Termites ate my window frames!

[Trainee neophyte]

This may sound alarmist but you really need to get a proper pest control company to get rid of those termites. They look just like the ones we have but will be another species. We call them white ants and that term is now used in slang to infer sneaky behaviour. Any repairs done before treatment(nice as they are) are just a free lunch for them. While they do not eat stone walls they use them as a highway to get to the wood. The main nest will likely be underground anywhere up to 100m or so away. Without killing off that queen and nest the problem remains. Where I live every other house in the street has had them at one time or other and nobody would ignore signs of them. We would be calling for a pest guy soon as we saw a hint. We also have annual inspections done to make sure. Most new houses here are all steel frame now as it saves a lot of bother. Timber garden fencing has mostly been replaced by steel also as the wood fences were also a highway for them. They like paper too as the plasterboard I replaced had all the inside cardboard eaten off it. The cost of proper treatment will be a lot less than the damage if things are left undone.
Regards
John

Firstly thanks for your concern. Secondly you are right. Thirdly, there is no such thing as pest control, so I am on my own here. Research ongoing, but it looks like I will need to make traps which attract the termites, where you then feed them with borax mixed with flour and sugar(!), which they take back to the nest to feed everyone, including the queen. The borax stops them digesting, and they all die of starvation. That's the theory - we shall have to see what the practice is.

They seem to like damp wood, so plan A is to get some roofing over all these areas, i.e. extend our veranda around the house. Currently we have a pergola with lots of roses, grapevines, jasmine etc. Very pretty, but not only not watertight, but also probably adding to the damp. Coronanvirus has put paid to that plan - no income this year.

One weird point - two days after I found the termites, I found hundreds of ants in the same bit of wood, and ants eat termites. Perhaps there is some sort of natural control going on, but I certainly won't be relying on it.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Well done TN!

"All my own work, and Mr Shepherd helped".

(You're not well - shouldn't you be in a darkened room with a damp towel on your forehead?)

 

[Sgian Dubh]

... there is no such thing as pest control, so I am on my own here. Research ongoing, but it looks like I will need to make traps which attract the termites, where you then feed them with borax mixed with flour and sugar(!), which they take back to the nest to feed everyone, including the queen. The borax stops them digesting, and they all die of starvation. That's the theory - we shall have to see what the practice is.

I'm no expert on termite eradication, but when we lived in Texas we experienced damage from subterranean termites, and we had to call in the exterminators to deal with the problem. There are about ten termite species native to Europe below about about the fiftieth parallel, plus probably some non-native imported species that have adapted to European conditions. I'd be surprised if there were no professional insect control services where you are in, I think, Cyprus(?).

The company that dealt with our infestation used an armory primarily of artificial pyrethroids, similar in action to natural pyrethrin produced by a species of chrysanthemum. Additional chemicals used in the battle against insect pests include such confections as organo-phosphorous, boric acid, carbamate, and bendiocarb. Organo-chlorines are very effective, but their use now is generally heavily restricted because of their toxicity and environmental persistence.

If possible, I wouldn't give up on a search for professional help in dealing with your termite problem, because getting the poison to the nest, which could be far from your house, and the queen (or replacement queen) to be effective can be a challenge. If your home brew treatments are ineffective, or only partially effective, the colony is likely to recover, numbers increase, and they'll probably be back again to chew away at your house, ha ha. Slainte.

 

[sunnybob]

He's in some weird greek island, I'm the Cypriot one 8)
But yes, there are pest control companies here, mainly to deal with the industrial sized cockroaches that infest all the septic tanks, so I suspect a bit of digging into the local knowledge might be useful.

Our problem are ants, normal sized ants, tiny almost microscopic ants, big ants that you really would not want to step on in bare feet. Billions of them every summer.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

He's in some weird greek island, I'm the Cypriot one 8)
But yes, there are pest control companies here, mainly to deal with the industrial sized cockroaches that infest all the septic tanks, so I suspect a bit of digging into the local knowledge might be useful.

Our problem are ants, normal sized ants, tiny almost microscopic ants, big ants that you really would not want to step on in bare feet. Billions of them every summer.

I think you will find the Peloponnese is not weird. Well, not very weird.

All right, it is beyond weird, but it's not an island (well, technically is is an island, if digging a ditch counts). I give in - I live on a weird Greek island!

