Homes in Australia are very much susceptible to termite attacks and here, we, at Queanbeyan Pest Control will discuss termite barriers with you. Termite pests are destructive and can be found in one in every four older homes according to CSIRO and they can make their nests in gum trees, tree stumps, retaining walls, or any timber frames.
Queanbeyan Pest Control Discuss Termite Barriers
The Queen termite can produce up to 30 live termites per day with the worker termites travel up to 200 meters away from the nest to find wood suitable to feed the termite colony. Sometimes the termites will build a mud lead out of the ground, over the slab edge, or into a weep-hole to gain entry into your home.
Quite commonly, the largest leads are found in the sub-floor under the house. It’s dark and an ideal environment for termites.
The worker termites use their large jaws to cut and scrape the timber into small pieces to digest. As they walk back to their nest, the timber is changed to soluble sugars by a special enzyme in their guts. Once they arrive at the nest, they regurgitate these sugars to feed the colony and the juvenile termites located in the nursery.
Termites view your home as a highly desirable restaurant where the food is free and there’s plenty of it. Here you can see the foraging termites have traveled under pavers as they enter the structure. We usually find termites under pavers, concrete paths, and driveways.
They build their tunnels horizontally along the ground, right up to the footings of the house. Once they hit the slab edge or footings, they will travel left or right, looking for a concealed entry point. These concealed entry points are usually a small gap in the mortar between the bricks embedded below the ground.
THERE ARE 2 KINDS OF TERMITE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
1) Termite Bait Stations – These are only a monitoring system they DO NOT prevent termites from entering your property and the stations need to be checked every 2-3 months to see if the termites have taken the bait.
2) Termite Chemical Barriers – To stop termite infestations we strongly recommend installing a chemical termite barrier around the base of your home. Queanbeyan Pest Control uses only BASF Termidor the best in the market as it has an 8 year $2M warranty that the termites will not return.
Once our technician has discussed with you which system is the most suitable for your property then we prepare to either install the baiting station OR the chemical termite barrier.
HOW THE CHEMICAL TERMITE BARRIER IS INSTALLED
First, a trench is dug down into the footings of the property. As we explained before, most concealed entry points for termites happen within this zone. Once the trench has been dug and the trench is ready to inject with BASR Termidor chemical.
The chemical is applied in layers to ensure the soil is saturated completely. The quality of the soil is very important to endue the chemical is absorbed and distributed evenly. In a matter of a few hours, Termidor will bond with the soil and will not be prone to leach with heavy rains.
Once the chemical has been completely applied to the trench, the boys will level the soil, ready for a layer of stones or cypress bark to be laid on top. Often we are praised for the wonderful landscaping we do when installing a treatment.
If there are pavers around your home these also need to be drilled and we use the dust from the drilling of the pavers to be remixed and later plugged for a perfect color match where you will hardly see the where we have drilled.
This is a labor-intensive job as installing the chemical barrier we need to maneuver and drill through rock and pavers using a 12mm drill bit. For some treatments, we might suggest using a smaller drill bit to fit between the grout of the tiles.
HOW MUCH TERMIDOR IS USED?
The chemical is applied through each hole by inserting an injecting rod and pumping the chemical under pressure. The technician tries to apply 100 liters per every ten meters.
Queanbeyan Pest Control starts injecting the holes which are ready to be sealed. All our technicians take a lot of pride in the final finish and work hard to color match the special mortar to have a near-perfect finish.
If you have a subfloor area under your house, it is important to treat these areas as well. As mentioned before, termites easily bridge out of the ground and build leads into a house.
The technician will prepare a shallow trench by hand digging and then injecting the chemical at regular intervals. Once the chemical has been applied, it is important not to disturb the treatment and not to stack any wood either under or up against the walls.
Call our professional team on 0488 404 885 for all termite inspections and termite maintenance. Hopefully, you have a better idea of how the chemical termite barrier is installed.