Termites

[roopurt5]

Well, I'm off big purchases for a bit. We are fortunate enough to have termites. So, there goes the better part of $1k, aka my tool allowance for the next while. Boo! Boooo!!!!

[db5]

Pobrecito.

[dusty]

Termites are regular and reoccurring pests here in Arizona. Every rainy season (now) the termites swarm. I have not seen any yet this year but we treat any how. We have a annual inspection (on a contract) and if they find termites the treatment to get rid of them is on the Pest Control folks.

[Ed in Tampa]

I don't about Arizona but swarms in rainy season in Florida is often carpenter ants that people confuse for termites. I think termites are two section body where ants have three. Both are about the same size and both have wings.

I did battle with some carpenter ants down in the pine tree patch we have. One tree was struck with lightning and the damaged area is where the carpenter ants love. The other tree that got hit died and it was filled with termites. Solved that problem by removing tree. Solved the carpenter ants by spraying then with some banned chemical.

[dusty]

I don't about Arizona but swarms in rainy season in Florida is often carpenter ants that people confuse for termites. I think termites are two section body where ants have three. Both are about the same size and both have wings.

I did battle with some carpenter ants down in the pine tree patch we have. One tree was struck with lightning and the damaged area is where the carpenter ants love. The other tree that got hit died and it was filled with termites. Solved that problem by removing tree. Solved the carpenter ants by spraying then with some banned chemical.

It may well be that I am wrong. All I know is that these critters swarm every season when it rains and I often find mud tunnels coming up out of the ground on the foundation. I then call for extermination service and they come to treat.

When we first bought the house, I spread chlordane powder around the foundation and "bugs no more". Can't buy it these days; at least I can't find it.

[Ed in Tampa]

Yep sounds like termites, the mud tunnel is the give away.
But are the bugs that swarm the same bugs? Never heard of subterrain termites swarming.
Dry wood termites do but they don't build mud tunnels. Suspect you have a water problem somewhere that is making wood wet which attracts termites and carpenter ants.

Extermination is great but it is far better to solve the problem of why they are attracted to your house. Of course if your house is built with untreated wood, or where wood touches concrete or ground that is a termite magnet.

[everettdavis]

In the early 1960’s when many of the homes in Lubbock had been outfitted with knotty pine paneling or wainscoting, some builders were transitioning from wood siding to brick veneer by the droves.

Accordingly, wood burning fireplaces became commonplace in the newer homes. Subsequently, it became apparent that Lubbock, not a bastion of forest firewood stores, needed more firewood.

Happily the fly-by-night firewood vultures in hope of turning a fast buck, travelled into New Mexico and other regions buying every budget piece of firewood stock they could find.

With that firewood, came the first ever termites found in Lubbock. No one connected the dots, and before long the hungry termites, and their parasitic cousins carpenter ants were devouring major parts of the city and finding the pine paneling quite irresistible.

With a ferocious and almost limitless appetite they descended upon Lubbock as if a plague of biblical proportion. None of the pest control folks were prepared for termites and they scrambled for decades to get the upper hand.

All this was decades before FHA and other lenders began to require termite treatments of the site before new construction.

I encourage you to fight them aggressively, even lay in trenches of pvc pipe with weep holes underground that pest control companies can use to continue to supply controls (if allowed in your community).


Woodworkers, cabinet shops, home owners, building supply centers, scrappers, and stockpiles of wood that had been brought in garnered very close scrutiny afterward in Lubbock.

The only thing that should eat wood in my mind are the teeth of our saws, planes, or chisels…. Not these worthless insects.

Good luck in your war.

Everett

[ERLover]

My understanding is Carpenter Ants only like moist/wet wood.
Everett, now come on, our N American Rabbits, Beaver, Elk, Moose and Deer all like to eat wood, I may have missed a few.

[Ed in Tampa]

My understanding is Carpenter Ants only like moist/wet wood.
Everett, now come on, our N American Rabbits, Beaver, Elk, Moose and Deer all like to eat wood, I may have missed a few.

Termites make wood wet or should I say keep wood wet. The start of every termite infestation I have seen was I wet wood and wood in contact with the ground. termites will build mud tunnels to get to wood if the have to bridge a dry spot.

Carpenter ants love to be around termites.

[everettdavis]

My understanding is Carpenter Ants only like moist/wet wood.
Everett, now come on, our N American Rabbits, Beaver, Elk, Moose and Deer all like to eat wood, I may have missed a few.

Never seen one of them come up from underground and eat inside my walls like termites and carpenter ants though. LOL

Indeed Carpenter Ants love moist wet wood. Termites build their mud tubes and keep them moist. They then use moisture they transport to the wood to help soften it so they then feed on cellulose in the wood, creating tunnels in the wood, providing a moist environment a Carpenter Ant is ready to occupy.