So what can you do to protect your home?

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The “in-depth” document is in the Downloads section of this website. This is the abridged version.

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“Integrated pest management” or IPM is modern jargon for doing different things to compound the effort and get better control than doing just one thing. Your options include:

• Reducing temptation
• Physical and chemical barriers
• Monitoring devices and 
• Regular inspections. 

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Reducing temptation

Now you know the serious termites start their nest in even small bits of wood in the soil and take a couple of years to get into houses, sheds, fences, loading ramps, etc., you can reduce their chances of success by using pre-treated timber and if you are keeping bits of timber in case they come in handy one day, stack it on blocks above ground so you can look underneath for the tell-tale tunnels.

If you are storing cellulose material (tax papers, books, photos, cupboards, etc) in a shed or basement with a concrete floor, do not place the boxes across any expansion joints or cracks in the slab. A crack 3mm or wider will allow termites access and you won’t know about it until too late.

We surround our homes with plants we water and mulch to retain water and reduce weed growth. Nothing wrong with that, however the top level of the soil/mulch must be 100mm (4”) or more below the dampcourse and weepholes and plants must not block your view of those weepholes.  

If termites are about, you will usually find them foraging through mulch and if they stayed in the mulch, OK but being inherently sneaky, don’t count on it.  

At least have some monitors or TermiteTraps in the garden so you get to know about it early and you can treat and eliminate that colony. If you are lucky enough to live in a house that has suspended floors, at least you can get under (hopefully) and check for termite tunnels up the foundations.

Don’t store cellulose material under there. Steps, retaining walls, garden seats, decking and anything else made of wood is an enticement; they need to be regularly checked.

Additions such as pergolas, BBQs, cubby houses and dog kennels can act as a bridge across from soil to building. Ensure there are no termite tracks up the galvanised stirrups or across to the building.

Eucalypts and fruit or other trees that develop a hollow “pipe” up the centre as they age should not be near buildings. If they are, check them regularly.

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Barriers

The pesticides that once gave 30-40 years of protection were phased out over 20 years ago.

The current insecticides are warranted for 5-10 years  which really means if your house is more than 10 years old the chemical barrier has probably degraded. 

Protective mesh, granite or glass granules, top-up reticulation systems and such are great to keep the termites from coming up from the underfloor soil. There are Australian Standards for the application of physical and chemical barriers and all buildings have to have barriers included during construction according to Council/Shire regulations.

Once a house is built (especially concrete slab-on-ground foundations) it is almost impossible to re-apply a chemical barrier to 100%. Drilling and pressure injection through the concrete throughout the house is an upheaval most homeowners don’t want. The perimeter drilling of paths and paving, although less time consuming and therefore less expensive, is also not 100%. Besides, the job needs doing again in another 10 years.

If your house was constructed with a reticulation system specifically for re application of chemicals, the first part of this paragraph may not apply.But, barriers do degrade. And they are often breached. Whenever you see a TV news item on the devastation of a termite attack, it is usually because a barrier has failed or been by-passed by the ingenuity of foraging termites.This is why, about a decade ago, the professional pest management industry began to add monitoring stations around the outside of buildings. Detecting and killing off colonies from around the house became another, “integrated” activity, to support the barriers.

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Monitors and aggregation devices

Because termites do not depend on a single source of food, placing monitors outside means termites looking for new food sources generally find such a device which can be treated with a transferrable insecticide for the workers to take back to the nest.

We’re biased, but we believe the TermiteTraps give you a high probability chance of intercepting foraging termites and killing their colonies. We don’t claim anything more... except that you are in charge and it won’t cost you as much as the professional systems.

You can make your own aggregation device to attract termites up through the expansion joints in concrete slab floors. See TheBookOnTermites.com.au for ideas.

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Inspections

You won’t have the experience and formal knowledge of a professional and you won’t have the thermal imaging and sounding equipment they have. However,  a comparison between what you can do and what professionals generally don’t do has already been made in the section above (weaknesses).

I suggest you inspect your home and other structures during the first week of Spring and the first week of Autumn.

Why then?

Because it is not too hot up in your roof void or too cold for termites to be foraging around. If termites are actually eating a building timber, they usually do so all-year round, but in very cold days in mid Winter, they may not be inside a damaged timber you find and when you open up a small investigation hole, you might think it is old damage and they’ve gone. It just may be they took the day off!

So check it again on a warmer day.The How-To guide contains the principles of inspections: where to look and what to look for and is worth a read to see if you feel confident enough to do your own inspections.

Just remember, your house is worth a lot of dollars and termite attack can be expensive.

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Killing Termites

There is no better, more reliable method of eliminating a colony than having the termite workers carry the treatment bait back to their own nest.

Good pest technicians will always choose this method if the active termites haven’t been frightened off. When you begin feeding termites and you have to add more feed a few, or several times, you know they haven’t been scared off; you know food is disappearing and going back to the nest and when it gradually eases to no live termites... you’d have every reason to be confident of success.

Technicians have the options of powders and foams which do not kill the workers immediately and some chemical is transferred back and may well kill the nest.

But you can’t be sure. If say, the inside of the timber has been made too dusty, termites may just abandon that dust-treated area and go around it.

A follow up check may show empty termite galleries, but pronouncing a dead colony is more like hopeful thinking. If you find a termite mound within 100 metres of a building, you should probably open it up with a pick, mattock or crowbar and let the echidnas or ants do their job.

A water-diluted insecticide could be added if the mound is close to the house and you want to be absolutely sure of killing the queen at the bottom of the nest. In this case, follow the dilution instructions on the label but add at least 20 litres of the dilute solution (two watering cans or two bucketsful) so that liquid will percolate down to the queen.

There is greater detail on treating termite mounds, and termites in trees, in TheBookOnTermites download, including the names of appropriate insecticides. 

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Treatment of active termites already eating your house.

If you discover termite mud or hollow architraves etc in your home, do not disturb the area, do not investigate the extent of the damage. If it’s too late and you’ve done this, you have only exposed and killed off a few thousand termites.

The workers will just close off the access tunnel back closer to the nest.

Those dead termites will be replaced in just a couple of days of egg-laying by the queen. More importantly, there will be no live termites that might have been treated successfully by the carry-back method.

You should look at adjacent timbers carefully. Same room, next room. Up in the roof, foundations. If you find hollowed timber and live termites, make only a small hole about 5mm when you investigate. Then follow the How-To Guide.

If you can’t find any more termites, you are faced with putting things back (even making repairs) and waiting. Inspect every month for 3 months and then every 3 months.

Put TermiteTraps outside close to the affected rooms and monitor them as usual. Chances are good (but not guaranteed) that termites will show themselves and you’ll be able to feed and kill them before any more significant damage occurs.