There may be people in Athens - whether they come this far south, I don't know. They definitely won't be coming in the immediate future, so it is still down to me. There are a number fof Australian products which may help - you ring the house with traps, and then keep an eye on them. The trap is just a piece of tasty wood with a little box and window above it: termites hate the sun, so will cover the window in mud, which is your signal to start feeding them. I think this is going to be a long-term and permanent problem - I live in an olive grove, which borders a forest - termites recycle wood into nutrients, and I am surrounded by a gazillion acres of wood. All I can hope to do is fight them to a draw - I don't actually mind replacing a few bits of wood once every 15 years, but if they go at the roof, all bets are off! In the meantime, all the wood I put in will be treated (with pyrethrins). All the wood I own will be treated shortly, including the roof!

 

[sunnybob]

In the old movies they dug a trench around the property and filled it with gasoline. I think there might be some cheap jet fuel coming onto the market soon. :shock:

 

[Trainee neophyte]

In the old movies they dug a trench around the property and filled it with gasoline. I think there might be some cheap jet fuel coming onto the market soon. :shock:

I have seen some suggestions that the price of oil is about to go negative - i.e. they will pay you to take it off their hands. It's going to make the EV market look a little unnecessary.

 

[Trevanion]

I know a few professionals in that area of Greece that specialise in termite removal.

Good job on the repairs, very neat work! You should get quite a few years out of them in your climate provided the termites stop chewing them.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I know a few professionals in that area of Greece that specialise in termite removal.

Good job on the repairs, very neat work! You should get quite a few years out of them in your climate provided the termites stop chewing them.

The result is all down to what I have learned here - for my next trick, a walnut dining table and 16 matching chairs.

Probably not, actually. Maybe a small wooden box. Too many other things on the go, as always, such as hunting down and blowing up termites. Home made explosives and fireworks is a thing here, and it's coming up to Easter,so I'll see what I can russle up.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

He's in some weird greek island, I'm the Cypriot one

Sorry ... just a few miles out (sic) on my part, I suppose, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[sunnybob]

I've just had to look up his country, cant spell it for toffee but auto suggest can =D>
One of those places that I have read many references to but didnt actually believe it was a real place, as in " I kicked Hin the pelloponesse"
Ita 1,000 kilometres of wet water from me to him. So my cans of cider are safe. 8) 8)

 

[Orraloon]

Part of the treatment at my place was bait boxes with whatever substance they carry back to the nest. Pest guy was hanging on to his secret lore and did not say what it was. Small wood boxes with a phone book in them and the secret powder. They were buried at about 3m spacing all around the fence line. The theory being to also kill of some other nests as well as the problem one. When a nest dies that real estate is often taken over by the next one along as they compete for territory.
That was back in the 90tes and with luck we have been free of the beasties since then. Annual inspections to be sure.
Regards
John

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Part of the treatment at my place was bait boxes with whatever substance they carry back to the nest. Pest guy was hanging on to his secret lore and did not say what it was. Small wood boxes with a phone book in them and the secret powder. They were buried at about 3m spacing all around the fence line. The theory being to also kill of some other nests as well as the problem one. When a nest dies that real estate is often taken over by the next one along as they compete for territory.
That was back in the 90tes and with luck we have been free of the beasties since then. Annual inspections to be sure.
Regards
John

Excellent info - thank you. The secret recipe seems to be borax (or boric acid), which I have - I can buy it in 20kg sacks as a fertilizer - mixed with flour and sugar. According to the internet, anyway. I like the telephone book idea...if only we still had such things. I think cardboard boxes may work, as may sawdust, shavings and wood chips? I can probably make some of those Lots of experimentation to be done. I'm thinking to make something like this:

Might as well make it out of wood, although we do have an excess of yoghurt pots which would also work, but not look as pretty. Perhaps a little wooden cap to go on top? Research continues...

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I've just had to look up his country, cant spell it for toffee but auto suggest can =D>
One of those places that I have read many references to but didnt actually believe it was a real place, as in " I kicked Hin the pelloponesse"
Ita 1,000 kilometres of wet water from me to him. So my cans of cider are safe. 8) 8)

Patric Leigh Fermor writes some fabulously erudite travel books about Greece - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/766421.Mani

I live near Ancient Olympia (the Olympic torch procession went through our village), but the entire place is ancient history: half the boys from the Trojan wars came from here. Cradle of civilization and all that. It'll do until we find somewhere nice.