How to Trench for Subterranean Termites the RIGHT Way. Everything you need to know. How and why.

hi this is guy if you watched my video on do-it-yourself termite treatment then you know that the easiest way to eliminate a subterranean termite infestation is to use the bio advanced 700350 a termite killer granules the thing is though nothing is a sure thing while the granules work in almost all cases there are times when you really do need to dig a trench and you need to dig that thing around your entire home and pour in a termite termiticide for example if you have very dense soil that is composed mostly of clay for example then the granules may not leach down into the soil properly and they may not get down where the termites are traveling so my recommendation is to always try the granules first and if they do not work then you are going to need to you know kind of just sort of resign yourself to either hiring a pro or digging a trench yourself that's why today we're going to talk about the best way to trench your home yourself for subterranean termites don't worry though this is not as hard as you may think now please note that this treatment i'm talking about today does not work for dry wood termites and if you have formosan termites then additional treatment may be required now i have been doing pest control for many years now and i've been licensed in several states well i'm not licensed anymore because i'm retired now but given the fact that many people need to save money these days i decided that i would share ways that i learned over the years on how you can do your own pest control effectively safely and most importantly inexpensively i want you to know that i will answer any question for anybody any time about any pest for free even if i do not have a video on the particular pest in question my goal is to save people money so if you find this video helpful please share it with someone you know who may also need to save a buck on pest control also if you would like to see more of my videos then please click on the subscribe button and don't forget to click on that little bell next to it so that you get notified when i when i have another video published now if you really like what i do please show me a little love and click on that like button as well also if you are familiar with my videos then you know that they are typically not short but i am thorough and i am going to be thorough today as well because i want to make sure that you have all the information that you need to do the job right okay so what is the best way to trench your house for subterranean termites well let's get right into it first let's talk about what termiticide you should be using while there are a number of termiticides available on the market today here in the united states i think most pest control companies probably use termidor now i would agree with those pest control companies that termidor is an outstanding product to use but it is not the least expensive product to use the active ingredient in termidor is fipronil and fiprenyl is a very good tomiticide the the thing is though that you can buy a less expensive product that does the exact same thing and you know because it it has the exact same concentration of fibrinol so what i recommend using is taurus sc and i will place a link in the description for you regardless of the tomiticide that you're going to use be sure that you use a non-repellent termiticide you see pesticides come in two basic flavors there are repellent pesticides and non-repellent pesticides the reason you want to use a non-repellent pesticide is because the subterranean termite colony is always underground and never in your home the only exception to this may be formosan termites but we're not going to be talking about them today the termites that we are talking about today are responsible for about 90 percent of the damages done by termites in the united states these guys are never going to colonize in your home they are only going to your house because they like to eat out and your house just happens to be their favorite restaurant now some of the termites in the colony do not like to go out to eat i think of them kind of like you know homebodies so the ones that do go out to eat will bring back take out for those that like to stay home so in the case of non-repellent termiticides the termites are not going to know that you have placed a poison around your home and so they will happily travel right through it never knowing that they are bringing a poison back to the rest of the colony that they are going to share with the other termites after the the termites bring the poison back to the colony and they share it with the other termites then the entire colony is going to die out and you will have no more infestation in your home if you were to use a repellent pesticide then the termites are going to know that this is a poison and they are going to avoid it because they don't want to die therefore they will not bring it back to the colony and share it with the other termites and that is why a repellent pesticide is most likely not going to kill off that colony now some companies do recommend a repellent pesticide for prevention and the reason for that i think is because they figure if termites are on their way to your house and they encounter the repellent pesticide then they're going to turn around and go back well the truth is that all that's going to happen here is it's going to cause the termites to go into into a different direction they still need to look for food so they're not going back to the colony so if there is any gap in the barrier that you placed around your home then the termites may find it and you will be infested in spite of the barrier that you placed around your home so if you are going to use a repellent pesticide then you better do a really good job of course the argument can probably be made that if you are just doing trenching as a preventative treatment and you are using a non-repellent pesticide then it is somewhat possible that the termites will actually start to eat your house before the entire colony is eradicated well that is kind of a scary thought to be sure i wouldn't worry about it too much because subterranean termites are fairly slow eaters and they will do very little damage by the time the entire colony is completely eradicated it is more likely that they will do no damage to your home at all you know i was inspecting the perimeter of my house a couple years ago when i noticed a termite tube going from the ground up the side of my house that was about four inches high so i broke open the mud tube to see what was inside and guess what there were no termites in other words the entire colony was completely wiped out before the termites could build a mud tube more than four inches long up the wall so no damage at all to my house on the other hand if you use a repellent termiticide it is possible that after the termites identify it as a poison they may just find their way around it also if you do not kill off that entire colony then these guys are going to continue to try to attack your house until they finally succeed so the bottom line in my view is that it is always best to use