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The Pest Monitor

Volume 8, No. 2

May 2000

A well-informed employee is the best salesperson a
company can have. Edwin J. Thomas

Quiz Answered

The question from the last issue was "How would one pretreat the inside foundation wall of a floating and/or supported slab?" The inside area would be treated the same as the outside foundation wall. In general, the soil would be rodded and trenched and the solution applied at four gallons per ten linear feet per foot of depth. Some labels will state that the wall should be treated to a minimum of four feet, while others will indicate that it should be treated to the top of the footing.

There is a tendency to treat this area only as a horizontal barrier, and the fill receives one gallon per ten square feet. This is not enough, given the hidden nature of the expansion joint in this type of construction. When you receive a call for a pretreat, do you document the type of construction which will be used? If you do not, then the customer may not be getting the protection which they need. The inside foundation wall should also be treated as a vertical barrier if "J" blocks or "L" blocks are used at the top of the foundation wall. The joint between the slab and the top block is also a hidden joint.

 

How Many Termite Treatments are Enough

At one time a company sold a liquid treatment which was all the homeowner needed, and it worked most of the time. Now days, some are stacking treatment on top of treatment. A baiting contract is sold, and then the client is told that to be really safe, they need a liquid treatment. If it is a crawl space house, this is followed up with a borate treatment to the floor joists. Some homeowners are very nervous about termites, and they can be sold almost anything if the right trigger words are used. My question is, "Are all these treatments needed?" Of course, there is always the "termite infestation from hell" that just will not respond to any single treatment. Formosan infestations are difficult and it may take several different treatments to get control. The other possibility is that the treatments are a way to add to the bottom line. Legally there is nothing wrong with the practice; however, is it the right thing to do? I leave it to each of you to answer this question within the confines of your own convictions.

Construction Practices and Termites

The pest control industry is often criticized for some of its practices. If a new home becomes infested with termites, everyone automatically blames the person who did the pretreat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is not the whole story. The above pictures show 2x4's which are in the brick ledge and has simply been broken (top picture) at the level of the concrete. These stakes were at approximately two to four foot intervals around the foundation, as in the next picture. My guess is that the stakes extend into the ground two to three feet below the foundation. If that is the case, I don't care how good the pretreat is or what product was used, the houses in the pictures could be infested with termites within two to three years post-construction.

What do you feel can be done about this condition? Lanier James, of James Pest Control, says that some contractors in Memphis have started using metal stakes at this point. This material still penetrates the foundation and would create a small opening as the concrete dries and pulls away from the metal stake; however, metal is better than wood. A remedy is to drill out the wood to a point below the foundation and treat the remaining wood with borates (L. James, James Pest Control). Fill the resulting holes with a material normally used for filling drill holes.

It would be interesting to know if stakes used in this manner is a violation of the Southern Building Codes.

What's in an Inspection

I received a call about a wasp problem on the 20th floor of the Walter Sillers Buildings (Jackson) a couple of months ago. It seems that they had talked with a number of people (they did not elaborate on who the people were) about the problem and were told that nothing could be done. The first question I asked was, "Do you have a contract with a professional service?" The only part of the building which was under contract was the cafeteria. I then said I would like to look at the situation before making any comments.

The 20th floor has a balcony (approximately 15 feet wide) around the outside perimeter of the floor. The balcony is lit by approximately 100 incandescent lights all housed in recessed cans. The inspection revealed that the wasps were using these recesses as an overwintering site, plus some number were probably using the same sites for nesting. Wasps were observed resting around the outside surfaces of the recesses. As a demonstration, 15 of the recesses on the north side were treated with a aerosol chlorpyrifos (provided by Jay Bradley, Whitmire/Micro-Gen) formulation in the following manner. The housings were pulled down just enough to insert the wand into the space between the housing and the roof. The wand was inserted on three sides and the recess received a one to two second discharge of chlorpyrifos. Wasps immediately flew out of the recesses, and stunned wasps were accumulating on the walkway by the time I finished treating the recesses. This procedure worked very well on the treated areas, and over the next several days, several hundred dead wasps were noted on the walkway. No further complaints were logged on the side of the building with the treated recesses.

