got ethical husbandry?

Ugh, termites! Both types too! Woohoo!

Vincerama2

Vincerama2

Supporting Member
BARcard
Man, I hate these guys! I had the house tented back in 2005 when I moved in, that cost me $2k. Now they are back...BOTH TYPES! I have drywood (flying things) AND subteranean (mud tube guys).

We are talking to 4 different companies with many different solutions. Here is what I know so far

1) Everyone in the Bay Area lives in a termite infested house, if you don't now, then you will in a few years
2) Even if you kill them all, they will come back

3) Only tenting with something like vikane will kill all the termites THAT ARE IN THE HOUSE AT THE MOMENT

4) Tenting is good to get all the drywood ones because the colony is all in the house
5) Tenting won't get subteraneans that are not in the house at the time
6) You have to leave the house with your pets (maybe plants!) and your CORALS AND FISH

7) Orange oil is effective at killing termites that it is applied to, sort of like RAID.
8) Orange oil has to be injected to local spots in the house via holes drilled in your walls
9) Orange oil can be done in a day without having to move pets/plants/fish tanks

10) Blocking subteraneans basically means ringing your house with Termidor or something, regardless of if you tent or orange oil (or heat/freeze)
11) Spraying a Boric Acid product (like Boracare $80 or maybe even Termite-Prufe, which is like 8 bucks) on exposed wood is helpful for killing termites that eat that wood...this is cheap if you use termite prufe or make your own boric acid formula (mixing Borax and Termite Prufe and adding Propylene glycol)

12) "Warranty" with orange oil companies means they will come back to inspect once a year for 2 or 3 years. Tenting solutions don't do this because everything is dead for sure (but might come back)


So yeah, I've done my research. I know there are other "spot" treatments like heat/microwaves/freezing too.

I'm leaning towards orange oil because it means no aquatic life shuffle and we don't have to spend two nights in a hotel somewhere with the kids. However it bugs me that they might not all be killed, the good thing is that the orange oil guys will come back to see what they missed.

Any solution, I think has to be coupled with the poisonous ring of death, which I hope doesn't hurt the kids playing in the backyard and the Boric acid treatment to whatever exposed lumber can be sprayed.

I think the final cost will be between $2k and $4k. Stupid termites

V
 
1) Everyone in the Bay Area lives in a termite infested house, if you don't now, then you will in a few years
Click to expand...

I disagree with this statement. Given the amount of real estate that my family (multiple members) have bought and sold as rentals/investments I only recall termites once or twice that popped up during the inspections for sales or puchases. Dry rot, now that was the big issue along with mold and water damage from leaking pipes.

Maybe it's a location thing.....

-Gregory
 
THAT SUCKS!

Homes that are not "high and dry" are more likely to attract termites.

It's nice to have 2 feet or more of concrete foundation above grade.

Even then I see folks get the neat idea to build a planter or pile extra dirt next to the house as an invitation for the termites.

Leaks attract the big hungry ones.

Sleeper studs on slabs are another culprit.
 
Well our backyard is always soggy (retaining wall has no weep holes, but on the uphill side, the retaining wall is all holes!)

Here's a bonus ... the termite inspector says "Hey look! A freshly dead rat in the crawlspace!" woo!

I see that the rat had ripped open a bag of grass seeds and strewn the seeds and rat poo behind our washing machine. I think the rat got in during construction of the second bathroom.

Every house that gets sold on our street gets ttented! The subterraneans like wet soil but the drywood ones fly around. I'm guessing it's like a bad cold here, they just move from house to house.

I'm going to get Termidor spread under the foundation and around the house to HELP prevent the subteranneans, and then do a boracare spray of the visable wood members, including the attic.

As if I didn't have anything else to deal with. Home ownership is highly over-rated!

V
 
Vincerama2 said:
I'm going to get Termidor spread under the foundation and around the house to HELP prevent the subteranneans, and then do a boracare spray of the visable wood members, including the attic.

As if I didn't have anything else to deal with. Home ownership is highly over-rated!

V
Click to expand...

Good call. Being a renter is good if you remember to save a few bucks every month.
At least after 30 years you might have some equity if you own.
 
I recalled talking to my realtors who have worked in the Bay Area for 25+ yrs. Pretty much majority of the homes in Bay Area have termites. It just depends on the level of the damage where one see if it is acceptable or not. If you are in the areas like Daly City, Colma or SSF (which are always wet and foggy), you will have a tough time finding homes without termites. Even new homes will have them after a while.

Sorry to hear this, Vince. The only good way to look at this is that you found it sooner than later (it could have been worse if the terminates have completely eaten up all structures of the home).
 
Termites came up recently as an issue for our condo complex. Through inspecting some dry rot it was discovered that we had termites. After getting over the emotional bummer, we learned that termites will be in every house and eventually eat them down to the ground. It may take many decades, even a century, but eventually they'll win. While some in our association was for tenting, the rest of us decided it wasn't worth it because they'll come back anyway and continue munching. Tenting would certainly slow the termites down, but given the cost and hassle (removing my reeftank temporarily isn't an option for me) wasn't worth it and we decided to live with them.
If it were a single family house and being sold, then I see where it makes sense to tent because it's easy to do at that point.
 
Wow,i just deal with mine,first i decided to tear down both of my Decks remove all the dry rot termite infested woods ,stucco and replace them with treated redwoods.as we're tear the deck down,we're find more termites infested 2x4 and some on the main frame on the 2nd floor on the the back wall of my house.We're decided to tear down stucco and remove all infested wood and replace them with redwood also.Be careful with orange treatment ,they're Very flammable .They're illegal in most states except California.i went with Terminated for external treatment,i think they're cost $1200 plus $200 a year after that for a peace of mine.


lapsan
 
Terminex came this morning at 8AM. It would have been nice for my wife to have mentioned the 8AM appointment!

Anyway, he suggested (as did the second person we had come over) that the evidence of drywood termites is old and may predate the 2005 tenting. It's just that the company that tented in 2005 didn't bother to clean up any previous evidence. They didn't bother to re-attach the eavestroughs they knocked off either, so I'll never use them again. In retrospect, they sucked because they didn't address the obvious subterranean termite problem (tenting won't get them because they don't live in your house, they live int he ground and just snack on your house) so while i thought the tenting worked, it really didn't. But I was naive then and had too many things on my mind from actually buying the house.

In anycase, two companies have suggested the Termidor treatment only for the subteraneans and then marking and inspecting the drywood poop to see if there really is drywood termites.

Termidor gets injected around the foundation (and sometimes inside the house perimiter as well), it apparently gets on the termites and they spread it to other termites and then they die 4-7 days after contact.

Tenting or spot treatment is the solution for drywood termites, but they are less damaging than subterraneans, which can have huge underground colonies.

I think I'm leaning towards Termidor treatment for the subterraneans and then "wait and see" to see if we really do have the dry wood guys.

I might do a cheap DIY application of bora-care (or even Termite-Prufe, if I'm extra cheap) while I'm in the crawlspace doing the earthquake bolting and floor reinforcing for the 180g. Just as extra protection, after the Termidor application.

I'm glad to hear that I might get away with not tenting. However, the only guarantee of total drywood termite eradication is tenting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top