20 APR 2016 · Just moved into my 1925 home & there's no sign of termites. Have air vents around all sides of house & paving around all of house. Don't know if previous owner had treatment for termites. I do not want chemicals as a preventative measure & don't want to waste $'s if not necessary... Your thoughts please. Hi Lyn Your first wish is granted: you don't need chemicals as a preventative measure and that means you won't be spending those thousands of dollars. You already have two bits of good news: there's no sign of termites and the underfloor is ventilated. If you choose to go with TermiTraps you’ll fool dopey termites into thinking they've found a house when all they've found is a TermiTrap. These Traps are so much easier to bait. All you're only up for is $440 and they'll last until 2026 and beyond. Only buy bait when you have live termites to feed. Learn More: http://termitetrap.com.au/termite-prevention-do-i-need-to-apply-chemicals/

19 APR 2016 · Mick has a horse stud of about 500 acres and lots of fences. He asks Ion if the TermiTrap products would be suitable to protect his fences… The bait works when you place it on an infested post. I’d love to sell you a pallet of Traps for lots of money but I have a couple of more reasonable suggestions: physically destroy any mounds on your property. Some of the mound-building termites will eat solid timber such as fences. Other species that don’t build mounds are more of a problem because you won’t be able to treat them until you’ve found them after they have already begun their work. 2. you’ll need to do some annual boundary riding to check your fences for tell-tale mud in joints or uneven surfaces that could indicate termites getting underway 3. If you take some Tuckerbags of bait with you and you find termites attacking a post, you make a small hole into the post or the mud in the joint and stick a Tuckerbag of bait over it so the termite workers can begin taking it back to kill the nest, wherever it is. Hoping this helps, Mick. Learn More: http://termitetrap.com.au/termite-traps-do-the-products-work-on-timber-fencing/

19 APR 2016 · There’s a colonising flight from mature termite nests most years. You often see them at night around lights. They may have flown in from half a kilometre away OR they may have emerged from elevated timbers of any structure under attack. I say ‘elevated’ because they don’t fly strongly and they want all the height they can get before they launch. Almost all die To succeed in starting a new colony, first they need to pair up, then they need to find a food source such as wood in contact with soil and be able to excavate a cave in the soil alongside this wood. Even then they are still very much at risk of failure if the soil dries out during the summer. So the ones you see in the house or on the verandah are not a threat but they are indication that an active and mature nest is somewhere nearby. And that nest is a real threat to your home and buildings. That’s where you might consider TermiTraps to intercept any scouting termites from the active, functioning colony wherever it happens to be nearby. Once a Trap is found and they’ve closed the hole, it is a simple matter then to put a Tuckerbag of Bait on top so they can start taking the contents back to kill the main nest. Lastly, to confirm whether these flying insects are termites or not: termites do drop their wings soon after landing and all four wings are the same size. Ants and all other insects have fore and hind wings of different size. Learn More: http://termitetrap.com.au/flying-termites-does-it-mean-we-have-a-problem/

31 MAR 2016 · Ion, the next one’s from Dale, and Dale writes thus: “I laid a bait on top of pavers adjacent to where termites were found in an unused wine barrel. Yet when discovered, they quickly retreated below the pavers. Upon calling your office, I was advised to bait the barrel and the surrounding pavers. This was some weeks ago. Can you please advise when it becomes okay to disturb the baits, to see if termites are gone and presumably dead, and thus stations on the back pavers can be removed? I’ve got plenty of stations at the house-level in the vicinity of this incident, and haven’t seen any evidence under the house through inspection. And also, do you anticipate much of the actual bait used will be gone?” ‘ Ion: Okay, I remember talking to Dale. He had the wine barrel, and he did move it, and found the termites in the staves of the wine barrel. It was actually ready for a plant potting, you know, the barrel was cut in half, ready to pot a plant. And because he had disturbed them, and he put it back and he called me. I said, “If you can find live termites in the wine barrel, eating again, then you bait them, and you can put some traps around and near the barrel, so that maybe, if they’re being disturbed form the barrel, they’ll come up the gap between the pavers in the same sort of area, and make it into the traps. I haven’t heard from him since until now, so it would seem that he may have found live termites in the barrel. And maybe I’m really wrong – maybe he hasn’t seen any since he’s put the bait around. But the answer is, really – if there are no lives termites eating, he may as well remove the barrel and do whatever he needs to do with these pavers, and then after he’s done all that – put the traps back on the new pavers, or wherever he wants to put them around the house. Because if there’s no live termites now, there’s no point in leaving the bait there, because they’ve either gone, which means that the colony is still alive, so the scouts coming from that colony – the good chance is they’ll find the traps placed over the new pavers or wherever he’s going to put the traps. That way, then you start again with the baiting process, and the baiting process is much more reliably inclined to succeed, by feeding them into the traps, rather than into a continuous hole on the edge of the wine barrel.

