Article Treasures | Termite Infestations

Yesterday I had privilege to chat with that intellegent pest expert, Dovid Davis, a Baltimore pest control specialist. Dovid and I had never talked about termites, so I asked him to tell me about them. And, I was glad I did, because this proved to be the most interesting discussion I have had with Dovid.

David stated that we were mostly going to talk about subterranean termites. They naturally dwell in the ground, like earthworms, and they eat cellular and wood byproducts such as paper. Dovid told me there are basically three stages of the termite life cycle, which are identified. One of these is the nymph stage. As a nymph, termites closely resemble a maggot, meaning a tiny white worm maybe a fifth of an inch or even less in size. They dwell in colonies. The core of the colony is the queen, whose unique purpose is to create the workers; and, there can be loads of them in a colony. They are all her children, and while they work, she just produces babies. The workers, for their part, feed their queen, and they all feed together, below the surface.

Here, Dovid told me an amazing fact about termites, if termite workers are exposed to open air they die within 20-30 seconds. They musn't be exposed to the open air. A moisture level of 15-18% will dry them out. Sounds a bit like man dwelling on the moon.

So the workers live and exist within these termite tunnels. When the queen decides to enlarge her colony, she will then produce another type of termite called a swarmer, which is a flying termite with an exoskeleton. This outside shell allows this termite to live in the open air.

According to Dovid, the swarmers will generally be present in the middle of March and April. They're development is triggered by warm weather. There can be hundreds or thousands in one swarm. swarmers do not eat wood. Their sole mission is to fly around, find a mate, (the swarmers come in male and female.), and choose another underground area where they can form a new colony. And all of this must be completed in less than 20 hours, which is the average life span of the swarmer. And that, Dovid said, ends the description of the life cycle of the swarmer.

Now Dovid provided some more incredible information about the underground termites. If they want to expand their colony without using swarmers, they are required to create additional termite tunnels. To do this, they use some of the soil, and a bit of their waste, and they make a tunnel from point A to point

B. Now here's the astounding point. When youenter someone's basement, and see mud tunnels running up and down the walls, these tunnels are termite turnpikes for the workers going from the soil up to a wooden beam, and back down to the earth again. Like vampires, they need to return to the soil every 24 hours or they will perish. And this activitycvg goes on continually 24 hours a day.

If you were to open a hole in the tunnel to examine it, workers will immediately begin to either repair the tunnel or shut it off. They will close off the open end of the tunnel and then build an additional tunnel connected to it. They will use these tunnels to climb up cinderblock walls, up through thecenter of the brick or even around it. They will go up even 10 feet from the floor, allowing the termites to eat the roof studs, while enlarging the tunnel as they go.

Amazingly, the termites can live like this for 60-90 days or even for 10 years. While we think of them as lowly creatures, their lifestyle is not unlike the life man will have when he colonizes the Moon or Mars, and have to dwell in airtight bubbles to survive.

Now Dovid got to the heart the conversation. Now that we know their lifestyle, how does a pest specialist kill the termites. Dovid informed me there are two phases. First the pest specialist has to prevent termites from entering the home from the outside soil, and he has to kill the ones that have already entered the home.

While treatment for termite extermination varies, the most common technique is to go on the outside of the home around the perimeter, this is the first step. What Dovid does is to create a 6-8 inch deep trench and insert in a long rod into the soil so that it penetrates down to the footers, and inject with a termiticide. This will kill the termites who are trying to get in. As they come in contact with the termiticide, it will kill them. Internal walls are treated by drilling into the substrate, the wall is made of and injecting with a termiticide.

According to Dovid, the protection from the treatment will range anywhere from 5-10 years if left undisturbed. However, if there is an interruption in the chemical barrier or if you miss a spot of as little as 6 inches because of piping or a tree stump, if there is a gap of even a single inch, termites will locate it and go through it. So an average house uses between 75 gallons and 125 gallons of termiticide for a single treatment.

Dovid left me with one more amazing fact. The new generation of termiticides is unique among insecticides. Whereas the old generation termiticides were repellants, with a smell that drove the termites away, the new generation are attack viruses, which specifically thrive on termites. When the termite crawls through the spray he will pick up the infection and then bring it back to the queen. It takes 2-3 three weeks to knock out a colony. And the virus doesn't attack humans.

Well, that wraps up another episode of "Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist," and I wish you all a pest free day!