a non-repellent termiticide and i think that taurus sc is the best one to use and the least expensive okay now let's talk about how you should dig that trench and i suppose the best way to do that would be to simply go outside and show you how the easiest way i think to trench for termites is to simply use a pick kind of like this i think unless you're digging into some really rocky soil this will probably be your best bet and will get the job done pretty quick i'm 72 and i'm still able to do it now most pest controllers are going to trench the entire building before they apply the pesticide but i don't do it that way because i know i'm just doing it for myself if you're a professional you want to get the whole thing done at one time but if you're just doing it for yourself you don't need to all you need to do is work at your own pace if you get tired you can stop do it another day whatever you want to do just as long as you get around the building so what i do is i do it in 10 foot sections and treat it and then i do another 10 foot section what the professionals do is they trench the whole thing and then they put barriers so they can pour the pesticide in in ten foot sections so whatever works for you you can do it that way i'm going to dig a ten foot stretch treat it and then dig another ten foot stretch treat it and so on and that way whenever i decide i want to stop i can do that and pick it up another day if i like so with that uh just get an idea where 10 feet is and that would be right here so i'm just going to make a little mark so i know where my 10 foot section is i always like to wear gloves when i do this and very simple [Music] you want your trench to be six inches wide and about six inches deep and as you can see i did about oh 18 inches pretty quickly so no sense you knew watching me do 10 feet so i'm going to fast forward through this and you know save some time [Music] [Applause] [Music] well that's pretty much it let me zoom in and get a close-up on this ditch for you on this trench they have it that's pretty much what your trend should look like like i said the product that i like to use is taurus sc and we're going to mix it 0.8 ounces per gallon there's a nice little measuring cup right on the top of the container you're going to want to mix four gallons of this and i like to be kind of accurate so what i do is i take one gallon of anything empty jug and milk cotton container doesn't matter fill it four times dump it in the bucket and that will give you your water level just take a sharpie and mark where four gallons is and that way you'll get a perfect mix each time now i'm not going to use the taurus sc today so that i don't have to wear any protective equipment so i'm just going to use water but that's basically all there is to it you put the taurus sc in first then just go ahead and fill the bucket up with water simple as that and i'm not going to make you watch me fill the bucket see at the trench okay now that we've got our tomato side mixed in the bucket we've done four gallons all we need to do is pour it evenly into the trench that we've dug pretty simple again you want to wear gloves for this and goggles you don't want any of the stuff on your hands or in your eyes i'm sorry this is a little out of focus but i think you can see that the termiticide and caught my case water leached into the soil pretty quickly now that may not be the case where you are if you have denser soil here in florida we have sandy soil so it goes right in but either way you can start filling in the trench right away if it's got liquid in it that's going to be an advantage because it will get the backfill dirt wet as you fill it in but if there's no termiticide in the trench then you need to use a garden sprayer or a watering can or something like that and then just simply put in about three inches backfill into the trench and then you can spray it with the garden sprayer or your watering can or something like that and saturate that backfill soil then after you do the first three inches go ahead and do the rest of it and fill the trench in all the way and again saturate that last three inches thoroughly with the tomato side okay i can hear the pros out there right now saying what about treating concrete slabs you know like the driveway and patios we all know that you need to bore holes through the concrete and inject a termiticide underneath the slabs right well do you now first of all i don't like drilling holes through my concrete personally i like my concrete undrilled besides someone please explain to me what the difference is between a concrete you know patio slab and a house that is built on a concrete slab most pest controllers do not go inside houses and bore holes through the flooring inside the house right then why are we doing it to a patio if it's okay to simply do a perimeter treatment around a concrete slab home then why isn't it okay to do a perimeter treatment around a concrete slab patio if you were to build a screened enclosure over that same exact patio then pest controllers probably wouldn't bore holes through it especially if you put down some sort of carpeting or other flooring on top of the concrete do you see my point there isn't any difference between a house that is built on a concrete slab or a concrete patio so all you really need to do to treat that patio is to just trench around it like you would the rest of the house okay okay okay but what about the driveway suppose you have a concrete driveway that adjoins an asphalt or concrete street isn't it possible that the termite colony can be underneath the street and then the termites could possibly travel under the driveway to your home and then enter that way well sure it can happen but the truth is it's not likely i mean i have to admit that i have seen it before the thing is though in this scenario you are most likely going to see some sort of evidence of termite activity in the garage if this is the case then you can either spot treat the area or if you prefer you can hire a pest control company to simply do the boring and treating of just the area across that driveway now spot treating is an effective way to handle these situations so i would give that a try first and then if it fails you can always go ahead and hire a pro to bore that concrete and i will explain how to do the spot treating a little later in this video again the possibility of termites traveling under the driveway is unlikely because you are going to also trench along both sides of the driveway so that any termites that are entering from the sides of the driveway will have to cross that termiticide barrier that means the only way that they will be able to approach your house is literally if they come from directly under the street and travel directly under your driveway without ever going near the barrier that you placed on each side of the driveway seriously folks what would be the odds of that happening well i have learned to never say never in pest control i don't think there's enough of a chance of this happening that you should really lose any sleep over it i have also had some pest controllers argue what if the termite colony is directly under the house well this too is a