Argh! Is my house standing on a giant termite colony?

[Tapster]

Hi,

We moved into a ten-year-old house, five months ago.

Today I went under the house and was surprised by how fertile the earth there looked.

I thought, "possible worm activity?". The surface was soft, even and crumbly.

Looking closer, I saw kinda-worm-casts on the surface but then realised that these were little earth tubes.

Then there's this wood.

I think this is the action of termites, don't you?

Please see photos further down.................

It's under the entire house

Now, our house is constructed of inedible materials. The only wooden things are the internal door frames and a couple of shutter doors way up in the roof.

Do I need to be concerned?

Advice please.

[worgeordie]

Yes Termites,good luck trying to get rid of them, kill them in one place

and they pop up somewhere else.its a never ending task,as the Queen

in the colony could be many meters away,

regards worgeordie

[Tapster]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

[Tapster]

So, Pekka, do you have a lot of wood in your house?

Do I need to worry about mine?

[Happy Grumpy]

Could be worse.

You didn't tell me that the house was built on an ANCIENT INDIAN BURIAL GROUND!

NO, YOU DIDN'T!

Yeah, well, that's not my recollection.

What did he say Homer?

He said he told me numerous times.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Happy Grumpy

[peterjackson]

Buy some Bifenthrin 8% or 10% and dilute to the correct ratio for termite eradication. Highly effective. It will also eradicate a whole host of other insects/bugs too.

When I lived in Florida, this product saved me a fortune on pesticide/insecticide/termitcide company applications. Do a google search for 'Lesco Crosscheck Plus' for the dilution ratios and list of things it is recommended for.

I think in Thailand the 10% liquid will be the most common.

[Tapster]

@PeterJackson

Many thanks.

I'll check it out.

[JetsetBkk]

Termites? What termites?

Just get "7 Pest Control" to sort them out. They'll drill holes through the floor and pump chlorpyrifos down them. That'll kill the little booggers.

[JetsetBkk]

And be careful accepting other people's unwanted termite infested furniture...

[NamKangMan]

You never mentioned if you are renting, or purchased the place.

If you are renting, what's the problem?

If you purchased, the best solution is to sell the place to another starry eyed farang - just like the bars are sold here.

[Naam]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

only when the doors fall off their frames

[keestha]

Welcome to the club Tapster. Check out a recent thread here scroll down a bit and soon the discussion turns to termites.

Edited May 4, 2015 by keestha

[KarenBravo]

I've seen termites chewing through gypsum.

[hansgruber]

They hate used motor oil. Go to a garage and ask for a few litres or keep your own when you service the car. They won't go near it and flee the nest in droves if you pour it directly in.

Has to be used motor oil.

[T_Dog]

Tapster... There was likely discarded wood there that they have been munching on. Be on the look out for tubes going up into your house as they will eat a wood floor like they tried in a rental house we were in once. Otherwise, probably not much to worry about and they will move on when the food is gone. Termites are one of the most common inhabitants of planet earth!

[Old Croc]

THIS is a giant termite colony:

[xylophone]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

only when the doors fall off their frames

The comment made me chuckle a little, however I have seen the damage that these little buggers can do, even to concrete houses!!!!

If you have any wood in the house at all, then it could be in danger of being eaten. Here in Patong I saw a concrete house which only had wooden door frames and a wooden kitchen, and these had been totally eaten away by termites. They had come up through a little gap in the concrete under the stairs and eaten the insides of everything away, until there was just a shell standing.

And they also eat the paper lining on the back of Gip-board and by the looks of things some of the Gypsum as well!! Don't rest with these things, get some treatment to eradicate them ASAP.

[ronthai]

Hope it was a cheap house. Good luck selling it, whatever will be left of it pretty soon.

TIP: Next house, look before you buy (or rent)

[heybuz]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

only when the doors fall off their frames

my door jambs are plastic

Edited May 5, 2015 by heybuz

[duckmandon]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

Termites can be treated regularly to keep them away from your property, I have my house checked & treated under contract every 2 months. Due soon for renewal. The termites will not eat you house but they can enter into a concrete building & do some damage to cupboards, wardrobes etc. They like dark areas & moisture & of course most wood. Hope this helps , if it was me have them treated.

[Sydebolle]

What can, repeat can, happen is the following (and it happened to me).

During construction door frames are positioned with support into place and then the floor is finished (concrete pump, whatever). What gets forgotten quite often is, that the door frames ends at the bottom are not completely covered with concrete and usually are just stuck into the earth. This will allow termites to eat their way through door frames into the house; they feast on certain grout (pouf - and your tiles fall off the wall), anything woody except teak (teak contains a kind of resin the termites don't like). If you have your electricity wired in yellow plastic tubes it provides open highways for those buggers.

So, if I would be you I would have a professional pest control company analyzing the situation which could result in drilling a hole into each and every door frame footing followed by spraying (non-toxic) pesticide into the hole; likewise cover the entire area under your house with pesticide - and repeat the procedure on a regular basis.

