Termites

Termites are similar in size to ordinary black ants. They are generally pale , some with darkened heads (soldiers). You are more likely though, to see their mud tracks or timber damage first. Termites like to stay hidden inside timber or their mud leads. The damage done to timber is typically in channels, or fluted.

Termites live underground in colonies of up to 1 million termites. Colonies are made up of the King and Queen, Workers, Soldiers and Alates. Worker termites are continuously sourcing food by entering homes through cracks in the concrete and through holes in wall cavities searching for wood.

Termites bite off tiny fragments of wood with their saw toothed jaws. They can cause serious damage to flooring, timber bearers, floor and ceiling joists, timber trims and skirting boards.

Keeping Termites At Bay

Many books, pamphlets and even Australian Standards have been published about termite control. These short notes are not intended as a complete authority on what to do but rather to give a brief overview of the main approaches to controlling termites in buildings.

Effective action to protect buildings from termite attack falls into two areas:

• Eradication of an existing attack to the building, and
• Prevention of an attack to the building.

Eradication of an existing attack.

In most cases (but not all) the nest of termites attacking the building can be eradicated by the pest controller:

• introducing a small amount of termiticide dust into the termite workings;
• applying a baiting system directly to the termite workings.

In some cases where sufficient termites have not been found and it is not possible for a baiting system to be applied direct to the termite workings, a bait box may be installed near the termite activity in an attempt to encourage sufficient termites into the box so that they can be treated by introducing termiticide dusts or a baiting system.

Where sufficient termites have been found direct treatment may be the best approach.

The feeding process that termites use distributes the termiticide to other colony members and will be eventually fed to the Queen. When the Queen dies the nest dies because, unlike bees, most species of termites are unable to produce a replacement queen.

It is not necessary to find the actual termite nest. The nest may be in the subfloor area of the building, in a nearby tree or across the street. The pest controller who introduces the termiticide will need to do a follow-up inspection as directed by the label attached to the termiticide used. And may in some cases will need to apply further treatment.

Note: There are some termiticide dusts that are contact poisons which kill the termites on contact. These are not for colony elimination unless they are being used to treat the actual nest when it can be found.

The term 'baiting system' has been used to describe systems that contains a termicide that the termites actually feed on and the term" bait box" has been used to describe a system that contains materials that termites like to eat such as cardboard, radiate pine or, Tasmanian oak where a termiticide may be added at a latter date should sufficient termites begin to feed on the bait material.

Where a termite attack has occurred, it is preferable to eradicate the existing attack before installing measures to prevent future attack.

Prevention of an attack.

Prevention of attack involves placing a chemical or physical barrier or a combination of both between the potential threat of termites and the building.

Chemical barriers include spraying under the concrete slab, trenching and treating the soil around the edge of the slab or treating the soil around footings and piers.

Physical barriers include the slab itself, stainless steel mesh under the slab, crushed granite (of a certain size) under the slab or around services or in cavities, ant capping on top of piers and in brick walls.

Most physical and chemical barriers rely on regular visual inspection as a backup. For example, ant capping only deters the termites. If they want to, they will build mud runs around the capping.

Regular visual inspections will detect these mud runs and termiticide dusts can be used to eradicate the attacking nest.

Chemical under the slab means the termites have to go over the edge of the slab to gain entry to the building. It is essential that the edge of the slab be exposed to view (all the time) for its entire length. Again regular visual inspections of the edge will detect entry.

If there is a garden next to a building on a slab, unless the edge of the slab is exposed to view, the garden will act as a red carpet for undetected termite entry.

If eradication using termiticide dusts is necessary, it is essential that the termites remain as undisturbed as possible and that no preventative measures are undertaken until the termiticide dust treatment has had a chance to work. Both chemical and physical barriers keep the termites in as well as out and the termites must be able to be take the termiticide dust back to the Queen to eradicate the nest.

Site hygiene

It is important to keep the building surrounds free of materials that provide easy access for termite attack. Rubble and old timber stored under or beside the building, lattice work or even non-timber infill panelling between external piers (perhaps to keep out animals) – almost anything that connects the building to ground exposes the structure to attack. Gardens against the building, plants (such as ivy) growing over the building and such things as leaking plumbing and poor subfloor ventilation all increase the risk.

It is certainly possible to erect a building with a framework of termite resistant material. Unfortunately, termites eat all sorts of things including furniture, books, paper and even the paper surface of plasterboard. The best solution is whole of house protection to build termites out.

Find out more about termite Inspections, control and Treatment.