Termite Inspection Orange County Termite Terry Pest Control

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

Termite Terry’s Adventures With Subterranean Termites

This is the time of the year when our phones start ringing off the hook with calls about subterranean termites. These termites swarm during the months of February, March and April and it is common to see hundreds of them flying around on the insides of homes and businesses.

In past issues of this newsletter, you’ve read a lot of information about these pests and that is good to stuff know. In this article, we’d like to do something different and share some short stories of Termite Terry’s adventures and how he solved some tough termite problem cases:

“The Case Of The Blind Leading The Blind”blindleading the blind

    Almost all members of a termite colony are blind. Only the kings and queens that you see flying around your home have eyes. This may surprise you, but Termite Terry always likes to remind everyone that all of us are “working blind” because these insects live underground and we can’t see where they are coming from. Even when they are infesting a home and eating away at the wood, we still can’t see them inside of the walls and most of us have no idea that they are even there. This makes the work of a termite inspector very challenging and is why inspectors always have to be on the lookout for even the tiniest clue.

    Sometimes, termite inspectors will get lucky and see a small mud trail or tunnel leading up a wall. This is a sure sign of an infestation. The most common way that termite inspectors find out a home has an infestation is when these termites swarm. One could argue that the termite’s ritual of swarming is actually a gift from God, otherwise a home or business owner may not know they have a problem until it’s too late.

    Back in the early days of Termite Terry’s career, he got a call from an owner in the city of Orange who said she was seeing a lot of termites swarming in her home.

    Termite Terry did his usual thorough inspection and noted all of the evidence. He recommended that she should have a treatment performed all the way around the foundation of her home and in this case, he said that he was going to perform the entire treatment, himself.

    He followed all of the instructions he had learned from his text books and did what he thought was a close to perfect treatment. The client was happy and it looked as if everything was okay – until he got a call from her a few weeks later. His heart was broken when she said, “The termites are back and they are still in the same place you found them.”

    Termite Terry went back to the house and sure enough, the termites came back up, right next to an area where he had treated.

    This was really frustrating for Termite Terry. Why didn’t his treatment work? He had done everything by the book! He went back to the shop to look for an answer. Fortunately, he found a magazine with an article titled, “Going for the Jugular.”

    In this article, the author described exactly what had happened to Termite Terry and suggested that in addition to doing a standard treatment, one should also “Go for the Jugular” by injecting termiticide directly into the area where the termites were coming through.

    Termite Terry went back to the home a few days later to do some additional treatment in the area. This time, he took out his needle-jet and injected some of his solution right down the little crack where the termites were coming up through. This solved the case and she never had to call again.

    No one will ever know why his treatment wasn’t successful on the first attempt. Termite Terry had drilled a series of holes through the concrete driveway and injected the termiticide into the ground just like one is supposed to do. But, like Termite Terry always says, “We’re working blind and we don’t know what is under that concrete.” Maybe there was a rock or something that blocked the flow of termiticide and kept it from reaching the termites.

    Termite Terry still has a copy of that article and frequently uses it when he is training termite inspectors and technicians. He tells them to go by the book and do everything they are supposed to do. But, he also reminds them to “Go for the Jugular” and do those extra treatments to insure complete success. This is a great lesson for anyone who wants to get rid of subterranean termites.

 

“This Stuff Doesn’t Kill Termites”

    The 1990’s were a difficult time for those who were trying to get rid of subterranean termites. Prior to that, chlordane had been the product of choice and it was very effective. For environmental and safety reasons, this product was banned and the new products we were supposed to use just weren’t working that well.

    One of the main reasons these new products didn’t work was because they were “repellent” in nature. In other words, they smelled bad, tasted bad and the termites wouldn’t go anywhere near this stuff. How can you kill termites if they won’t touch it? If a termite came anywhere near these products, they would simply turn around and go into a house through another direction.

 termitehouse   The manufacturers of these products taught us to always perform a thorough treatment and that we needed to provide an unbroken barrier all the  way around a house to keep the termites out. That sounds great on paper but in the real world it is hard to do because “we are working blind and don’t  know what is below the ground’s surface.” No one could ever guarantee when we injected these products into the soil that they would go everywhere    they were supposed to. And, even if we did do a perfect job, it still wouldn’t kill the termites. These products were repellents, the termites wouldn’t go  near them and they would simply go somewhere else. That is why it was common for termite treatments to have to be repeated, sometimes on an  annual basis.

    Termite Terry is a good reader and one day he came across an article about a new product called “Termidor”. He was fascinated to learn that it worked in an entirely different way. It was odorless, the termites couldn’t see or taste it and with its unique “transfer effect”, the termites could take it back to the nest and eliminate the entire colony.

    It is one thing to read a marketing brochure and hear them saying how great their product is. But, when Terry started reading all of the great results from the many different university studies, he decided to give it a try.

    The only drawback to using Termidor is that it is the most expensive product on the market. But, the results that Termite Terry has had with this product have been nothing short of miraculous.

    Termite Terry says, “Since I started using Termidor back in 2001, I seriously can’t remember having to go back and retreat the same area of a home for subterranean
termites.”

    Termite Terry always recommends you have a complete treatment performed all around your home or business. Again, that is because we can’t see what is going on beneath the ground. Another reason is that there may be a dozen or more colonies of termites surrounding a single home at any given time. Treating one area and eliminating one colony of termites is great, but you certainly wouldn’t want to leave the other 11 or more colonies there.

    Do you have a termite problem and need an inspection? Call our office at (949) 631-7348 and we’ll schedule an appointment at your convenience.