Termites! Turns out I have subterranean termites in my house. Doesn't look too bad- they haven't reached the attic yet. I've had one quote for trenching and drilling and treating w/ Premise. $1200. Anybody know about termite treatment? What chemicals are best? (I know, chlordane) How much should it cost? Recommended contractors? In FL termites are very common. Put a piece of fresh wood on the ground, they'll find it within weeks. I guess we've been lucky.

 

I had a WDI license at one time and Sub Termites are easy to kill. Their achilles heel is that they must return to the ground for moisture every day. That's where you get them. You can go to Home depot and buy a termiticide which is a magnum dose of Dursban usually. The Cloros have been banned by the Gov't for years. Just apply to all exposed wood, trench around any areas in contact with the ground and fill it up with the solution. If you have tubes running up the foundation, knock them down and trench that area out, fill with solution. You can probably do this yourself for around $100. The termite business is a scam. I had a spray rig and with one gallon of concentrate was able to mix 100 gallons of chemical. This would treat the average size home. Take me an hour or so and the chemical costs about $120. There is that much profit in the termite business. So don't pay $1200.

 

C 4 might do the trick

 

I think that Dursban has been banned also. There are other treatments now that use bait in a plastic containers buried in the yard around the house. Use Google and find out what you can about treatment and prevention.

 

You can still buy Dursban, at least until the stock runs out, so check you local CO-OP. If you have a home with a crawl space all you have to do is dig a small trench near the foundation both outside and under the the house, and apply chemical. If your home is slab foundation you need to drill holes in the floor next to the walls every 12 to 18 inches or so, also dig a small trench along outside and apply chemical.

Basically if you know where they are located you can just spot treat that area. Even if you do, it would be a good idea to still dig a trench and treat around the rest of the house.

As for Chloridane (SP?), it's been banned for a while.

 

Try this:

http://www.dowagro.com/sentricon/us/index.htm

 

The problem w/ baits (I think Sentricon is one) is that they take months to work. My termites already HAVE a source of food! I would treat it myself, but I want to get on a yearly maintenence/warranty set-up. Once you've had termites, you have to disclose it (or lie) when you sell your house. If you tell them you did it yourself, or can't prove you had professional treatment, the deal would probably be dead. We plan to move in 3-5 years, so I need to take care of this properly. I'm trying to find out which contractors/chemicals work best. I know, they're all over-priced, but I should have had the house under contract all along. I'm lucky there doesn't appear to be structural damage so far.

 

Be sure then to check with the local guys. I had a guy treat mine with termidor. It took him and two other guys about six hours. They totally removed any loose wood from the crawl and around my entire house before trenching around it. He also trenched and drilled the foundation underneath. It was $850. My father had his done twice. Once with spot treating, and all it did was drive them to the other side of the house. Second time with terminex at about $2300.

The guy I used was a local, and he said that once applied, the terimdor lasts unless you have a flood or other catastrophe. His included the yearly maint. but it was simply just to reinspect and spot treat if neccessary ($25 year) but said he has never had to treat again.

 

Terminex came in at $990 using termidor. They'll keep it under waranty for $225/year including structural damage repair. Truly Nolen was more expensive, and no structural guarantee. Next week a local is coming; we'll see what he says.

 

Make sure you can actually see living termites running back and forth and that you are not treating an older dead colony to line someone's pocket.

 

No, we saw the termites; I moved some stuff in the closet exposing the mud tubes, and live termites were dropping out of 'em.

 

Sounds a bit high for annual warranty extension. The folks who did ours charged $900 for full treatment (w/5 year warranty at no extra cost) and $50/year to extend beyond the first five. Of course there is no structural damage repair with that.

Scott

 

Termites are rampant in FL- estimated 7 colonies per acre in our dense suburbs. At 6 houses to the acre- you're gonna have termites. Terminix was the only one to offer a structural repair guarantee. 2 others would not extend their contract beyond 5 years without a complete re-treatment. All were over $150/year.

 

Sorry to hear that...sounds like a regional thing where you're taken advantage of... based on where you live.

Like here in Maryland (where I work), house prices have gone absolutely through the roof - a 3 bedroom townhome sells for $250k to $500k depending on location. Don't even think about buying a single-family-home for less than $300k. All because of the high-paying jobs in the area. When we moved back to Ky in Nov/Dec 01, we sold our townhome for $169,900...now that same townhome will bring $250k! Is that unreal or what???

Scott