termites activity

Why Can Termites Cause Damage Without Being Noticed?

Termites (also known as white ants) are rife on the Sunshine Coast  The statistics show that in Australia one in three buildings will be affected by subterranean termites. 

Some of the reasons why so much damage is caused by termites are;

  • quite often they gain entry to the timbers without being detected and when they are eventually found they have caused destructive damage  
  • they are very effective at concealing their presence; they eat the timber from the inside out and we don’t realise they are present until you notice the hollow remains.

It is important as a home owner to be aware of termite risk and regularly inspect your home for signs of termite activity.  A few identifying factors to help you as a home owner are mud tubes, groups of winged insects (swarmers) or discarded wings and damaged timber.  Catching termite infestation early can save you as homeowner a lot of money.  It is very important that if you discover an active infestation do not disturb the termite workings as the termites may withdraw temporarily and prevent effective treatment.

How Do We Treat Termite Activity?

If you find termites we cannot stress enough the importance of not disturbing them any further as they may retreat and block off the tunnels that lead back to their nest which can make treatment far more difficult and reduce the success of eliminating the colony.   

Deciding on a treatment plan to treat active termites will depend on where the termites are found, the design and construction of the building  and the surrounding environmental conditions.

Foaming Treatment – if we find active termites inside your home of workplace we can treat them chemically to get them out of the house.  We can foam the wall voids or termite leads with Termidor, this will eliminate the termite activity.  Foaming gets rid of termites quickly however we can never be guaranteed that the colony or nest has been eradicated, this is why we will always recommend installing a Termite Management System to protect the structure from further termite attack

Baiting Treatment – we install an above ground station and fill the station with Requiem Bait which termites find very palatable.  We monitored the station every three to six weeks re-fill it with Requiem bait.  The termites feed aggressively on the bait emptying the station and taking the bait back to the nest to feed the termite colony.  The Requiem bait is a chitin inhibitor; termites require chitin to harden their exoskeleton when they moult, without the chitin their exoskeleton cannot harden and the termites die.  Once we notice no more termites feeding can declare colony elimination and be confident the termite nest has been eradicated.  This treatment is far slower than treating chemically however once complete you can be confident the nest is no longer