Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This is Roger Tinker owner and general manager of all star pest control in Columbus, Georgia. I would like to discuss what Formosan termites are, what they do and how to control them. Formosan termites
were discovered in Georgia about 1992. And I’ve been called the super termite because they destroyed much more wood quicker than other subterranean termites. As with subterranean termites. A colony consists of a queen that lays many eggs per days, and directs the activity of the colony, the workers and the Nymphs’ that forage for food for the colony. Soldiers that defend the colony from attacking ants and others that swarm to make and establish new colonies. The workers and the nymphs look like white maggots and need protection from the sunlight. They construct mud tubes for protection to travel from the shore to the wood found in buildings. Termites only need 130nd inch of a crack to towel through. In addition to traveling back and forth to the colony, deposit food and obtain needed moisture. For Formosan termites can bill carton nests within the walls of buildings. I was in a training conference a few years ago that featured a professor from LSU. She told us they had discovered that Formosan termites, had chewed in the joints in the flood walls and levees in New Orleans, you know the rest of that story. Formosan termite swarmed in the evening in late spring and early summer. Formosan termites can even swarm out of treasures they attack and live in trees. Control, in my opinion should involve several methods, a liquid treatment will stop destruction fairly quickly. However, using a baiting system helps reduce the number of termites around a building. The city in New Orleans use a baiting system of saved many old buildings from destruction. And that was a method that they found that worked when other methods did not work. In addition, a moisture meter should be used to locate any cartonnage that termites have built within the walls of building these nests need to be removed from within the walls. This information is basic information is no two infestations are the same
Call or contact me if I can assist you in any way
