Termites

[goodguy]

Just looked under the house and found a what seems to be a small infestation on the few scraps of wood accidentally left there when they built our house. Can I buy a spray or chemical locally to use under the house, and how would I do it?

GG

[Sir Burr]

I had a large mound in my garden about four months ago. I chipped away at it and sprayed Shelldrite termite killer into the nest. This did not stop the mound growing.

A month ago, I called in a professional pest control company. They looked around my garden and found seven smaller mounds. They told me that unless you kill the queen, I would always have a termite problem.

They took a pick-axe to the large mound and located the queen deep underground, further away than any spray could reach, and killed her.

They pick-axed the seven other smaller mounds, but no queens were found. The guy reckoned that these were satellite mounds that had originated from the progeny of the original mound, but, a queen had not yet been born as the mounds were still being made. If I hadn't of destroyed them, I would have ended up with eight mounds, all with queens.

You will have to look around and find the mound with the queen and destroy her, otherwise they will just keep coming back.

If I were you, I would call in a pest control company.

[chownah]

Around here all you have to do is remove the wood and you have solved the problem....but if you want to be sure there is a product which is a thick white liquid which you mix with water and then apply to the dirt....Shelldrite makes it and there are other brands too. We treated the soil under the concrete slab for our house before we laid the concrete.....I'm not sure if its really necessary around here (I live in the north) because our termite problem is not as bad as down south. My friends house in Hua Hin has three or four brass fitting in the concrete floor on the ground floor and a company comes every so often and puts some poison in them. My friend says that this keeps the ants away too. I think many people tend to overdo it on the poison....but maybe its because I'm an organic farmer and have that sort of bias.

[roiet]

I eliminate mounds with water hose treatment. Stick the hose up to 50 cm in the ground and let the water run for 10 min. Around the house drop some garlic cloves like a barrier. They eat the garlic and never come back again. Repeat it once a month.

[GuestHouse]

Chickens love eating termites.

[astral]

Chickens love eating termites.

I wish I had know that, but I don't think they would have been much good in my bedroom.

I have been paying out for years to Rentokill with out much success,

the nasty little white ants keep coming back.

[blabbel]

Lots of chicken on our land, this doesn't keep the insects away at all.

I have an ongoing personal war with ants and termites, anything near the house I'll dig up and drown the lot in boiling water, they keep coming back periodically, specially after heavy rains, so I keep winning battles, but the war isn't over yet...