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More than 365,000 homes in the U.S. are involved in a fire each year. More than 600,000 U.S. homes suffer termite damage totaling over $1.5 billion annually. This is more than the damage caused by all fires, storms and earthquakes combined. More than 2 million homes require termite treatment each year. Homeowners insurance can help recover losses from fires, floods and earthquakes, but it is almost impossible to get insurance against termites.

Finding out your home has termites scares most homeowners. You typically can’t see them, you can’t hear them and frequently only a trained inspector can find signs of infestation. Treatment by the homeowner for the control of termites is virtually impossible. Specialized equipment is used and the experts have the knowledge necessary for effective control.

A trained termite control specialist can provide protection from termite infestation. Termites are found in almost every state as well as Mexico and parts of Canada. They eat wood and may destroy paper products such as books, cardboard boxes, furniture and various other items. Even buildings with steel framing and masonry walls are targets because of the wooden doors and window frames, wooden support beams, cabinets or shelving.

HOW TERMITES LIVE

There are more than 2,000 species of termites. Only about 70 species invade wooden structures enough to be considered pests. The most damaging are roughly 20 species we call “subterranean” termites because of their living and foraging habits. Two of these, the Eastern Subterranean Termites and the Western Subterranean Termites, are by far the most common, widest distributed and most damaging in the U.S. The following description of biology refers to these two closely related species.

Termites feed on cellulose, a complex chemical in plant cell walls, and they are very important in the natural decomposition of fallen trees, leaves and other plant products. Subterranean termites build their colonies in the soil or in trees or poles, and they rely mainly on the soil for moisture.

A subterranean termite colony is large (60,000 to 1.5 million termites), and made up of several “castes”, each with distinct functions and behaviors. These include reproductive (the queen, king and winged swarmers), soldiers and workers. Worker termites are small (0.1 – 0.25 in. long), creamy-white insects. Soldiers are larger (0.2 – 0.4 in. long), about 1/20th as numerous as workers, and have a large dark head, with long, strong, sharp pointed jaws, which they use to attack intruders. Property owners seldom see the worker or soldier termites, but in spring or fall they may see swarming “winged reproductives”. This form of termite can easily be confused with winged ant unless you look closely.

SWARMING CAN SPREAD TERMITES QUICKLY

After a termite colony reaches a certain population level, usually more than 10,000 for northern subterranean termites, winged (alate) reproductive “swarmers” are produced and leave the colony in a “swarm”. A swarm is a mixed group of roughly 50% male and 50% female reproductives which leave the nest at the same time, in a short period of 5 –45 minutes. This is usually around dusk or dawn. Large colonies may release swarmers in several pulse-like groups over two or more days when conditions are right.

Swarmers fly upward at first and may be attracted to light. After landing, a female breaks off her own wings, raises her abdomen and emits a pheromone which attracts males of her species. If a suitable male finds her, they touch each other and he breaks off his own wings. The pair then “run in tandem” for a short time before searching out a suitable piece of wood in which both begin a nest. Their first brood soon takes over the colony maintenance and food gathering, and the queen reverts to only producing eggs. The queen can produce roughly 1,000 eggs per day by the fourth year of life. If either the king or queen dies, other members of the colony can change into reproductive and replace the lost member of the pair.

HOW TO TELL TERMITES FROM WINGED ANTS

All termites have a “thick waist” where their abdomen is joined to their middle body region (thorax), but all ants have a “pinched-waist” at that point.

All termites have antenna that look like a “string of beads”, but all ants have an “elbowed” antenna.

Termite swarmers have two pairs of long narrow wings with very few clearly visible veins, and both the front and back pairs are nearly equal in size and length. Winged ants have two pairs of wings and several distinct cross veins, shaped like long triangles, and the back pair is much shorter than the front pair.

