Termite Control
Termites are of soil inhabiting form and wood inhabiting forms, the later damaging dry and damp woods. These insects have special affinity for cellulose materials and termites are capable of reaching the source far away from their nests. The nests are either located near the same building where infestation is noticed or it could be few meters below the building or in the neighbouring grounds and worker termites travel to faraway places through perfectly formed pathways or galleries underneath the building or soil. They travel several meters to attack the wooden in buildings and transport them to their store house that is the nest or termite mound to feed the entire colony where millions of termites are produced per day. Among several species of termites
associated with building structures, Coptotermes spp., Cryptotermes spp., Heterotermes Spp-, Macrotermes spp., Microcerotermes spp., and Odontotermes spp., are economically important pests of buildings. Termites have wings at birth when they emerge out of termite mounds. Both
male and female soon after Shedding their wings, mate and start settling down in a suitable soil for developing the nest. The female start producing eggs which are then transformed into workers, soldiers and females and males and the entire colony of different termites and sex are determined by the queen secreting a hormone. The queen slowly becomes the only factory to produce only eggs and no other job. There can be one or two termite queens in a colony. Termites are social insects live in nests or mounds or termite aria of their own construction either on the surface of the soil on underground or in dry dead woods. The termite nest serves to house and protect the colony store food and maintain an optimum environment. The colony maintains a
homeostasis by the self-regulation of optimal conditions for development, maintenance and reproduction of the society. The functioning of the society is based on the self-regulated behavior of individuals and division of labor among the different castes within the society.
Termite attack buildings and form mud tubes or galleries. Mud tubes provide suitable environment and passage for workers to transport cellulose materials from buildings to their nests.They are made by workers through a specially prepared mud mixed with their mouth secretions. In infested buildings the mud tubes seen outside walls are the indications of heavy infestation. The mounds are either located below ground in few meters or several hundreds of meters away from the infested buildings. Some species construct huge mounds of several meters high above ground as well as below ground.
The presence of termites in buildings is cause for concern not only from the standpoint of safety but also the cost of preventing further structural damage and replacing damaged wood. Termites normally damage wood slowly over time. There is no need to panic, when an infestation is found, take your time to understand the sources of moisture and the location and amount of damage.
Termite damage to wood can be recognised because there are small fecal pellets of digested wood along with soil particles within the galleries. Galleries are typically located in wood close to or touching the ground or wood wet with excessive moisture from a leak or other water source. The infestation is identified through small powder spheres falling on the floor from the infested wooden parts.
Conventional Treatment
For post construction treatment inside the building structures especially where wood and cement are joining, drilling holes in the floor slab at every 30cm distance to a depth of 1 cm and 30 cm apart, injecting with the insecticide- Chlorpyrifos 48% EC water emulsion and seal after drying. In he case of termite mound treatments, breaking and opening the structures at several places and pouring the insecticide emulsion to kill the entire termite family.
Termite Post Treatment.
Environmentally safe alternate methods like Termite Bait Station Techniques’ are available for termite control and are practiced in advance countries like The Europe, US, and Australia. Although it is costlier than the insecticide treatment, it is advisable to undertake the environmentally safe method of termite control for pre and post construction termite control. The biggest advantage in Bait technique which is called as ‘Colony Elimination’, the entire colony is wiped out Over a period of time of 3-9 months time. On the other side chemical treatment is meant to kill termites on the spot and on infested wood and it does not affect the colony or nest. The termite bait systems not only gradually wipe out the entire termite colony from a building, but also is an excellent monitoring tool for the activity of termites in that ground. This is a fool proof method to understand and monitor termite activity in a soil or building and environmentally friendly method.