white ants

[granev]

hi all
my pm has just informed me that the tennants at one of the ips thinks there are white ants in the patio area out the back

i have heard a lot of differing stories about pest controllers , does anyone know of any good ones / dodgy ones in the adelaide area ?

also given i plan to have the place knocked down in 2 or 3 years and build 2 courtyard homes , should i do anything at all ?

 

[LynnH]

granev

Can't help you with a pest controller in Adelaide, but I would definitely be getting the little beggars removed a.s.a.p. - I would want them out of the soil before I built.

Cheers
LynnH

 

[Pushka]

Also, we thought we had white ants because we had holes in wood etc. Turned out to be wood rot as the wood had been exposed to damp from the ground.

Good luck with it all; I would be there when they had the inspection and would insist they showed me active ants (ie you can see them) before agreeing to treatment. Do you have a friendly builder who would know what to look for?

When we were renting, the house had termites, and they got into a louvred panel window. The glass fell out! Landlord didnt really seem to care that we could have been hurt!

Do you live near a creek (I know, no creek in Adelaide is running at the moment!) because those areas seem to be their transport path when things get so dry and they are looking for moisture.

 

[jaycee]

There's a lot of myths about getting rid of termites… That physically cannot be done unless they are eradicated from Australia….

Like bee's termites live in underground nests, making them different to flies which you can just kill as you see them (doing this to termites is a waste of effort, you will NOT kill more than get born)… they move nests & create new ones when they like… So you can NEVER keep them off your soil / property permanently - it's impossible.

All you can do is protect structures / timbers on your property from getting eaten. This is generally done by injecting a chemical barrier into the ground. Around a house, which stops them from being able to crawl into the house

Note: it cannot, will not & does not stop them from entering your land / sand, it will only stop them from being able to enter the place you sprayed (or rather, injected). There is no reason why termites would turn up in your yard, or stay in your yard after the house gets sprayed… And of course there is no reason why termites would not stay / turn up after the house gets knocked down…. To keep any new property built on the place safe, that would have to be treated fro termites

So this is what a pest control company will do, in addition to killing (or trying to kill) the nest of termites actively property right now).

In your case, do you need to protect what's there from further damage - in that case, yes probably get someone to do that for you. If not, is it worth worrying about ?

Couldn’t give you names in Adelaide unfortunately