HOW TERMITES GET IN

Subterranean termites live mainly in the ground. They “forage” for food (wood) farther and farther from their center of their colony area as their numbers grow. Foragers may make underground tunnels or above-ground “shelter tubes” of mud, feces and debris used to search for new food sources and to connect their feeding sites to the soil. They can enter a building without direct wood contact with the soil through such tubes. Termites can enter buildings through cracks, expansion joints, foam insulation below ground, hollow bricks or concrete blocks, or through spaces around plumbing through openings as narrow as 1/64th of an inch. Any building, whether constructed with a slab, basement or crawl space foundation, can easily be infested by termites.

TERMITE BAITS CAN BE USED ALONE, BUT EXPERTS SAY IT’S A BAD IDEA

In much of Central Florida, chemical sprays are no longer required for new homes.

By: MARY SHANKLIN

OF THE SENTINEL STAFF

Builders can now forget about treating the ground under new homes for termites. Many Florida counties now allow new homes to rely only on termite baits that lock homeowners into ongoing payments and may not fully protect their houses.

Without the chemical blanket under their houses, owners of new homes are forced to pay about $20 a month for pest control companies to check the baits. And they may have to wait months or even a year before the bait kills termite colonies.

“With the baits, if they’re not maintained, there’s no protection”, said Steven Dwinell, assistant director for state Agricultural and Environmental Services. He sent a memo to Florida’s building officials in March 1999, stating that baits alone may not adequately protect consumers.

At the University of Florida, entomology Professor Phil Koehler said the baits can take a year to kill termites colonies and they should not be the only defense for homeowners.

“The best control of termites is not going to be one silver bullets,” Koehler said, “There are failures of everything”.

Counties that have approved the sole use of baits in recent months include Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake Polk, Charlotte, Leon, Lee, Marion, Pasco, Alachua and Collier.

Volusia County is debating the spray vs. Bait issue, and is expected to make a decision within the next few weeks.

Palm Beach County building chief, Roland Holt, considered Florida’s guru of termite construction rules, said he would not allow houses in his county to go up with only baits and no layer of liquid treatment.

Termites are the unofficial pests of Florida. This year, Orlando held its position as the fifth-most infested city in the United States, according to an annual survey by Orkin Pest Control. Tampa and Miami ranked even higher. Central Florida is now in the midst of termite swarm season, a time when the creatures bore pinholes through drywall and fly to a light source, such as a window, where they shed their wings.

Causing more damage to homes than fires, floods and hurricanes combined, the annual repair bill from termites in the U.S. totals about $1.7 billion. Unlike damage from those other natural disasters, insurance companies do not cover termite repairs. A homeowner can spend $3,000 replacing wall studs and the subfloors in a bathroom, a favorite termite hideaway.

Fighting the six-legged home wreckers can be like deterring burglars. Traditional chemical ground sprays are like the door locks. They may not be the best defense, but they are always there. Baits are more like a security team of hired professionals who closely monitor a home. But the service only works as long as the homeowner keeps paying for it.

TAKING THE BAIT

In the last six months, baits have won the favor of local governments because nothing else had worked well for more than 10 years. Manufacturers pulled potent poisons such bas chlordane off the market for environmental reasons in 1988. Homes treated with chlordane during construction could fend off termites for 40 years.

But chlordane’s substitute worked only five years, if correctly applied. The chemicals are often watered down and sprayed unevenly on the ground, leaving untreated cracks, which can be like open doors for termites.

The unreliability of chemical treatments gave Dow Agro Sciences an opening to lobby building officials on using Sentricon baits – which have been hailed as the pest control industry’s first termite-bait success – to protect new homes. Now other bait companies have started knocking on the doors of the county building departments to get the same permission as Sentricon.

In Orange County, building official, John Warbington built a house in 1993 and had termites 3 years later. He paid $1,200 to have Sentricon baits installed around his house and the termites disappeared.

The baits are sticks of wood in plastic tubes that are usually planted in the ground. Pest control companies check them every month or so. When inspectors see that termites have discovered the wood, they replace it with a chemical-doused stick. Termites carry the chemical back to the nest, and it eventually prevents the insects from molting, so they die.

