Thread: Pesky lil varments!!!

mmm..depend son yr view dirtgirl...
best way is to cut the tree down and pour kerosene on ALL the ants..
killing them...keeping them from breeding and gettintop yr other trees

then plant more trees

in the ecosystem the ants provide and strong role in breaking dead and older timbers down..in yr yard u need ot make sure trees are safe so cutting dead bits helps...

i am not sure if the termidor or any other product will help all the way....
best to get rid of them and move/burn aloder dead timbers that termites love.....

good luck

For baiting to work there needs to be a lot of termite activity. There needs to be large and active galleries at the bait station for enough poison to be transported back to the colony.
If there is not a great deal of activity in the tree, it will take a while to get a viable bait site working. So just poison the ones that are there.

P.S. watch out for the bait stations that are being sold for a lot of money i.e with computerized tracking. It is all rubbish and are just meant to make you feel secure. If you do need to bait them read the CSIROs termites and in particular the info on making a bait station.
http://www.ffp.csiro.au/publicat/articles/baitbox/

On the other hand... just ignore them. They are happy where they are making nests for possums and native birds. They might happily live in the tree for hundreds of years without doing any harm at all. Meanwhile check the house access points carefully once or twice a year. There are dozens of types of termites and most of them are never noticed and never do any harm to human habitation. If they are not in the house they are not a problem.

Thanks, I never really thought about doing nothing!! A case of termiphobia. We have timber stored under the house which is a qlder, so timber everything upstairs too. Might play it safe, the tree housing the termites has to go, it is pretty well stuffed (don't want it in the dining room next storm season).

Hi, i think you have already visited our site, but i will give some advice here as well.
The tree will need to be treated.
Or you can cut the tree down and grind out the stump.
The nest is normally between the first branch and root balls of the tree.

$100 is a good price to treat a tree.
Termidor is suppose to have that abilitity to pass on the chemical to other termites as well.

That way you can keep it.

The first thing to do would be to establish what spicies the little buggers are.
There are haeps of tremites out there only a few spicies are interested in eating your house.
Many of the types that build a nest op a tree wont bother your house.
Speak to a pest controller who knows his stuff and isnt just wanting to sell you a treatment or perhaps contact the DPI.

cheers

Thanks guys, I've had 2 pest dudes look and both say the termites are a house munching variety. The wooden stumps (soon to be replaced) have been treated by previous owners, and inspection of the roof cavity shows some old damage, nothing too serious thankfully. The tree was drilled last Friday (it did have a hollow in the base which was probably the nest) and treated with termidor. Cost was only $77 and the pest guy had a new name for Friday - "POETS" day - P... Off Early Tomorrows Saturday, so I got a laugh thrown in!!!!

Is the tree for the chop?
What spicies is the tree?
Do you have plans for the tree afterwards?

The tree looks to be an ornamental gum, probably a red flowering one. It has rough bark and the sap wood is riddled with termite furrows, don't know what the heart will be like. We used to have a saw bench, my hubby built it for a friend in exchange for its use (we lived out of town then and were building a timber home). Nabbed some good ironbark that come down after huge storm one time, the old fordson earned her oil that day! Anyway, the tree will probably keep us warm this winter soundman, it is not straight and is forked pretty close to the base into three so size is small. We have some reasonable silky oak in the yard(2) and some other varieties I have never seen before, one is a nasty piece of work with thorns up the trunk and branches, some look cedarish but not sure. If you know of any good sites for tree identification they would be much appreciated.
Cheers, M