Comparing different termite prevention systems

gidgetgh · ‎03-09-2010

I don't know about other areas of the country, but I live in the south and it's important to have termite coverage on your house, not insurance, but active treatment for termites.

After 17 years in our old house, using a soil treatment system that lasts for 5 years, with a recheck every year, my new house has a bait station system which I am not as familiar with.

My warranty runs out on 12/30 and any day now the company my builder used is going to ask me to renew their services for the bait station system. However, I talked to my old company and they don't care for the bait system at all and strongly recommend the soil treatment system.
Anyone have any experience with this and want to offer an opinion on either?

Why is it, when I have a 50/50 guess at something, I'm always 100% wrong?

DrBabs · ‎03-20-2022

46 year old house in Texas. Had soil drench system and got termites. Switched to Termidor bait stations placed around perimeter of house - no problems. As part of my pest control service they inspect the Termidor units every 2 months.

RedTop · ‎09-01-2010

My WV company relies on soil treatment for effective termite protection.

A colony of subterranean termites was just emerging from the ground in our crawl space when my husband found them 6 years after the house was built. Our company saturated the dirt in the crawl space, drilled holes every 18" in the concrete of our basement floor to inject pesticide in the dirt, and did the same around the outside perimeter of the house before it was considered fully treated. We maintained our lifetime coverage with a yearly fee and inspection.

That initial termite treatment was with chlordane, which is no longer used by our company. The company contacted us last year due to the fact our house was built 40 years ago. While they still considered our house fully protected, they did offer us a good deal to fully re-treat the house using Termidor and another pesticide, at the rate we paid in 1987 plus a small %. It was a good deal and we paid for the extra protection. We continue to pay the same yearly amount for our termite protection.

I suggest finding a company to come out and do a full termite protection with pesticide on your home, so that you know your investment is fully protected. I have bait traps from my company around my house that are finally taking care of the rodent issues from the trashy trailer neighbors, and the chickens my brother had for years, but I do not trust bait traps as far as protection from destructive termites.

shoesnbags · ‎03-10-2010

@gidgetghwrote:
I don't know about other areas of the country, but I live in the south and it's important to have termite coverage on your house, no insurance, but active treatment for termites.
After 17 years in our old house, using a soil treatment system that lasts for 5 years, with a recheck every year, my new house has a bait station system which I am not as familiar with.
My warranty runs out on 12/30 and any day now the company my builder used is going to ask me to renew their services for the bait station system. However, I talked to my old company and they don't care for the bait system at all and strongly recommend the soil treatment system.
Anyone have any experience with this and want to offer an opinion on either?

@gidgetgh

We have both for our 58 year old house. The original protection was soil treatment with yearly inspection. Soil subsidence is an issue in this area, resulting in underground pipes breaking. When plumbers need to dig under a concrete slab foundation to repair pipes and then replace the soil afterwards, the soil needs to be re-treated. We didn't know this, and developed a termite infestation a few years after our plumbing work. So now we have soil treatment AND bait stations. This is not overkill in an area with extensive Formosan termites.

NOLA is a hotspot because of being a port city. The colonies are all over underground so it's a constant battle. I think that the degree of termite risk where you live should determine what system(s) you use. May you never have to deal with these nasty little suckers like we did. Ugh!

"Breathe in, breathe out, move on." Jimmy Buffett

ScrapHappy · ‎03-28-2010

I moved to th Southeast 6 years ago. The whole thing of spraying for bugs and termites was new to me. We use a company (Arrow Exterminators). Mostly because we just kept using what the previous owners did and Arrow transfered the old owners warranty to us. Just about everyone around here has an exterminating company. They're always in the neighborhood..