Termites in our Yard. WWYD?

[littlelysser]

So...a few weeks ago, DH and I were doing some yard work. We were mulching, blah blah blah.

Well, when I removed one bit of mulch I saw a ton of "white ants." Course, come to find out there is no such thing as a white ant. It was a termite. There was a rotting stump under the ground and we''ve since removed the stump and the little buggers have mostly disappeared. Now, they were close to the house...about a foot away. Our home is built a bit differently than most. We have a basement, but it is essentially ground level, a bit lower. So the termites would have to work their way up 11ft of cinder block and brick to get into the house.

So, we immediately called a few exterminator companies to come and do an inspection.

We had three companies come.

Ehrlich pest control came first. The inspector was super nice. He saw no sign of any termites in the home and recommended that we do nothing. He said if it was his house, he would not do anything. If we wanted to spot treat the area for our peace of mind we could...but he didn''t think it was necessary and doing anything else would be overkill.

Terminix came next. He also found nothing in the house. The inspector was pretty alarmist. Basically recommended we treat the whole yard. He also recommended we get a termite insurance policy. Pursuant to this policy, if we found any termite activity in the home they''d inspect and be liable for any damages that occur while we have the policy. I asked him if we purchased the policy and called for an inspection after we saw the termites in the yard, what would they do? His answer? Nothing. Cause they aren''t in the house.

Finally, Orkin came. The two inspectors found nothing in the house. They also recommended a complete treatment.

SOOOOOO...my question is...has anyone else dealt with termites in a similar situation? Any advice? What would you do?

Anyone have an opinion?

 

[jcrow]

i''ve never had this problem, but i do carry a termite policy regardless. so if 2 out of 3 recommend action, i''d take action.

 

[merlinthecat]

Same as the post above. Don''t take any chances....even if you feel its over kill. Don''t under estimate the power of insects!

 

[Deelight]

Better to spray then having your house fall down.


We had termites for a YEAR before we noticed and they ate out three rooms downstairs according the termite guy we were REALLY REALLY lucky we had an old hardwood house. They only ate the three rooms (where there was soft wood) where we planned to pull down anyway and rebuild.

Did they mention anything about the fact that you disturbed them I am fairly certain that is a big no as it can make them move and harder to identify the species.

 

[littlelysser]

Thanks for the replies. See, here''s the thing...the terminix guy basically tried to sell us a policy to protect against termite damage, but said that if we had the policy they wouldn''t do anything in our current situation. It just seemed very strange to recommend a treatment that they would not if we had the insurance, does that make sense?

I''m just a bit torn, because I feel a bit like we were kind of bamboozled by the terminix guy...he was going to try to sell us something regardless.

Blah. Stupid white ants!

 

[littlelysser]

Deelight - Nope didn''t say anything about disturbing them. None of the three inspectors mentioned it, and to the contrary, they said it was a good thing that we removed the stump.

In our part of the country we only have one type of termite...so I don''t think that is an issue.

 

[Deelight]

Hrmm thats really weird over here thats like one of the first things they tell you.

http://www.cureallpest.com.au/termites.html

Different part of the world, different rules may apply

 

[Ellen]

With all 3 finding nothing in the house, I would do nothing, except have another inspection this time next year. We had them when we moved in here, had treatment done, and nothing since in 20 years. I think the first guy is who to believe.

They most likely moved on to another wood source.

 

[HollyS]

WWID? Call the exterminator!

Had them. Ick. Get them taken care of pronto.

 

[Sabine]

how much is termite insurance? and how much is it relative to extermination? I would probably get the insurance, keep it for a year, have the house reinspected, and if there were still no signs, drop the insurance. I would worry too much without doing anything.

However, I wouldn''t do both, and if it''s cheaper to do extermination, I would just do that.