped up with paper tissue. But you could feel - and hear - that it was dirt or grit, not wood.