[Bredbury Blue]

We thought we had moisture behind a bathroom mirror. Friend suggested it was termites. Got the termite people in who found termites eating behind the mirror the bathroom ceiling and the adjoining living room ceiling. We had to have all renewed. Had termite service since...no problems.

[Gandtee]

And be careful accepting other people's unwanted termite infested furniture...

This video is worthy of a slot on a television nature program.

[The Deerhunter]

Chaindrite is commonly available in Thailand. It is available as a thick white liquid 700-800 Bt a litre. Mix 1/60 with water & spray. It was originally developed in South Africa for putting underground to prevent termites entering house support posts from below. It is also available in big drums as a black liquid (looks like it is mainly creosote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote) which is then mixed with turpentine and painted on wood as a termite preventer. Chaindrite is dynamite on ants & termites. Never assume one application is the final job. Miss one little place & they start again but will avoid (or die) if they try eating something you have treated. They make little covered highways out of clay & spit as in your photos. They will keep eating wood paper, cardboard until all gone or you kill them. To paraphrase Neil Young, "Rust & termites never sleep."

[yieldman]

Termites don't like water. A common treatment in Fiji is to soak the ground repeatedly until it is saturated. After that keep it moist by spraying water around the house with a garden hose every day.

[emilymat]

When I first came over here I bought the 'show house' on a new estate. It had 'fitted' wardrobe's and kitchen cabinets etc etc.

I was told it was termite treated at the time, and, being new here, I took their word.

After 4 years living I suddenly noticed one of the door frames sounded 'hollow' when I tapped it. On further investigation I was horrified that the back of all the wardrobes and kitchen cabinets were all rotten. (You could not see the damage under normal circumstances as the white covering formica type material looked OK. It was behind that where the problem lay).

Anyway I had the wardrobes ripped out and the kitchen and door frames replaced. I then sold the house.

Obviously I had a barney with the estate about the treatment, but to no avail. Just a 'shrug of the shoulders'.

Two lessons I learned from this.

1. I accept I should have paid for annual checks. My only defence is termites had never been an issue back in the UK. You can't see the damage until it's too late.

2. In retrospect, I would have been better having my own furniture that could be moved away from the walls, rather than nailed on.

I now rent.

The OP should continue to be alert to the problem, rather than complacent like I obviously was.

[Kerryd]

I get the occasional termite infestation, usually around the door frames or snaking across/down the wall from an opening in the ceiling or wall (like electrical sockets and where the roof drain pipe comes in in the back of the house). A friend suggested I get a contractor to drill holes throughout the house and pour the insecticide in.

I said to him "That's great, but what about the termites that come in from the neighbour's house, or the queens that fly though the front door from outside somewhere. Or the termites that apparently come in from the gap between the ceiling and the roof ?". He was under the impression that they only came in from under the house. I actually caught one (with wings) while we were sitting in a coffee shop one day and showed him.

When ever I see a telltale sign of a new infestation I immediately soak the snot out of the budding "tube" with bug spray from wherever it started to the end. Leave if for a couple days then scrape the junk off and give the area a wipe with Windex.

Roof drain pipe where it comes in from the ceiling at the back of the house.

In other areas were I've seen the little buggars but they haven't started making their "tubes" yet, I'll dose the area with that white powder that is good for termites, ants, cockroaches and some kind of beetles apparently.

I just did a quick read on termites and yeah, at a certain point in their cycle a pair of "winged" termites will fly off and try to find a suitable place to make a new colony. A 2007 study done in China seems to indicate that the "alate" (winged mating pairs) can travel up to 500 meters from their original colony (in some cases almost 800 meters, depending on wind/weather conditions). Every so often I've noticed a bunch of large discarded "wings" in the carport. I figured they'd just blown in with the wind, until the other day when I moved a shoe stand and a rather large mouse ran out (fortunately he ran away from the door and out into the street instead of into the house) ! It looks like he was catching and eating the winged termites and the breezes would swirl the left-over wings into a corner of the carport. At least, that's what I hope was happening !

Needless to say, I'm not going to pay someone to drill holes in my home to kill bugs that are just going to fly in through the roof/doors/windows/etc. However, there are a number of subterranean species that do live in the ground and if you are in an area with lots of termite "mounds" around, then the drilling/chemical treatment may be of use.

[Tapster]

Very many grateful thanks to everyone!

There's some great advice here, and salutary tales which have curled my toes, so I'm not going to be complacent!

I'll get those little bastards!!

[radiochaser]

Well, yes.

But, with my fairly inedible house, should I be bothered?

only when the doors fall off their frames

So, you have been looking at the door frames of the concrete building that I stay in, when in Thailand have you?

[Bulldozer Dawn]

They hate used motor oil. Go to a garage and ask for a few litres or keep your own when you service the car. They won't go near it and flee the nest in droves if you pour it directly in.

Has to be used motor oil.

Wow Hans.

Such a great suggestion from someone who frequently comments here about the pollution washing out to Phuket's beaches from its klongs.

To the Op, as the wise NKM suggests, if you rent, cruize on. If you own, be aware that termites can also eat concrete and gypsum. There is also the problem of concrete foundations settling and cracking because of nesting beneath.