“I’ve been real happy with it,” said Warbington, who pays about $30 a month to have his baits checked.

He and other building officials said they were unaware of the state’s warnings that the baits may not be effective protection by themselves when they approved the bait-only termite defense about six months ago.

After eight months of reviewing Sentricon’s application to become stand-alone protection for new homes in Orange County, Warbington said he liked the idea that Sentricon had a strong track record. Warbington said he understands that some people may not be able to make the monthly payments. But even if they could no longer pay and were left with no protection, the chemical sprays offer little or no help.

And, he added, homeowners need an alternative to keep prices competitive. If you required liquid chemicals on the ground and baits around the perimeter of new houses, the cost of construction would increase and houses would not be as affordable, he added.

ONE-TWO PUNCH

Despite the problems with the chemical ground sprays, experts say termite baits are not the solution.

At the University of Florida, Koehler said one of the problems with the baits is that it takes months and months for the termites to find them, carry the toxins back to the colony and get trapped in their molting stage.

“Once they find it, it may take six months or a year to kill them,” he said. “In the meantime, you’re unprotected.”

The best approach is to couple baits with such termite killers as Premise, which is sprayed at key locations, Koehler said.

At Texas A & M University, researchers working on a grant from the Texas Attorney General’s Office have found failures on three different types of baits, including Sentricon. For two years, they have studied 75 infested houses located in five south Texas cities.

Final study results are expected this summer. Sentricon has had one of the best bait records in the test, but it was still slow. Termites took at least seven to eight weeks to find the baits, preliminary results showed. Then termites had to carry the toxins back to the colony before the insects eventually died during molting.

The Texas researchers say using baits as a one-and-only defense against termites is a bad idea.

“That is just unacceptable,” said entomology Professor Roger Gold, who is leading the research. He said there has been no objective research supporting baits as treatments for new homes.

GOOD RECORD NOT ENOUGH

In the marketplace, Sentricon has had a few, if any, damage claims, according to an Orlando insurance company that underwrites pest control companies.

Few Sentricon customers ever drop the service, said Jim Reinhardt, division manager for Dr. Jack’s Pest Control in Orlando. Of the 430 Central Florida houses and businesses Reinhardt has installed with Sentricon baits in the past 18 months, no one has canceled the service, and only one person might be cancelled for not making payments.

Reinhardt said he could count on one hand the houses that have reported a termite swarm. “And 95% had termites to begin with”, he said Reinhardt said he expected Sentricon could be installed mostly in custom homes, where the owners are more likely to pay for the ongoing service.

Custom builder, Ben Shoemaker of Royal Palm Homes said he had so much success with Sentricon at his own house that he’s installed the system in a handful of houses he has built. He said he offered Sentricon as an extra option, but homeowners would rather spend their money on tile and cabinet upgrades, so now he has started installing Sentricon as a standard feature.

Shoemaker said his customers are likely to keep their annual payments for bait inspections even if they already have chemicals sprayed under their homes. And if they didn’t, he added, they would have only limited protection from the chemicals.

“I think chemical pre-treats give people a false sense of protection,” he said.

Volusia County almost approved the bait-only approach to termite protection at a recent building department meeting but ran out of time, county building official Don Vancini said. He said he had been unaware of concerns from the state and university researchers and would consider their input before approving anything.

In Palm Beach County, Holt said he knew better than to let homes be built with only the protection of baits, even though the douses of chemicals are not a perfect solution. He said the baits seem to work well enough, but they depend on constant maintenance.

“My personal opinion is that it is not a good pre-treatment. It depends on the person knowing that the baits have to be checked,” Holt said.

“I feel much safer knowing that some chemical went into the ground under new constructions.”

A termite colony may contain millions of insects and range 300 feet. Conventional treatments create barriers from the structure but don’t reduce the population. A monitoring/baiting station attacks the colony.

THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS FROM THE ORLANDO SENTINEL, SUNDAY APRIL 8TH 2001 EDITION (Front page – Section “A” & Continued on page A10)