28 MAR 2016 · “Hi Ion, I have a question about termites in the garden, in old sleepers. My question is, can I spray around the area with Bifenthrin to kill them off?” – Ken. Ion: Yes and no. There are two types of termites that are often found in retaining walls and build sleepers used to build retaining walls. One of them is a plastering type of termite, which also, are a minor pest. And it makes a very, very thin fragile covering over a fair amount of the sleepers that are showing. And, yes, that might can be brushed off and the area could be sprayed. So, and then that would probably kill off that colony, because it probably doesn’t have a very big nest. And there’s pictures of that in our ‘how-to’ guide of that type of termite. They also are found quite often on fences. And, again, there’s a massive thin sheet of mud over the fence. And then, that can be sprayed. But the other termite which gets in behind retaining walls are the either of the two serious ones, the Coptos or the Stilos. And they would use the retaining walls for the very first male and female, when they have a colonizing flight, and they can get in behind that retaining wall, and they’ve got soil, and they’ve got food, and they’ve got some protection from birds and lizards, and so they get going. And so, if those sort of termites are in the retaining wall – sorry, let me start again. If there are termites that have not been putting a big shooting of mud over the outside, like, you see mud in the crevices, in the caps between the sleepers, then there’s two options here – you can fix a termite bait over the holes or into the sleepers, so they’re directly biting into the sleepers. Or, you can put Termite Traps above the sleepers on the ground above the sleepers. Either way, the scouts looking for the food are likely to find the traps, and then it’s very easy to add bait to the top of the traps, to control the colony that’s hiding in behind the retaining wall. http://termitetrap.com.au/how-to-kill-termites-in-retaining-walls-with-bifenthrin/

27 MAR 2016 · This next question is from Michael: “If a container of colony – killer termite bait – has been opened, and water added, as directed, and placed in a position on a trap, after some time, it can dry out. Is it okay to add more water? And, does the bait lose its potency after it dries out? Or, are the active ingredients still good after it dries out and you add water?” Ion: Yes, the active ingredient does last for a year or so. The only thing that it seems to cause a problem is if it all goes mouldy, with a black mould. But let’s not confuse the issue. Termites, generally speaking, don’t mind a bit of mould, but some of the black moulds are a bit co-opt to some termites, so, that’d be the only reason. But drawing it out is not a problem. If you think about it, when you add the water to it, the white powder turns into something like mashed potato. And it’s sort of continuous – all those particles are all bound together like mashed potato. When the water dries out, the particles are still bound together, but that’s just like wood. Except that it’s continuous, and the termite can get into it and pave through it and tunnel through it, and it doesn’t collapse on them. Being dry, it’s just like soft, pine timber, but even softer than that. And so they’re quite happy to eat it and there’s definitely no need to add water to it, because the water, or the adding of the water, is likely to disturb any termites that are wandering around inside, feeding. So, no, just leave it there. Of course, if there’s no termites left in the bait station, there’s no point in leaving the bait there, either. You might as well remove the bait, and get on with your life. Simon: Very good. And If it’s unopened, this bait will last for ages, won’t it? Ion: Yes, yes. There’s no expiry date on the bait itself. Without the water, the water is only a potentially complicated factor if it gets wet and goes mouldy with that black mould, and that depends on where you live and what sort of moulds are around at the time. http://termitetrap.com.au/do-you-add-water-to-termite-bait-if-it-dries-out/

25 MAR 2016 · Hi Ion, one question I have is how to deal with termites that are in a tree. I can see the mud tubes running up the outside of the tree, and they are active with termites in them. Can I tape a termite bait-pack under the tree, such that the opening in the pack is over the termite tunnel? Do I need to break the termite tunnel before applying the termite trap so the termites are encouraged to find the bait? Is there a better way of doing it? I’ve got two trees, in which this is occurring, and I can see a termite nest in the tree. Is it an option to destroy the nest? I don’t think it’s the only nest as termite tubes run higher into the tree. Anyway, thanks for an easy-to-use product. I’m getting activity in the traps and have started baiting”. Ion, Michael’s trees – Ion: Okay, Michael’s trees are being infested by Nasutes termites. These are not a serious pest. Of course, if they started in your fence, they might be. But the Nasutes do not eat solid timber. The ones that are up in the tree, are leaf litter, and dead grass eaters. They come in on the outside of the tree and move around around the outside of the tree, to find leaf litter and dead grass, which they carry back up the tree to the queen, who lives in the nest up in the branches. So, there’s no need to break open the tunnel and put bait on it. They’re not a serious pest, anyway. You can just keep breaking the tunnels, if it gives you some satisfaction, and they’ll eventually leave. The nest might just starve off, because they can’t get any food, because Michael keeps breaking the tunnels all the time.You could, if you like, spray some insecticide on the outside of the tree, but again, that wouldn’t really make a lot of difference. If you wanted, if it’s within reach, you could get the net removed by an arborist. If it isn’t, make sure that your insurance is covered. So, no, there’s no need to bait those termites. http://termitetrap.com.au/how-to-kill-termites-in-trees-nasutes-termites/

25 MAR 2016 · Q: I am interested to know how to estimate the optimum number of bail stations for a house. I presume that if there are too few, there is a risk that the termites will get to the house before they find the bait stations. Do you have any reports from your users about this, where termites have got to the house but not found bait stations? http://termitetrap.com.au/how-to-estimate-the-number-of-termite-bait-stations-for-your-home/

24 MAR 2016 · Q: I am interested to know how to estimate the optimum number of bail stations for a house. A: http://termitetrap.com.au/how-to-estimate-the-number-of-termite-bait-stations-for-your-home/