Termites!

[DAVEinMB]

Well the sea of hurdles and obstacles is vast my friends and this time it happens to be termites....subterranean termites. I found those little buggers at the base of 3 of my palms and thought I'd see if anyone else has had the pleasure of dealing with them. I had some Talstar P in the shed that I used to treat fire ants last year so I did a soak at the base of the 3 palms (1 oz. per gal) so far. I'm sure they're elsewhere so I plan on doing a more in depth treatment this weekend and may get an exterminator involved. Any input is greatly appreciated. I'll have pics tomorrow. Thanks for looking! 

[tropicbreeze]

Termites are social creatures, you could call them "Social Cockroaches". They're more closely related to cockroaches than to any other insect. The main thing is to get rid of the central nest where their mass reproduction line is based. It's ideal if you can identify the species, then you can get targeted baits that get carried back to the nest killing the whole of the colony. Insecticides that kill the worker termites away from the nest are ineffective. Of course, in time another colony may move in but that usually takes some time.

[greysrigging]

Here's a local AgNote on our local Termite,  the Mastotermes darwiniensis. Universally loathed by Top End property owners and gardeners for their voracious appetites for exotic timber and tree species ( including palms, I have had infestations in Sugar palms, a Cotton palm as well as the local Carpentaria ).
Back 'in the day', Dieldrin was the chemical of choice ( until the carcinogenic properties were identified and the product was banned, although everyone stockpiled the stuff when the bans were announced ), then Mirant / Mirex was also used as a control agent. Nowadays the chemical of choice is 'Termidor, horrendously expensive at $240 a litre, but I did manage to save my big old Washingtonia. It's expensive enough to actually read the instructions and apply as directed ( something men have trouble with haha ) https://dpif.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/233619/734.pdf






 

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@tropicbreeze @greysrigging

Thanks guys! The talstar p that I used is just a location treatment so it will have no effect on the heart of the colony. The perimeter of my house was treated with termidor and the termite guys around here swear by it. I reached out to the company that treated my house and they also recommended using some sort of bait station that ultimately will collapse the colony. They said it takes a good bit of time for a termite infestation to adversely affect a large palm so the trees should be ok... 

Bait stations are being installed next week and will be in place for 9 months. I'll share product information as well as overall effectiveness. I'll figure out the species I'm fighting as well and post that. As always great advice on here, I really appreciate it. 

[realarch]

On 6/11/2020 at 8:56 PM, greysrigging said:

Here's a local AgNote on our local Termite,  the Mastotermes darwiniensis. Universally loathed by Top End property owners and gardeners for their voracious appetites for exotic timber and tree species ( including palms, I have had infestations in Sugar palms, a Cotton palm as well as the local Carpentaria ).
Back 'in the day', Dieldrin was the chemical of choice ( until the carcinogenic properties were identified and the product was banned, although everyone stockpiled the stuff when the bans were announced ), then Mirant / Mirex was also used as a control agent. Nowadays the chemical of choice is 'Termidor, horrendously expensive at $240 a litre, but I did manage to save my big old Washingtonia. It's expensive enough to actually read the instructions and apply as directed ( something men have trouble with haha ) https://dpif.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/233619/734.pdf






 

Read directions? That gave me a chuckle. The way they label garden chemicals nowadays with the peel back instructions which degrade and stick together in a short time is a PIA. 

I do read the directions of that scary, toxic stuff and mark the ratios on the bottle with a sharpie. That has helped a lot. 

Tim

[tropicbreeze]

On 6/14/2020 at 7:21 AM, realarch said:

Read directions? That gave me a chuckle. The way they label garden chemicals nowadays with the peel back instructions which degrade and stick together in a short time is a PIA. 

I do read the directions of that scary, toxic stuff and mark the ratios on the bottle with a sharpie. That has helped a lot. 

Tim

What I do is download the MSDS from the internet so always have a good copy.

[WaianaeCrider]

On 6/13/2020 at 11:51 AM, realarch said:

Read directions? That gave me a chuckle. The way they label garden chemicals nowadays with the peel back instructions which degrade and stick together in a short time is a PIA. 

I do read the directions of that scary, toxic stuff and mark the ratios on the bottle with a sharpie. That has helped a lot. 

Tim

When I buy a container labeled like that I remove the instruction BOOKLET so I can refer to it before it becomes invisible.  LOL