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Exterminator / Termites
Old 08-24-2010, 02:55 AM   #1
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Exterminator / Termites

Our local exterminator does "termite bait control inspection" at the house every 3 months. The house is 3 years old. I'm not sure if this is some kind of perpetual rip-off or what. The house is on a slab. Does anyone have termite or exterminator experience. In addition, he does general external (house perimeter) exterminating every other month also.

My gut is this is a minor rip-off in the industry but I'm not sure....any opinions.
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:56 AM   #2
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At my Az condo, my garage is on the ground floor below my unit. I've had subterranean termites come up along the inside foundation walls inside the garage to gain access to the frame walls. About 3 times in 8 years, an exterminator has drilled small holes (about 10) in my garage slab and applied the treatment through the holes. He then patches the holes. I guess the termites have to return to the ground every 24 hours (to feed the queen?). The treatment kills them when they return to the ground.

I think our association also has the grounds around the buildings treated also.
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:27 AM   #3
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I HATE TERMITES!! Every house I have owned, except my current one, has had them. Even the one in the great frozen north. I've gone both ways as far as paying for treatment from companies. My first two houses I did the work myself. The one I had in Florida I did myself, but it was reinforced cinder block construction. The one I currently have and one I had in another southern state I paid someone to come out and treat.

My other house that I paid to have done was only done because the company offered a million dollar bond. They fixed any problems caused by termites up to a million dollars. They used the bait traps and for the most part they worked well. They came out once a year to check the bait stations and told the DW and me how to check them. They didn't tell us to check them, but I guess the psychology goes if the person knows how to check them they probably will. I went out about once a quarter and checked them, but never found anything.
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Old 08-24-2010, 06:57 AM   #4
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Termites have about half eaten up the French Quarter, and the swarms down there are awful. I have never seen a swarm in my suburban neighborhood, though, which is mostly 40-year-old slab houses.

When I bought my house, there was a specific line in the disclosure form for whether or not the house had a termite contract. I would not have bought the house without a termite contract in place, and most of the houses I looked at had that box checked as did mine.

Actually it turned out that the sellers had checked that box in error and did not have a termite contract, so they had to get one pronto. They had the holes drilled in the driveway and such, and my house had a termite contract by closing.

The reason I am going into this is that the termite contract involves inspections every 6 months, to keep the contract current. Each inspection was $95 (some companies charge more) and only involved someone walking around the perimeter of the house. But a current contract is almost a prerequisite if the house is ever to be sold.

I kept my contract current until my termite company was under 12 feet of water with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then, there was nobody to do the inspections or anything else. In 2007 the company sent out a letter to all their former contracts, saying they could finally start servicing them again. I didn't respond, but will need to set up another contract before selling. It has been 8 years since the driveway drilling and treatment, so I will probably have to have that done again and I understand this is not cheap. (groan)
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Old 08-24-2010, 07:02 AM   #5
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I chose not to get a bond when we built our house. I had a guy come out and inspect our construction when it was nearly completed. We are on elevated piers, 10 feet high, on a 3 foot deep masonry continuous footer/foundation. He said that infestations would be obvious and treatable on an as-needed basis and I agreed.

Generally here you have to have a clear CL100 inspection that identifies if there are active colonies. Our old house at the beach had past damage to the creosote piers but no current issues.

We do have annoying problems with carpenter bees in the wood soffits and rafter tails. Not really sure of a good solution for them.
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Old 08-24-2010, 07:10 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by W2R View Post
In 2007 the company sent out a letter to all their former contracts, saying they could start servicing them. I didn't respond, but will need to set up another contract before selling. It has been 8 years since the driveway drilling and treatment, so I will probably have to have that done again and I understand this is not cheap. (groan)
You might not need to set up another one. Back in the day they had a chemical that was awesome, if used properly. I can't remember the name of it, but the stuff just did not breakdown. Unfortunately people did not follow the label when they applied it. The end result was people got sick and since the EPA was already skittish about it since it didn't breakdown, it was banned in the 70's. If your neighborhood was considered upscale when it was built there is a good possibility it was used to pre-treat the ground before the foundation was laid.
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Old 08-24-2010, 07:26 AM   #7
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You might not need to set up another one. Back in the day they had a chemical that was awesome, if used properly. I can't remember the name of it, but the stuff just did not breakdown. Unfortunately people did not follow the label when they applied it. The end result was people got sick and since the EPA was already skittish about it since it didn't breakdown, it was banned in the 70's. If your neighborhood was considered upscale when it was built there is a good possibility it was used to pre-treat the ground before the foundation was laid.
That would be great if they didn't have to re-drill and re-treat! It did have to be done in 2002, when I bought my home and I have no record of any prior treatment or contracts. There may have been some but the prior owner was killed in an auto accident and her grown daughters, who were left with the task of selling the house, were unable to find any records regarding termite treatment.

I wouldn't say that my neighborhood was upscale when built, so much as solidly middle class. We aren't the type of neighborhood to have buried utility lines, and my neighbors (most of whom have lived there since the homes were built, or their parents did anyway) are not doctors and lawyers but restaurant owners, other small business owners, or salaried employees for the most part.
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Old 08-24-2010, 08:52 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ferco View Post
Our local exterminator does "termite bait control inspection" at the house every 3 months. The house is 3 years old. I'm not sure if this is some kind of perpetual rip-off or what. The house is on a slab. Does anyone have termite or exterminator experience. In addition, he does general external (house perimeter) exterminating every other month also.
My gut is this is a minor rip-off in the industry but I'm not sure....any opinions.
Hey, those exterminators can't be out killing termites every day, but no one will pay them for all of their learning & experiences. Those bait traps really cover the payroll. I'd buy a house without a termite contract, but I wouldn't buy one without an inspection.

We only treat 'em when we see 'em. Once a quarter I walk around our foundations and check for tunnels. (I do this for free.) We also keep an eye out for flying-termite infestations (wing casings dropped by an opening) or foundation damage. One time I found small hole in a wall and probed gently, only to be greeted with a bunch of little termites escaping out of it.

The last time we discovered a problem and told our neighbor, she found a tunnel along one of her potted plants. There was nothing in her Sentricon bait traps but the potted plant was just a few inches away from their house's rear wall. Of course she would probably have a warranty for treatment, but our $1200 treatment & repairs wouldn't have paid many of her monthly inspection bills. However she probably sleeps well at night.

The banned 1970s chemical was probably Chlordane, which had a substantial dioxin content. (Our rental home's lot was rumored to have been treated with it during grading & foundation pouring, and that place has never had a termite problem in over 30 years.) DDT was also popular in the 1940s-1950s. Some Hawaii crawl spaces were even saturated in motor oil, which would certainly have a chilling effect on just about every living creature in its vicinity. Today's termidicide of choice (at least around here) is Termidor, which seems to do a great job.
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Old 08-24-2010, 09:05 AM   #9
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The banned 1970s chemical was probably Chlordane, which had a substantial dioxin content. (Our rental home's lot was rumored to have been treated with it during grading & foundation pouring, and that place has never had a termite problem in over 30 years.)
Yup that's it.
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