Termites can cause a huge amount of damage to any wooden structure. In fact, one termite colony can eat its way through 12 inches of a 2×4 beam in less than 6 months. Of course, the exact rate will depend on the size of the colony but it’s safe to say they can seriously undermine the integrity of your home in a surprisingly short space of time.
The old approach to killing termites is to place pesticide in the soil around your home. A circle was created that preventing termites from getting in or out because the pesticide would kill them. Providing the pesticide didn’t run out it was effective but damaging to the environment.
Today, people prefer to use termite bait traps. This is better for the environment but still effective at killing the termites.
How The Termite Bait Works
The biggest difference about this method is that it is designed to target the workers in the colony. Every termite colony is split into distinctive sections. You have a queen, plenty of workers, nymphs, (that’s fertile females), and fertile males. Every termite has its role, the workers are responsible for constructing the colony and finding food.
That’s why the termite bait traps target workers. When the workers are killed off the colony has no food and the Queen and all other termites will starve. This effectively kills the colony and does so in a fairly short space of time.
The key to successfully using termite bait traps is to pre-bait them.
Scout termites are the ones that find food sources, the workers harvest it and carry it back to the colony. In order for a bait trap to be successful, you’ll need to put bait traps down that have wood or cellulose products. The traps are designed to attract termites. Once the scouts have found the stations and are happy they are a good source of food, they will mark them with a pheromone. This tells the workers where it is and allows them to harvest the food.
The food that the scout takes must be genuine, that’s the pre-bait. This is essential to create a connection between the feeding station, (or bait trap) and the colony. Once this is established you simply replace the wood bait with a toxic substance. The worker can’t tell the difference and takes it back to the colony. In the process, it will die. Other worker termites will visit the bait traps and take the toxic substance. Eventually, they will all be dead.
To garnish the best success rate it is best to use several traps and to know the approximate location of the termite colony. The closer the trap is the more likely it is they’ll create a connection to it and you can kill them all off.
Termite baiting is actually a very simple process and very effective. The key is to use the right bait, which is why it’s best left to the professionals. You’ll know the termite colony is dead when the levels of bait are no longer going down, there are no termites left to feed on them.
