5-year termite booster treatment?

Your annual inspection/insurance is a waste of money as is the booster they are trying to sell you. If you put the $125.00 per year in a savings account you will end up with more than enough money to rid your house of termites several times over your life.

Example: I am 43 years old. I have owned homes for 20 years. 20 years X $125.00 = $2500.00. This is enough to rid a home of termites 2-3 times and I have yet to have termites.

My father is 69 years old and has owned homes for 46 years. 46 years X $125.00 = $5750 - the cost of one termite infestation cost $750.00 leaves him $5000.00 that he did not give to the termite people.

You can send me a $125.00 a month and I'll guarantee your home against termites. ha ha ha!

cm

"Gullible is not in the dictionary"

Since they stopped using chlordane, I don't believe that there is any long lasting chemical barrier. If you are observant, as other respondant indicated, you are wasting money on inspections and treatments. I've saved over 30 years without problems. OTOH my next door neighbor ignored the termites in his wood pile next to the house and did not call exterminator until he saw them flying in his basement. Then he got the full treatment. Before the juvenile hormones killed the nest, I was seeing them in wood 20 ft from my house. That year, I put out, I think they are called "Terminate" stake and also I spray foundations a couple of times of year because of ants, and termites did not visit me. Frank

Our older condo was tented twice, before we lived here. Termites are all over here, in Florida, so finding them in the yard really has nothing to do with whether the home will be infested. Since we moved here, inspections are done yearly (not all unit owners would "bother"). Newer condos, on either side of us, have been tented within the past two years or so. We have trees chewed up by termites, and seem to have a little war going on between insect species .. one year lots of carpenter ants, another year lots of fire ants, etc. Fire ants eat other larvae, so perhaps they keep the termites down. Some choice! :o)

In article , snipped-for-privacy@nc.rr.com says... :) My annual home termite inspection and "insurance" policy has been costing :) $125 per year. This year, now that the house has been standing five years, :) the exterminator wants to do a $445 "booster" treatment. I thought the :) barrier remains intact for many years until the soil is disturbed, so I :) asked why the house would need a booster, and the lady said the barrier has :) been breaking down over the five years because of "walking in the yard". Is :) the a bona-fide service they are offering? :) :) For a termiticide to be labeled a termiticide it has to go through Government testing and be effective 100% for at least five years, many will start to break down after that, but termiticides are applied in the soil so walking in the yard has no effect on them. You need to see how the original contract is worded. If you paid for a

Lar-

How long has Termidor been on the market? We had our house done in 1992 by Terminix, but I have no idea what was used. I do remember them saying that the old "lifetime" stuff had been banned and thus we also ended up with the yearly insurance policy (but they have never found termites).

Given the company and year, can you guess what was most likely used and how effective it is thought to be?

thanks,

John

In article , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com says... :) :) How long has Termidor been on the market? We had our house done in 1992 :) by Terminix, but I have no idea what was used. I do remember them :) saying that the old "lifetime" stuff had been banned and thus we also :) ended up with the yearly insurance policy (but they have never found :) termites). :) :) Given the company and year, can you guess what was most likely used and :) how effective it is thought to be? :) :) thanks, :) :) John John, Termidor came on the market in 2000. Just guessing, with Terminix it was either Dursban, which took the place of Chlordane and was the most widely used product at the time....maybe Premise, which was coming into the market place around then, which until Termidor and Phantom came out probably was considered the best quality product or a number of the pyrethroids, some were effective some were worthless. Look under your kitchen sink and see if there is a sticker that has the name of the product that was used.

Now the question comes with Terminix, probably any large company....each branch had a Branch manager who may have different philosophy's... if the bottom line was his issue, he may have his guys use the cheapest stuff he could get and if termites showed back up, he has his pool of hourly guys to remedy the problems as they occurred. The other scenario with the large national companies is they expand their termite department during the Spring to take on the craziness of the termite season. As the season moves into Summer, as the helpers get more experience, they now may be sent off to do termite jobs with helpers of their own, thus not being really experienced and not always being the best employees, many knowing they will be let go when the termite season slows down. I hear the same things around the country of being able to buy "black market" termite chemicals from these type of employees, and I would guess the chemical they sell comes from the chemical supposed to be used at Mr Jones' house. So it is really hard to guess of the effectiveness of the work from Terminix and the like. The best protection you have is to have it routinely inspected every couple of years.

