Finding the right person to carry out a termite inspection and or termite control treatment on your house can be tricky. While there are a lot of great technicians out there unfortunately there are a lot of bad ones. Below you will find some helpful information on termite inspections & treatments to help you make a more informed decision. Like what you should expect during an inspection and what should be a fair price. By providing you this information you can become better informed when after a termite treatment quotation and realise we know what we are doing and are someone you can trust.
Termite Control Treatments
What Type of Termite Treatment Is Best
A termite treatment should only be carried out by a professional. Quite often we come across people that have tried to do the work themselves only to of failed and made the job harder for us to fix. Termites are actually not hard to kill individually it is stopping them getting into your house that is hard or killing the nest. When you see termites in your house that may only be 1% or less of what is actually in your house.
There are many ways to treat for termites which can include termite dust or foams, termite baiting, termite monitoring stations and a chemical ground treatment. Not all of these treatments are carried out on one house it is usually up to the termite technician to try and determine which treatment will best suit the property that needs to be protected. From there it will come down to what options are affordable.
A termite treatment is supposed to follow two rules the Australian Standards and the product label used. The Australian Standard states that colony control is supposed to be gained first and then a management plan should be implemented after colony control. Product labels have varying rules depending on the product and how and where it should be applied in order to get effective results.
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Termite dust or foam treatments?
To start with you should understand that arsenic dust has now been banned in occupied residences. There are other safer options that we are able to use. This form of treatment is basically a spot treatment to try and gain colony control. While these products can work effectively they need to be applied to all active areas and entry points to gain best results. If this is not done it is very common for these treatments to fail ie not gain colony control and is usually due to the termite technician not identifying all points of activity.
Termite baiting treatments?
There are many different termite baits on the market, some baits work better than others but at the end of the day it comes down to what the termites want to eat. The hardest part of a termite baiting job is to get the termites to feed on the bait, once they are feeding it is only a matter of time until the colony is eliminated. Termite baits are all insect growth regulators, when termites go to moult the active ingredient in the bait stops this and then causes the termite to die. You should understand that the termite workers are the only ones that moult but by effectively eradicating the workers from a nest takes all food sources away in there for the rest of the colony will starve and die. If it termite baiting program has been implemented and termites are feeding on the bait it is 100% effective at eliminating that particular colony. You should note it does not provide any protection from additional attacks so other strategies need to be implemented to control this. All termite baits are a non toxic means of gaining termite control.
Below is a video of termites feeding on an above ground bait station.
Termite monitoring stations
Termite monitoring stations do exactly as they say. They are a small station designed to attract termites within a small area to come and feed on the products that are inside them with the exception of Trelona ATBS & Sentricon Always Active. Once termites are detected in the stations a termite bait is generally placed inside of them to eradicate the termites. These stations should be placed around the perimeter of your property at intervals not exceeding 3 to 4 meters and checked at least every 3 months. Trelona & Sentricon Always Active Stations are currently the only product on the market that has a bait in every station instead of timbers. Therefore when termites go to the station they are feeding on a bait straight away and do not have to be lured into the bait. These systems can save you time on monitoring, time in reducing termite feeding on bait and eventually colony control and money in reduced costs in the long run. Termite monitoring stations are a non toxic form of termite control and recommended buy Bugs Or Us Pest Control where a chemical treatment cannot be applied adequately or if the customer request this option. It should be noted but it is still possible for termites to pass in between the stations and attack your house however the risk of attack is significantly lowered by having the correct amount of monitoring stations installed.
Termite chemical treatments
Certain products are registered for the control of termites the way they work is they bind with the soil particles and prevent the termites from travelling through that particular soil or if they do travel through it they will die. When dealing with these products they fall into two categories, repellents and non repellents.
Termites have the ability to detect chemicals in the ground before they pass through it. Therefore a repellent product should never be used if termites are active in a house as the termites can detect the product in the soil and will try and avoid it. This can cause termite entrapment in the house or for them to find a way around the product and possibly become undetectable. Bugs Or Us Pest Control will generally only use these types of products on a house that does not have termites.
A non repellent product allows a termites to travel through the product and die and therefore not generally causing termite entrapment.
Some of the chemicals that we can use are Biflex a repellent, or non repellent chemicals are Termidor,Termidor HE, Premise or Altriset.
Because Bugs Or Us Pest Control is not owned by a large company we are able to give you the options on all products we think will provide you with an effective treatment. Then let you decide which product you think suits you within reason. All products have their advantages and disadvantages some treatments require ongoing additional work where others don’t some chemicals have a life expectancy of 5 years and others 10 these factors are what will determine the price of a termite treatment along with the size and style of a house. Please note at Bugs Or Us Pest Control we do not use any generic products as we do not find them as effective.
Termite Inspections
A termite inspection is recommended by Australian Standards to be carried out at intervals not exceeding 12 months. Some houses may have recommendations for inspections at a shorter interval which would be due to the property being a very high risk of termite attack or has possibly just had a termite control treatment carried out. The reason termite inspections are recommended in this time frame is because some properties may not have a termite management plan, some properties do have a management plan in place but it is designed to make termite entry visible and not prevent entry. The purpose of the inspection is to make sure that termites have not breached this system. It is in the home owners interest to get the best inspection they can as an inspection is only as good as the person who carries it out and the day it is done. So potentially termites can turn up shortly after an inspection and will not be picked up until the next inspection and the shorter the time period in between the inspections there is less risk of having extensive termite damage done to the house or timber structure which will require much less repair work and in the end saving you money.
