Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Terminate the mighty termites

Ridding your home of wood-eating insects can be costly

By STACY DOWNS
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Tim Kridel kept a souvenir from his recent living room remodeling project: a piece of wooden sheeting, thin and brittle from all of the holes.

Contractors adding insulation to the exterior wall of Kridel’s Fairway, Kan., home found extensive termite damage. He spent about $3,800 extra for contractors to install new siding, rewrap windows and repair the floor and wall — basically tear out the entire front of his house — all because of the wood-chomping pests.

“It was annoying but not surprising,” Kridel said. “I knew there had to be a reason for the bowing walls.”

Termite season peaks around this time. They swarmed and mated in April and May. Their eggs hatch June.

The wood-eaters leave their mark in distinctive ways, said Jay Gunter Besheer, president of Gunter Pest Management of Kansas City, Mo. Look for:

• Dirt trails. Lines about half the width of a pencil can be found on the foundation.

• Wood damage. Typically, termite damage will follow the grain lines of wood.

• Insect wings. Termites shed their four wings. You can spot them along room perimeters and in window wells.

Misconceptions about termites abound. Customers call and say they have flying ants in the house, but they’re actually termites, said Tim Sophy, termite inspector for Terminix. Or they’ll blame piles of sawdust on termites.

“That’s almost always ant damage,” Besheer said. “Termites eat wood. They don’t typically leave piles of it behind.”

Termite inspectors discover most termite damage behind front stoops and in basements, in garage doorjambs and on exterior foundation walls. Termites are busy eating for years before they make their way to the top story of a house. They target all wood products in the home, such as furniture, wallpaper and books. Occasionally inspectors will find the insects on the back of picture frames. And they can chew through vinyl, linoleum and underground cables.

Pest-control companies use two methods to attack termites and may combine both systems:

• Bait traps. Cylinders that contain wood and slow-acting poison to kill colonies of termites are buried around the perimeter of the house. Their lids, resembling black or green saucer-size plastic discs, are flush with the ground. Inspectors come quarterly or monthly to inspect and adjust the traps. On average, it costs $1,100 to $1,400 for installation and a year’s worth of follow-up inspections.

• Liquid barriers. A trench is dug around a home and holes are drilled into concrete slabs, including the front stoop. About 200 to 300 gallons of pesticide is injected into the openings. The trench and holes are patched. Inspectors follow up annually; the treatment lasts about five years. On average, it costs $700 to $900 for the system to be installed.

Most customers choose bait traps because they don’t want the drill marks that the liquid barrier system leaves behind. And many people don’t want large amounts of poison leaching into the same soil they might use to grow vegetables.

But bait traps vary in their effectiveness, according to university studies on termites. The poison acts slowly, and it takes months for the termites to die compared to the more immediate results of the barrier system.

Some home-owners keep the traps after an initial termite problem. “They work like an ongoing termite burglar alarm,” Besheer said.

Kridel hired Terminix to install a bait system around his house. He paid $2,300 for 17 bait stations, as well as plastic sheeting and vents to reduce moisture in the crawl space — termites thrive in humid surroundings. “It’s a lot of money,” Kridel said. “But I consider it well spent for the peace of mind.”