Total time at the facility was about 90 minutes. I would guesstimate that an experienced technician could have treated the whole area in two hours or less. My question is, "Were you one of the ones who said that nothing could be done about the problem without looking?" I know that time is expensive, and this may not have led to future work or it may have, no one knows. Whatever the case, it is hard to know if a pest problem can be dealt with without looking. It=s kind of like starting out on a trip without a map to a place you have never been before.

 

Request for Continuation of Newsletter

By law I am required to purge the mailing list for the Pest Monitor once a year; however, there was a problem with who received this card in the last newsletter. So, you will be getting or may already have received another card (this one is not in the newsletter) to fill out. If you want to receive the newsletter please fill this out and return it. Sorry for the mess-up.

Termite Facts from China

The following information is taken from Li Gui-Xiang, et. al. 1994. Introduction to termite research in China. J. Appl. Ent. 117:360-369:

 

The earliest damage on record was recorded in 241 B.C. Damage was noted to dams and dykes.

Most damage occurs south of the Yangtze river (the Yangtze river starts in the southwest, just east of the border with Burma and runs northeast to Shanghai).

Very high damage occurs in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. These provinces are on the southern coast of China and lie at about 25º N latitude. New Orleans is at 30º N latitude.

Underground plastic cables are attacked by termites in South China, accounting for over 60% of the problems in communication lines.

The northern limit of Reticulitermes, sp. is about 40º N latitude. In the U.S., this would be a line from about Philadelphia to just south of San Francisco.

 

The northern limit of Coptotermes, sp. is about 33.5º N latitude. In Mississippi, this latitude corresponds to West Point on the East to just south of Cleveland on the west.

It takes approximately eight years for a Formosan colony to complete a generation cycle from the pairing of the primary reproductives to the first appearance of alates in the colony.

China uses a mirex bait or chemical soil barriers as control methods. Barrier treatments consist of (vertical barrier) a trench 30 cm deep and 100 cm wide. This is approximately ten x forty inches. Before the slab is poured or other flooring is set in place, the ground is treated with either a 5-10% solution of sodium arsenic, 1% chlordane or 5-10% arsenic trioxide powder.

 

General Comments. The major distribution of termites in China is in the Southeastern part of the country, and this area is somewhat more tropical than Mississippi. Some of this area is below 30º N latitude. The Formosan does not appear to do well in nature above 33.5º N latitude, and this may explain why the Formosan infestation in Memphis has not expanded, at least as far as we know. Memphis is at approximately 35º N latitude. The Formosan takes at least eight years to produce winged alates or swarmers.

 

Bits and Pieces

  • The mergers and name changes for pesticide companies continue. Syngenta ("growing together") is the new name for the new company resulting from the merger of Novartis and Zeneca. It was only 6 years ago that ICI spun off an agchem unit called Zeneca and only three years ago that Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz came together as Novartis. This will form the largest agribusiness company in the world, worth abut $15 billion. The new company will be based in Switzerland. I am assuming that the household, structural materials that Zeneca and Novartis had will be included in this sale.
  •  Bendiocarb (Ficam). Ficam end use products used in or around homes can be sold or distributed by the registrant until Oct. 31, 2000. Products in the channels of trade can be used until all quantities are exhausted. The cancellation of Ficam is an example of EPA wearing down the resolve of companies by demanding data on top of data. No sooner has one study been completed than another one is demanded. It has nothing to do with science, and that is a sad commentary on the agency. Chlorpyrifos will be the next chemical that is removed from the market, again it will not have anything to do with science, it will be decided only on emotion.

 

Quiz

List and briefly explain four different treatment techniques which can be used for insect control within a structure?

 

James H. Jarratt
662-325-2085
jjarratt@entomology.msstate.edu


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