Bloody White ants

[Fireguard]

Was in my shed the other day finishing off my pen for the Pen Swap.... Went to have a try at sharpening my chisel and noticed some sort of residue on the side of the wooden pedistal that I made for my grinder, so I gave it a tap with my chisel... BLOODY WHITE ANTS

They had come up through the gap between concrete slabs and had eaten a good portion of the base of my stand and had started working they way up the stand.... Grrrrrr.

What made it even more annoying was that the pest control guy (and I) had only been in there and done an inspection a week earlier and hadn't found anything.

So my stand got torched with a flame gun to kill all the ants, cut up into bits and thrown out. the gap between the slabs also got torched and I filled it up with ant killer stuff, so hopefully we got all the ants early enough so that they dont do any damage to anything else

[artme]

Trouble with termites is that you need to kill the queen. Let's hope the ant killer gets taken and fed to her.

[chambezio]

You may (or may not) be pleased to know that white ants are common all over Australia so your problem is also common. But to the rescue (got this from Animal Channel Austar) the echidna's diet is just about all white ants and they are prevalent all over Australia.
All we need to do is breed them up into a strike force and patrol our sheds and stashes of timber (bob l ) and we have the problem solved.
In the mean time ........ slash and burn chemical warfare. What ever its takes to protect our birth right (shedism)

[RedShirtGuy]

Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Cham: I have visions of echnidas chained up to stakes like goats in our workshops and wood piles now


Do white ants return to nests (to take poison back to the hive) like the little black ones or do they setup shop once they find somewhere nice like gypsies?

[STAR]

Cham: I have visions of echnidas chained up to stakes like goats in our workshops and wood piles now


Do white ants return to nests (to take poison back to the hive) like the little black ones or do they setup shop once they find somewhere nice like gypsies?

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I am not an expert on this but because I am in an allied industry I have done some research and work for my wood group. We have had the same problem and will continue to do so because it is always an on going problem.

Now, I may not have this explanation technically correct, you can use your friend Google and research the matter further.

There are a few methods that are used in the industry. It is not a simple one case fits all, so you have to decide which is the best solution for your particular circumstance. The system we are employing is basically a two fold approach.

1. because we had an infestation we had to use plan A which basically was a Seek and Destroy mission to get on top of the problem quickly so we had something to save before we put plan B into place.

One system was to deal with the Acute, now and then a longer plan for a chronic attack. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, providing you are reasonably well informed and understand the difficulties involved you are well on the way to getting on top of the problem but never beating it.

PLAN A. Seek and Destroy.

THe chemical of choice in this case is usually, but not always is Chloriphos ( spelling) It is the usual active ingredient in ant spray. The commercial alternative that the trade use is called under several names eg. Lorsban, Dursban, Deter and so on. In that form it is usually double the strength of the ones you get at places like Bunnings. same thing you just have to use twice as much of the Bunnings one.

Now, this system , kills instantly and deters the white ants from your wood, so in a short time when the residual breaks down they are back to repeat the cycle.

PLAN B

This is the one that is in vogue with pest control professionals at the moment. Here the plan is not to deter the termites but to actually encourage them by putting up termite monitoring stations all around your property to be protected. In these bait station you put in a suitable attractant and you monitor, initally weekly and later if the activity has reduced then monthly.

Once you see some activity you then have to use a product that the pest controllers us namely TERMIDOR. Now this product applied to the bait at the right concentrations is undetected by the termites and is slow acting in its lethal effect. These termites then to back to their colony and being fastious cleaners gradually infect the whole colony including hopefully the Queen.

Now, it might take six to eight weeks for this to actually happen. This is for a reason, any quicker the infected termites might get rejected and shunned by the colony or they might actually die before they can do their work properly.

At the expense of being boring the problem is not solved there.. The actual colony where the Queen is can be anything up to sixty to eighty metres away. Furthermore , it is not unusual for their to be up to about 8 different colonies involved.

The good news is that if you are inclined you don't have to use TERMIDOR as their are some back door ways to achieve the same results.

Hope I have not bored you.

Pete

[chambezio]

I still think echidnas tied to stakes spread around our shed perimeters is proactive and besides the spikey little guys are cuter than chemicals in bait stations

[RedShirtGuy]

Not boring in the slightest Pete and thank you for your experienced insight

I hadn't considered the rejection of tainted ants back at the nest. As long as the slow method produces the desired result, it's a good method in my books.

I presume Plan B would work for most ant species? We get some pretty vicious ants (inch long bad boys sometimes) around these parts and so far we've been lucky in being able to find the nests and pour petrol down them*ahem* to stop a full blown infestation. So if there's a more effiecient and environmentally friendly way of getting rid of them I'd be all for it.

[nihilism]

Additionally, you can seal up the expansion joints in your slab and any other gaps with silicon, this is what they do in new commercial buildings. Just clean all the dirt out first.