Liquid Termite Treatment vs Bait Stations | What should you buy?

[Music] this is the termite bait station the previous owners of our house had about 20 of these installed around the perimeter in 2009 it consists of a plastic sleeve and a cartridge that contains a slow acting bait once termites find the bait they carry it back to their colony spread it to the other termite workers and the queen which kills them slowly since these plastic baits couldn't be installed at the concrete back patio this area had liquid termite treatment holes were drilled through the concrete every 12 inches and liquid termidicide was pumped into the ground these chemicals are supposed to create a continuous barrier around the foundation of your home the advantage of liquid treatment is that it usually works much faster termites die within minutes of exposure it can also last over 10 years without any intervention or maintenance the problem with liquid treatment is that dead termites in the area are repellent so the remaining termites will try to find another way in termites only need a tiny 32nd of an inch gap to pass through they also don't carry the poison back to the colony it is a very invasive process and requires special equipment you also need to treat every crack in your slab and every water and drain penetration inside your home liquid treatment uses four gallons of termiticide every 10 linear feet so our home would need approximately 120 gallons of chemicals i decided to just replace these old termite baits around my home instead of pumping chemicals into the soil so to learn a little bit more about termite prevention systems and its importance and all the different types might we've got michael bosco of safe haven pest control with us thanks for coming over to our house thank you for having us so how big of a problem is termite damage in texas especially well i don't know the financial for texas alone but in the united states it's a five billion dollars worth of damage annually which makes it more than all natural disasters combined wow so it's substantial termites are extremely cryptic right so they'll come up through the slab a lot of times and you never know that the termites are actually consuming the home because they're inside the wall and the two by fours and not exposing themselves so the damage isn't all that evident until you start to remodel this is a perfect example where you can see the termites brought the mud into the their galleries that they were consuming because they have to protect themselves and so when you see the mud and the striation then that's your indication that you definitely have a current infestation or a past infestation so this is a very typical cedar plank that's wood fencing same thing you can see the galleries that were produced by the termites this is from years past and what's happened is the mud has been washed out so is a termite-based system better than liquid termite treatment a baiting in our opinion is much better because you're using the termite uh habits against it right it has to forage for food and so by us placing uh stations uh anywhere from 10 to 20 feet apart around your home we're using that that desire for them to go seek food and find food and then bring that food back to the colony so we're actually taking uh we're taking that colony out right so that it is a colony elimination system whereas a liquid termiticide system a liquid termiticide treatment is going to really just be a barrier and it will lead that colony to continue to survive and maybe even continue to probe and find access into your home installing these bait stations is very quick and easy you first check the ground with the probe to see if there are any pipes or wires running underneath then you drill a hole with an auger place the station in and cover it up let's take a closer look at this bait each plastic sleeve has a barcode on it which is tracked the bait has a barcode as well when a third of the bait is consumed it is replaced however scientific tests have shown that only one inch of this bait is needed to kill an entire colony the centricone bait is made out of a plastic and cellulose which is a source of food for the termites and the rest of the colony it also contains nova flumeron the chemical killer every termite has to molt or shed its exoskeleton to get bigger and live the chemical inside this prevents molting this is the key difference between liquid systems and bait termites do not die immediately after consuming this they only die when they hit molting termites don't associate dying with the bait so they continue to eat it once termites bring this bait back to the colony it takes around 3 months to completely wipe them out now let's discuss where these bait stations need to be installed it should be beyond the drip edge of the roof and at least 18 inches past the exterior wall if your home has had liquid treatment in the past this area will repel termites so you shouldn't place the stations too close to the edge so how much do these systems cost both for the install and then for the yearly checkup so installation can vary widely between companies especially if it's between preventative or curative if you have a curative situation where you have active termites you're going to be anywhere from a thousand to twenty five hundred dollars on a curative because now we have to take care of an active problem we're probably going to want to use an above ground station on those active termites and it's a situation that may require a little bit more effort on our part to get control if it's on a preventative basis then the price is going to be much lower it's just going to involve the in-ground stations and like safe haven we what we like to do is combine it bundle it up with our other pest control services so it can get as low as 400 of an install on prevention as part of a two-year kind of pest control commitment and then the on the annual basis you're looking at around 25 a month to maintain the system there are a lot of pretty strong opinions on the internet about centricon systems and other bait stations some people believe that liquid treatment is far more effective i think effectiveness depends on where you live what types of termites you're trying to kill and how badly your home is infected installing bait systems are much easier but maintaining the system for 25 dollars a month can get expensive in the long run when you get a termite prevention system installed you should talk to a local specialist to figure out what's best for your home so now that we've installed the system what are the next steps okay so we're gonna put a sticker underneath the kitchen cabinet it's a notice of treatment if you guys sell the home that information is there the next step will be that we'll be contacting you next spring and let you know hey it's time for us to come out and inspect the stations so that's when we'll come out open up each station see if the bait if it's been hit is there activity uh and then um if the bait needs to be replaced we'll replace the bait so we do that every every year and so that whole maintenance is is important right to keep the system functional if you don't maintain the system then it's um it will you know it laps you just you don't have the bait integrity at that point thank you so much for coming out to our home and explaining all the different types of bait stations and uh how could people contact you i think our website is the easiest way to get a hold of us it's safehavenpast.com so come to the website fill out a form or call us we're happy to answer any questions and we appreciate you having us out and protecting your home thank you michael

Channel: Belinda Carr

Views: 51,517

Keywords: termite, termite killer, termiticide, liquid termite, bait stations, chemicals, environment, damage, termite infestation, infestation

Id: zi6iHIdDVqg

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 15 2022