I have not purchased termite service, ever. I spend $30 a year on ant/termite product and spray twice around the perimeter of the house. It helps keep out spiders, ants, ladybugs. earwigs, crickets and supposedly termites. You should inspect your house for termites, but few homeowners actually do this. The $445 treatment sounds a bit high. I know some areas of the country are more susceptible to termite infestation that others; ie, I heard that half of Hawaiian houses are infested.

As with all reviews very seldom does anyone review in the positive. Let me state some FACTS.

Aside from the fact the post is 7 years old, he said he has an insurance policy, but didn't say it was a repair coverage policy. He could just mean that for his $125 a year they come inspect the house once a year and if evidence of termites is found, then the *treatment* cost is covered. That's what I have. And the house is 30 years old and they have never suggested needing any booster treatment. Might not be a bad idea, IDK. But given that the best chemicals are no longer allowed to be used, I wouldn't be surprised that any chemical barrier could be gone in 5+ years. It also depends on how prevalent termites are where he's located, etc.

Why would you want to boost your termites?

replying to cm, tuna man wrote: Ubove examples are simply examples or rolling the dice and hoping for the best! Some win, some lose. I cand name many many homes, as can the dept or agriculture that HAS had termite infestations many times with THOUSANDS of dollars worth of termite damage. Usually noone can see termites in the home until there IS hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of damage. The gentleman with a 69 yr old father saved $5000....he was lucky! Termites CAN and DO cause thousands of dollars worth of damage every year! Dont believe me? Call the Florida Dept of Agriculture 850/617-7997, they have nothing to gain nothing to lose!!

replying to micky, tuna man wrote: good way toi generate dumb questions!

I don't remember ever posting in this thread or about termites.

And nothing in the part of the thread that homeownershub has plagiarized mentions me either.

No only that, nothing there was a dumb question either, and for that matter, asking what others think are dumb questions very frequently brings forth lots of valuable information. Asking incisive questions is likely to scare away people who know lots about a topic but who don't know everything.

replying to Em, NLB wrote: I know this is an old post but i did want to comment. The U.S. environmental protection agency requires that registered soil termiticides remain active for 5 years. Per the chemical manufacturer the chemical is good for 5 years because thats what the federal government requires. With that being said what happens is after about 4 years and 9 months the chemical begins to break down due to a number of things like soil erosion, rain, heat, evaporation, just to name a few. Keep in mind 5 years for a pesticide to stay active is quite impressive considering non termiticides typically only remain active for about 30 days. Once the termiticide becomes inactive the termite colony is no longer kept at bay in the soil and they will begin feeding on cellulose once again. Termites are blind and once they begin to feed on the cellulose of your homes wood/drywall foundation they risk popping through and forming what all home owners dread to see which is the mud tubes. They dont mean to, in fact if they werent blind termites would prefer not to be seen. Booster treatments aren't do or die but with an investment as large and sacred as your home it is definitely recommended. They go in pop open the plugs from the original drill holes and reapply the termiticide. Termiticide is a time release chemical which the termites eat and bring back to their colony which kills them from the source thus keeping them at bay in the soil below your house for another 5 years.

CM... I see your good with math, I was just have you hired a carpenter lately or look at the price if materials? You can check out the government sites on termiticide testing and see that even though termidor has far better results than any other termiticide. Ground board test are at about 96% which tells us that some homes will have a break in the effectiveness of the material... some houses are alot more conducive to termite infestations than others... you might want to stick to running your calculator instead of offering advice about termites and treatment methods.

BUT!! When you get termites...and they are in that wall 3-5 yrs before you even know about it there more than likely will be hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of damage. How much damage will that $500 you THOUGHT you save pay for?? IF that company carried a Termite REPAIR contract (don't presume a Termite Contract IS a Repair contract, the reason they required a booster is more than likely the insurance company that pays for the repairs required the booster!! Nooooo, the perimeter treatment does NOT last forever!!

Termidor was not available until 2000. treatment in 1992 was a "barrier" treatment, that's all that was available, not long lasting and potentially not very affective. If you've had no Sub Termite treatment since you are a time bomb!!

What you're doing has NO affect on sub termites in any way. The $445 Termite treatment is extremely low priced, Oespecially IF it's Termidor or a phipronol chemical with, and this is very important, a REPAIR warranty. Ask, many are re-treament warranty only which basically is no warranty.