possibility albeit rather uncommon one however if trenching is not going to work for you because the colony is directly under the house then it is not going to work for them either so that's kind of a silly argument to make anyway this approach to treating slabs will be way less expensive than having a pest control company come out and trench around your entire house and bore that concrete you know like the patios and the driveway another question i get a lot is about crawl spaces if you have a crawl space that has a dirt floor should you treat around the inside perimeter of the foundation oftentimes the pros are going to do just that but is it really necessary now i know i am probably going to start some debate on this topic but my thinking is that if you see mud tubes going up the foundation walls under the house then yes you do need to treat the perimeter of the foundation the same way that you would on the outside of the foundation however if there are no mud tubes under the house you know going up the foundation wall from the ground then i do not personally believe that it is necessary to trench under the house look a lot of crawl spaces are very confined and it would not be much fun to be digging a trench underneath those crawl spaces also i'm not a big fan of using a termiticide in a confined area like that unless it is absolutely necessary so if you are not seeing mud tubes going up the foundation walls in that crawl space then it is unlikely that you are getting attacked from under that crawl space anyway that is my view of it i'm sure that some pest controllers out there are probably going to argue the point with me and they are certainly welcome to have their opinion and they can feel free to express their views in the comments section hey always try to keep an open mind and so if they can make a convincing argument then i will be more than happy to go ahead and alter my opinion on the matter until then i would argue that you not treat the underneath of the house unless it is absolutely necessary of course there are always exceptions for example if your house is on piers like with many mobile homes and older homes then it's a good idea to trench around those piers just dig the trench six inches deep and six six inches wide just like you would if you were treating the foundation now if the house is too close to the ground to get to those peers then just trench the peers that you can access and then also trench around the perimeter of the building as well regardless of how you treat always monitor the results look let's face it when it comes to pest control nothing is a sure thing the treatments that we do work almost all the time but even if you get your house treated by a pro there are times when it's not going to work and the reason for that is because the termites may not have gotten the memo that they are supposed to act the way that we want them to act so if you have visible mud tubes then wait about two weeks after you finish trenching and go ahead and scrape off about two inches of each mud tube down to the bare surface if you do not see any termites in those mud tubes then you probably killed off the entire colony if you do see activity in those mud tubes then just wait another couple of weeks and check again now you can also inspect damaged areas as well just get a flat head screwdriver and dig into the damaged areas and see if there's any activity keep in mind that this is a slow kill process if we were to kill the termites too fast then they would not have time to share the termiticide with the other termites in the colony still if you are still seeing activity after about let's say eight weeks then i think it's reasonable to assume that the treatments that you did were not successful so should this be the case then please contact me and i would be more than happy to go to go over everything that you did to see if we can figure out exactly what went wrong finally you can give any termite treatment a bit of a kick by treating the mud tubes and the infested areas not only will this speed up the process but it will also come close to guaranteeing that you will be successful if you have visible mud tubes then simply scrape off about a two inch section of all the mud tubes with something like a putty knife down to the bare surface then get yourself a can of fipronil foam and shoot it in each direction of the mud tube you know inside the mud tubes for a couple of seconds and then shoot some on the bass surface as well the termites will rebuild the mud tubes and then carry the termiticide back to the colony and share it with the other termites also if you have an area that is visibly damaged by termites then you can actually poison their food source again you're going to want to use that same fiprinal foam just drill holes about four inches apart that are just wide enough for the applicator tip of the can to enter the hole then drill those holes about half way through the wood in question so if you are treating a wall stud for example then you would want to drill a hole that is about two inches deep however if you were treating some molding or baseboards or something like that then you would only want to drill those holes maybe 1 8 to 3 16 of an inch deep now i recommend that you do not replace any damaged wood until after the infestation is gone leaving the infested wood in place not only gives you a perfect opportunity to poison the food source but also you don't want to take away a food source from the termites because they're liable to go look for another one and there's a pretty good chance that new food source is going to be another area of your home now remember the termites are not only going to eat this poisoned wood but they are also going to bring it back to the colony and share that food with the other termites so not only will they be carrying the temiticide back to the colony but they will actually be carrying poisoned food with them as well now the foam is not very expensive so this is a really good idea if you want to get rid of your termites just as quickly as possible i will place a link in the description for the foam that i like to use okay that's it for me today if you found this video to be of assistance to you in any way please share it with a friend or family member and if you would like to see more of my videos then please click the subscribe button and don't forget to click on that little bell next to it so that you will get notified when i have another video posted now if you really like this video then please show me a little love by clicking on that like button as well until next time thank you so much for watching and please do not hesitate to ask questions remember i will answer any questions about any pest anytime for anybody for free even if i do not have a video on the particular pest in question i am always here to help

Channel: Guy's Pest Solutions

Views: 74,985

Keywords: Drywood termties, Formosan termites, Pest control, pests, extermination, bugs, do it yourself, DIY, entomology, infestation, chemicals, pest supplies, pesticides, homeowner, exterminate, how to, treatment, dig

Id: Fy7YHi_7Z8g

Length: 36min 43sec (2203 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022