Is a Termite Inspection Worth it?
Ultimately yes, if you are using the right inspectors. While you might feel that you are throwing a lot of money away year after year for someone to tell you, you do not have termites. That one time they do tell you we have found termites and it has only been 12 months since your last inspection and not 10 years, you could be saving tens of thousands of dollars in repair work. Once someone has had a termite problem they soon become more vigilant in having termite inspections done more regularly.
What information may you find in a termite inspection report?
All reports are written or approved by our insurance companies assuming your inspector is insured so there are set questions that we are required to answer and limitations to where we are able to access all in accordance with the Australian Standard. In your report we will we will comment if we feel there are active termites, if we feel there has been previous termite damage, if there has been a previous termite management plan implemented and conditions that may be conducive to termite attack. We are also able to carry out a termite management plan proposal that will best suit your property if necessary.
How is a termite inspection done?
Like all inspections we attempt to gain access to all accessible areas of the house ( the subfloor, interior, roof void and grounds where applicable ) and use our extensive training to detect any evidence of past or current activity of termites. We use a vast array of tools to try and identify any termite problems that need to be reported on.
Are there different levels of termite inspections?
Yes. Not all businesses or termite inspectors have the same amount of equipment available to each of us. So depending on the businesses investment on termite inspection equipment will usually depend on the level of service that you are offered and their ability to try and detect termites. At Bugs Or Us Pest Control we will usually offer 2 levels of inspections and recommend the inspection that best suits your property
Standard Termite Inspections
This termite inspection is basically a standard termite inspection is recommended by the Australian standards and what most pest control firms will offer you. During this inspection we will carry out a standard visual inspection of your property we will also use as a bonus at no extra charge our Testo 882 thermal camera. We will generally recommend this inspection on properties that have excellent access by this we mean good access to all areas underneath a subfloor if your house has a suspended floor or if your house is on a concrete slab you have a 75 mm concrete slab edge exposure.
High-end Termite Inspections
This termite inspection exceeds the base requirements recommended by the Australian Standard and implements equipment that the Australian Standards recommends but does not consider it to be essential. Unless there are suspicious areas of possible termite activity that are indeterminable. So in this termite inspection we will use our thermal camera, our termite detection dog and termatrac we recommend this level of termite inspection on almost all concrete slab houses as nearly all of them do not have a 75 mm concrete slab exposure and on any house that has restricted access especially in the sub floor area or where houses are joined to each other.
Why should I spend the extra money to have a high-end termite inspection?
As we have previously mentioned our reports will state any obstructions that may effect us finding termites so if your property has any restrictions as mentioned in the high and termite inspection having a standard termite inspection done on this property may only be as high as 30% accurate, where if we were to use our termite detection dog and carry out the high-end termite inspection the termite inspection would be over 90% accurate this is a huge difference in accuracy for a small amount of money.
How much does it cost for a termite inspection?
You should expect to pay from about $220-240 in most areas and from $300 in Sydney for a basic standard termite inspection on a standard sized house. There are always going to variables and these may relate to the price someone is going to charge. A report on a piece of paper with a few boxes ticked is going to be cheaper than a report that has a lot more detail and photos. A house with a sub floor is going to take longer to inspect. Tools used in the inspection, obviously the more tools the inspector has the better job they should be doing and this should relate to their price. Experience, someone who has had the training and experience should be charging more than someone who got their licence yesterday.
How to prepare for a termite inspection?
It does not generally require a lot of work realistically we need to be able to gain access to the sub floor of the house if applicable and to wear your manhole is for the roof void if applicable. As long as the house is in generally clean condition the inspection can be carried out, so the less clutter around the walls and floor the better. If we are using our termite detection dog we do request that any cats or dogs be contained away from our working area with the dog.
What is an invasive termite inspection?
An invasive termite inspection will be recommended buy a termite inspector when they have a suspicious indication of termites but cannot visually confirm this. Therefore they will request to be able to remove some wall lining or drill holes in areas to try and determine if there is termite activity. At Bugs Or Us Pest Control with the use of all out equipment like our termite detection dog and termatrac to provide a much more accurate inspection prior to recommending and invasive termite inspection. The reason for this is most pest control firms will rely off a high moisture reading alone and we are relying on our termite detection dogs nose and the termatrac detecting movement. The last thing the homeowner wants is to have holes put in their wall for what turns out to be no termite activity.
Why Use Bugs Or Us Pest Control?
Bugs Or Us Pest Control uses industry leading termite inspection equipment, so we may carry out an inspection at a higher accuracy then a large majority of other competitors, basically this is our field of specialty. We specialises in doing termite inspection work based on the fact that we have all this equipment available like our termite detection dog, thermal imaging and termatrac t3i. In combination with these tools and our many years of experience, this set us apart from over 99% of other pest control businesses.