Thread: Ex-Terminate, Ex-Terminate...

Yeah that's the stuff of nightmares. For some reason that kind of thing has always bothered me.

Were there actual termites in it or just the remnants of an abandoned colony?

I'd be worried about where they moved on to...

Crikey Paul, I hope there were no tools left in there.

&*@!% ........ That's horrifying

Well. Certainly not what you want to see when you shift wood around.

I really hope that I don't get hit by these little blighters.

Nightmare stuff that!

If the nest is still alive, take them out & feed them to the Black Ants or Meat Ants if have any near by.

The issue of course is the whereabouts of the nest. Was it in the box or somewhere else? My gut says that the box was the nest, but I have this doubt tugging away at the back of my mind that says termites, in this part of the world, need contact with the ground. I think that is for moisture.

Anyhow I manoeuvered the box to the end of the container on pipe for rollers and onto the useless Grey Fergie some people in their deluded state call a tractor. Luckily the hydraulics were strong enough to lift it high enough for me to push it onto the tray of the ute. The box spent it's last journey in it's original intended place on the back of the ute going to the tip.

Using a hand spray I coated the area in the container that had been infected with a concoction my friendly pest exterminator said was the right stuff. Tomorrow I will go around the outside doing the same thing and then I will contact the pest man and ask him if can do something a little more serious to discourage the little critters.

The box was writhing with white ants and in the past I have taken great, and not a little sadistic, delight in watching real ants drag termites bodily from their tunnels. This time I just had to get rid of them.

No tools were harmed during this procedure.

Regards
Paul

one of the reason I got a container with a steel floor, would have been a O##### moment

H'mm, part of the problem with treating for termites these days is that it's all about protection, not tracking down and destruction. That's because all the really powerful poisons that used to be used are now banned. Is this a bad thing? Yes and no! Certainly yes if you're afflicted with the little blighters. There's no way that that box would be the nest, it's probably in a tree or pole up to 500 metres or more away! You just left enough tasty bits in the box to keep them coming back.

As far as the pest controllers (they're certainly not exterminators any more) are concerned this 'protection' caper is a nice little earner. They spray around a bit of stuff that is hardly any more potent than Mortein, set up a series of 'traps' around your property (so far you're up for a minimum $2,000) then they come back annually to check the traps and spray round more Mortein if necessary. They never look for the nest. Still if they don't have any chemicals in their arsenal strong enough to wipe it out there's probably not much point.

It's a shame all those good old poisons killed us too!!

Ah, the nostalgia of an organochlorine moment!

The irony is that I was listening to the radio in the vehicle earlier the same day as I discovered the problem and I heard somebody talking about the new method of eradicating termites. It involves giving them something to take back to the nest. They die there and rather like their black brothers, who are no relation at all as termites are not ants, clean up their own dead and in turn die themselves. Perfect, except I don't know where to get this stuff.

I really with have to talk to my friendly pest man. He is not part of any large company: Just works for himself and is 100% ethical. I would have no hesitation in recommending him to anybody, but I take the point that there are some rascals out there.

Regards
Paul

Pounce 500, 40 mL in 10 L of diesel. Won't kill the nest but it will keep them well away from where it's sprayed and kill what comes to visit. You can use water instead of the diesel provided you don't want it rainfast - diesel stops the container, tools etc rusting anyway, preserves timber handles, keeps leather supple. Handy stuff that diesel!

Oh no! Paul, I really really feel for you.
6 years ago now I found termites eating my oak roll top desk. They had made a 100mm long mud tunnel from the wall just to get to the desk ..... evil little b@stards!
They had eaten out virtually all of downstairs BUT, at a sharp boundary line just below the first floor, the damage stopped. On the undamaged side of the line stood an army of black ants!
About $90k later, the house had been fixed...... but the trauma remains!
The 'treatment' used here was hormonal/genetic. The 'chemical' (not allowed to call it POISON!) was taken back to the nest and spread through the population. The genetic damage, stops the termites from shedding their exoskeleton and so growth is stifled. The first change at MY end of their nest was a reduction in workers and I swear the queen sent out the soldiers to find them. In some areas there were ONLY soldiers. After a few more weeks the babies (nymphs?) appeared in MY damaged places apparently trying to find out where EVERYONE ELSE had gone!
Termites need moisture. SOMETIMES they have to return to ground level to get that moisture but, if there is for instance a leaking pipe or bath or sink, that means they DONT have to return to ground level. Paul, it looks like they found moisture in or near your tool box and that became a colony if not the nest itself?
Having spent many years in the power industry which is totally reliant on wooden poles stuck in the ground, you would have thought I would have more alert and aware.
I was told of a family whose house was badly damaged by termites and so they built a new one. It was a steel pier structure up to the first floor, totally open and with exaggerated ant capping. AGAIN they suffered termite damage! The little b@stards climbed to the first floor and entered the house structure by filling the telecom conduit with mud and making it a termite motorway.
Keep using the professionals, the trauma otherwise isn't worth it!
Thus endeth the rant, sorry, Fletty

What was their meal of choice ? The pine off cuts ? Or the iron bark ?