Termites.

[Marcus]

Just found termites in my house. I dunno how long they have been there... ...Have to wait until Tuesday to call Pest guy, I hope he can get rid of them. Looks like they have gone to town on some door cornices/frames, I checked the whole house yesterday and it looks like 3 spots so far. Who know how much internal wall damage has been done...

I leant against a door frame and found a portion of it held together by Paint, so I poked my finger on it and it made a hole, and one of the little bastads stuck his head out to see what the commotion was...

My heart sank

[Brock]

Oh No, that bodes not well at all....

I certainly hope its not too late

[HunterTodd]

Commiserations mate. Bastard things they are. I had them in my house three times. Despite the best expert advice I could not keep them out. Cost me $3k each time to have the house retreated and they kept coming back.
I found them the first time pretty much the say way you did. Hopefully they have not done too much damage. Fingers crossed.

[Bikebear]

The problem is that these days there are no decent treatments that will wipe the buggers out. All the decent termite poisons have been banned due to the fact that they are toxic.. duh.. and the replacements are no where near as effective and don't last very long.
We have termites that build little mud tunnels on our inside walls in a couple of places (block house) and we had them treated once, they were back within months as annoying as ever. I'm going to get them treated again but it annoys me that I have to keep paying out good money for what seems to be inneffective treatments.

[StinkyPete]

Hi Marcus. That's a seriously bad thing to find, so good luck as you investigate/exterminate/repair.

[Biggles]

The company I use put a Termidor barrier around and guarantee it for 5 years.  The actual live ones get hit with arsenic dust.  Biflex is another effective barrier treatment.  You'll need the barrier because there is a nest somewhere with 50 metres or soof your house (which they regard as a rather odd shaped tree).

$500 for the elimination.  Up to $3000 for the barrier.  Around $200 per part frame/ architrave.

Surprising that they are that far south.  They are endemic in NT and north Qld, but we have them quite commonly in Brisbane.  We have annual inspections, but they still get in before the next inspection.

[StinkyPete]

The little bastards are quite common in Adelaide.   

[STeveo]

The little pr**ks ate the door post out of my garage. Didn't notice until the door sagged. Cost me $2200.00 to put up steel so they wont be able to do it again.
I use a product called Hovex from Bunnings.  About $50 for 1 litre and mix it a bit stronger than on label. Haven't seen one since.

 

[Marcus]

Termite update.

The guy found them in the spots I thought they were...He has to wait a few weeks before he can act, because they need to settle down again after being disturbed.

He basically reassured me it wasn't as bad as what I had thought. He has this meter which he runs around the wood which beeps when he finds some...

It beeped a bit, but no alot.

He had two options, One was a "dusting" which the termites take back to their nest and apparently kills the nest, the second option, with a 10 year guarantee, was to spray around all 4 sides of every stump. Problem is there isn't enough room under the the house so he would have to rip up all the floor boards to get to them. So I'm going with the dusting, and regular inspections/treatment.

He did a good job of talking me down from the ledge and assured me my house isn't going to fall down. He said it takes them 12 months to make their way from bottom of a door frame, up and over and down the other side... And there isn't that much damage sooo.....

Still...I'm majorly upset about it though.

[Dick B "Yewie"]

Hi Marcus,
We had a similar attack at our place recently so I know how you feel. Our guy used the dusting approach and it seems to have cleared them up. He also put little traps in the ground all around the house with some wood pieces in them that he says they like. every month or so he goes around and lifts the lid of the trap to see of there has been any activity. Its like an early warning system.
Good luck
Dick B

[Marcus]

It's good to know I'm not the only one...

[Biggles]

They saw your avatar as an invitation to come inside.  You brought it on yourself!

[Marcus]

They saw your avatar as an invitation to come inside.  You brought it on yourself!

Here you go... Winter Olympics themed

[Biggles]

They saw your avatar as an invitation to come inside.  You brought it on yourself!

Here you go... Winter Olympics themed

Riiiight, thanks.  Will that bring on an early Wwwwinter in Ballarat?

[Marcus]

Riiiight, thanks.  Will that bring on an early Wwwwinter in Ballarat?

Pfft, oh please, it's winter all year round in Ballarat