Termite Inspection Orange County Termite Terry Pest Control

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, South Orange County, Long Beach Area

The Case Of The Elusive Ants

Several years ago on a hot summer day in Orange County, Termite Terry got a call from a client who said that he had ants everywhere in his house and needed help. They discussed the problem for a couple of minutes and scheduled an appointment.

Termite Terry arrived at the house later that afternoon and asked if the client would show him around. They saw ants in almost every single room. When they went outside, large trails of ants could be seen crawling on the walls and all around the house. Termite Terry told the client that this was not going to be an easy job and asked for permission to inspect the house.

Termite Terry started his inspection by making a drawing of the home. He went back through every room and all around the house, noting all of the areas where he saw ants.
After he finished his inspection, Termite Terry showed the client what he had found. They both agreed that this home needed to be put on a monthly pest control service plan.
Termite Terry knew this project was going to be tough, so he scheduled a time when he could meet with his technician to do the initial service.

They both worked together and did a very detailed treatment on the inside of this home. Safety is always a top concern, so they only applied the pest control products in all of the cracks and crevices where the ants were hanging out. They didn’t put anything down in areas where the family members or pets could be exposed to these products.

When they went outside, Termite Terry told his technician that the first thing they needed to do was to find the nests where these ants were coming from. This takes a lot of time because you’ve got to keep following trails of ants until you find the source. Every time they found a nest, the tech would simply apply his product directly into the hole where the ants were living. By doing this type of treatment, they were able to eliminate many thousands of ants. This targeted type of treatment is also better for the environment because less insecticide is needed.

They left the house several hours later, thinking that they had done a pretty good job.

The client called a couple of days later and said that he was still seeing ants inside of his home. Termite Terry told the client that this sometimes happens and he scheduled a time to go back to do more treatment.

When Termite Terry and his tech got back to the client’s house, they started by inspecting the exterior because Argentine ants live outdoors and usually only go into homes for food and water. The good news was that no ants were found on the outside – their exterior treatment had been successful. The bad news was that there were still some ants on the inside. Worse yet, they could not find where the ants were coming from.

Terry and his tech did some additional treatment that day and told the client to let them know if the problem persisted.
Unfortunately, the problem did not go away and they wound up having to go back and do several more treatments.

After several weeks of these repeated visits, the client told Termite Terry that he was fed up and that he was going to call another company for help.
This ant problem puzzled Termite Terry and he was upset with himself for not being able to get rid of these ants. He apologized to the client and asked for permission to try one more time.

Subterranean Termites Costa Mesa

“Termite” Terry as Columbo

Termite Terry and his tech went back to the house, determined to find the source of these pests. Again, there were no ants on the outside where you’d normally find them. The only places they could see ants were in the bath and kitchen downstairs and the second story shower. Termite Terry said to his tech, “There must be a connection here – the problem seems to be plumbing related. Let’s go back up stairs and look at that shower.”

Finding ants in the shower did not make sense because this shower was located in the middle of the house. There were no ant trails to follow in the shower when they looked and they couldn’t figure out how they were getting in there. By this time, Termite Terry was really getting upset and he could feel another migraine coming on.

They went up and down the stairs, looked outside of the house and still found no evidence of ants. They went back upstairs to the shower and just stared. Termite Terry then said, “Give me a screwdriver. I’m going to take the valve off and look inside of the shower wall.” He carefully removed the shower valve and the wall literally exploded with ants.
It is no wonder that they couldn’t see the ants before as they were completely hidden in the wall. “Okay, we found the ants. All we have to do now is to find out how they are getting up here,” he said.

They went back downstairs to look for evidence but none was to be seen. Termite Terry said to his tech, “There is nothing here. All we see are covered walls. But, we do know that there is a shower located above us and we know there is a plumbing drain running down through this wall.”

Terry and his tech carefully measured where they thought the pluming drain was located and asked the client for permission to drill a small hole in the wall.
The client gave his okay and they fired up the electric drill. The ants did not like being disturbed and immediately started coming out of this hole, located at the bottom of this wall in the center of the house.

By this time, Termite Terry was feeling relieved that they had located the source. The areas were treated with a special insecticide foam that looks similar to shaving cream when applied. This type of foam is dry so it won’t harm the wall. It also expands and spreads well into a hollow wall so as to provide good coverage.

They did the treatment in this wall and repaired the hole. They also went back upstairs, used the also went back upstairs, used the same product to treat inside of the shower wall and replaced the shower valve.

The last treatment was successful and this client’s home has remained ant-free for years, since.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you have a tough problem with pests? Call us at (949) 631-7348 and we’ll be happy to send someone to “investigate” your case.