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Termites tend to be most prevalent in the warmer countries more than the cooler ones, but if where you live is infected by timber-eating termites, regulating them should be towards the top of your priorities, particularly if you are a home-owner or a farmer. Of the 4,000 species of termite, about 400 of them pose a serious threat to wood buildings and crops.

Ants and ant-eaters are the termites natural enemies, but this does not help man to control them, so we have resorted to chemicals. Most of the chemicals used to manage termites are fairly safe to humans, their pets and their livestock, although it does no harm to exercise a little vigilance when spreading them about.

The first thing you should do if you would like to evict termites from your home, is understand a little about them. They like to consume a plank of wood beginning at the end-grain and tunneling up inside it, so before you next redecorate your house, saturate all timber in preservative and termite poison especially the end-grain. Then repaint, stain or varnish everything as usual.

If you make it a problem or unappetizing for them, termites are likely to go for easier plunder. Likewise, if you have walkways, crawling spaces or air ducts, spray them with termiticide. If you have wet areas near to the house remedy the cause of the damp, because termites are partial to damp soil.

Clear up any clutter from about the base of your house such as old leaves and weeds, because that retains moisture too. If you have a stack of garden rubbish, burn it; if you have a compost heap, fork it over on a regular basis and inspect for termites (and carpenter ants).

In a termite colony, it is only the female workers that go out and forage. They then take this back to the colony an feed it to the nymphs, the soldiers and the king and queen. If you poison that food source, all those bugs will die and the nymphs in the unhatched eggs will starve to death.

Most termiticides act on two levels, there is the poison to get eaten, but there is also an element to the poison that kills on contact, although it might take some time.

When a termite rubs up against this contact poison, it will go home sooner or later where it will groom and be groomed by its fellows, which passes the contact poison all over the nest very quickly.

It can take a week or more for say 90% of the nest to get wiped out, but it could take another month or so for the remaining 10% to die, because they may be getting their food from another source.

However, sooner or later they will begin taking the dead bodies of their dropped comrades outside and when they do that, they will get a brushing of contact poison as well.

When this happens their days are numbered even if the poison is a little bit older and a little bit less potent. The trick is not to stop too soon and keep checking for a re-infestation, because if they came once, they could come back again.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with pictures of termites. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for some more details.

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