BUG -Termite!!! - question need advise...

[malulu]

Today while i was at work, my wife call said "there are many ant like bug crawling in our house near a window's area...." they could be Termite, so she call around and finally be able to get a company to stop by to take a look, sure enough, they guy said it is Termite for sure!!!

After i came home, checked around, holly crap!!! my Refugium and Sump in the basement are floating all these bugs, they are like hundreds (definately close to thousand) of them!!! i don't know how they got into the sump and refugium, and don't see any trace of the evident where they crawl in...

Questions:

• why suddently shows up TODAY without any sign? (we move in this house for about 2 years, when inspection at that time, no sign of them at all.)
  
• 
  the guy said, it will cost about $1,300 (1 yr warrantee) to treat the whole house, is this a reasonable price range?
  
• 
  if i decided to let them treat it, what if the bugs with chemical on them die inside the refugium and the sump again? would my system be in danger? how to prevent it? I was thinking to just use something to cover the refugium and the sump for now, but it would be an issue with the skimmer, cause my skimmer is sitting inside the pump (at the bottom of the stand)
  

greatly appreciated any input/comments.
thx

 

[Treadingwater]

I don't think the bugs themselves pose a threat to your tank. Throw a fish in there and they will probably eat them all. Or you can just use a net and scoop them out.

It sounds like you had a spawn of swarmers in your basement. As for treatment, I suggest shopping around. Call and have a few companies come out and give you estimates. No need to rush. Your house isn't going to fall down tomorrow. Make sure they give you a guarantee on future treatment and repairs should the termites show up again. The company we have a contract with comes out every year to inspect. The intital treatment can be costly, but the yearly fee (usually can get a contract for up to 5 years) isn't much.

Also, try and save one or two of the bugs and get another id on them. Make sure they are termites and not flying ants.

Really, my best advise is not to panic. It could be nothing at all, especialy if this is the first time you have seen them and there is no evidence of damage already.

Oh, and one last thing, if you do get a treatment they usually spray the sill area on the basement wall (where the cinder block and wood meet), so make sure you cover everything tightly so no chemicals get into your system. Move anything that can be moved. If the company is good they will tell you all of this before they even show up to treat.

 

[Brian]

I'm not exterminator, but termites don't look like ants. I believe they are white. Now, Carpenter Ants on the other hand are the big black suckers.They look like ants. Check around your doors and sills in the basement and see if you have any "frasse" (sp?) it's like termite/carpenter ant poo poo. That is evidence of them infesting your home.

 

[malulu]

i know i should not rush, but wife hate to see those bugs, she said they are discusing looking bugs...

- they don;t look white.
- they just have a lots of falling wings.
- don't think i see any "frasse"

will check more companies, thx

 

[jazzsam]

Take it from someone that used to live in FL and knows a lot about BUGS; there are many different types of termites and different onces will cause different issues. It is VERY strange for them to just show up in the water unless they are spawning. Most bugs lay their eggs in water so your fuge my actually have been the thing attracting them there! I would get as many out of the fuge as you can because they probably are eggs also that have not hatched.

 

[debfife]

It's the time of year where they spawn, swarm, and you'll see the flying ones. The larve are the little black ones that eat your wood that you ususally will never see.

Most people I know who have had termites pay about $600 for the treatment. You'll also want someone to check for damage. Hopefully a swarm just got in and you don't have any of the little white ones hiding out in your walls.

Unfortunately, they're very common for NJ.

Good Luck!

 

[mikem]

They are termites. This is their swarming season. They come out for 3 days then die off. Is there a window in the basement? Where did your wife notice them flying around? They stay flying around the hole where they came out of(which is usually a window). If it's a window, caulk all holes to keep them from coming out to swarm. This will only help to keep the mess in the wall and not in your house or tank. They will go back in the ground as soon as the ground dries up. They make a dirt tube going up a wall similar to a wasp tube.
A 1 year contract isn't much since termites go back in the ground in a few days anyway, so you're paying for nothing. The best treatment for a company to do is: 1: drill a hole in one vertical row of cinderblocks around the entire perimeter of the house, spray treatment in, and seal holes.
2: Theres still a debate on this one. Some better company's will dig a small trench around you're whole house and pour treatment into the ditch. Newer company's will just put a cone in the ground every 8 feet with time release treatment which looks like a recessed driveway light which is flush to the ground with a screw on lid to refill again when needed. Yes, it might be easier and cheaper this way, but has never been pr oven to me that the treatment spreads to the next trap and protects the perimeter of the house like a trench would. You only need 1 inch where the treatment didn't cover for the termites to travel thru back to you're house. They do live outside on everyones property. When I buy a house, the first thing I look for is a termite trap in the ground around the property. If seen, I walk away. Hope I shed some light for you Dave. Is there anything to worry about? Not the first year. Are my walls gonna fall down? Not this year. Is there anything I can do to prevent termites from coming back next year without treating my property? YES. Every house should have a termite shield. This is a simple solution when building a new home or addition, but a little harder to do on an existing house. It's cheap and only consits of a few rolls of aluminum. It's hard to explain without a drawing, but I'll try. Let me try it this way first and if you have any questions, LMK.
Picture a block foundation which the top block is a solid block called a pancake. There is a solid top block around the perimeter of you're gonna be house. Next thing we do when we build is install a termite shield, which is only a roll of aluminum rolled out on top of the block before we put any wood down. This aluminum is bent over the block. If the block is 8inches, we use 16inch aluminum with a 4 inch bend on each side. This isn't bent tight to the block. It's bent on a 45degree angle or half way from the top of the block to the side of the block. What this does is prevents the scout swarm er from finding wet wood in you're house because he or they can't climb upside down from the block to the wood on the aluminum. They don't have the sticky stuff on their legs like flies or spiders.
So what you can do to save $1300 is to install this yourself since they will go back to their nest in you're grounds. Take pieces of aluminum a few feet long, slide them between the wood and block, and bend them down. Make sure you overlap the pieces a few inches. This has to be done on the inside and outside of you're house. You might have to take off the bottom piece of siding to install the aluminum to the outside. Yes, it is a PITA this year, but you'll save yourself $1300 a year for the rest of the life of you're house.
Sorry this was soo long, but I have a lot of experience with rebuilding termite damaged houses and currently trying to get a new builders code passed with the builders association to have termite shields installed on all new houses. The other builders are fighting me because they'll have that much less work around on rebuilding the damage from them. My only fight I have with them is that if their such good builders, they'd be swamped with work without all the termite damage.
Anyway Dave, good luck and don't worry if you didn't have termites last year.

 

[mikem]

The ones in the tank are only from them dieing in the room. They are not attracted to the water. Their eggs are outside in the ground. They only come in the house to eat the celeouse(SP?)out of the wood then bring it back to the nest if they can make it back in the hole they came out of. Most will die inside the house.

 

[Brian]

Here is a link to some more information (not that you need it after Mike response! )

TERMITES AND WINGED ANTS

 

[JRodrig692]

Just be careful. I will give you my story. We had black ants running through the house one day and it kept getting to be more and more of issue. We called in an exterminator and they did an area spray outside, around the trees and so on.

Well the issue continued. They came back. They informed me that they needed to do some drilling and more widespread spraying. I informed them that I had a fishtank and they told me they use stuff that is ok. I was nervous, because if it was ok, why did we have to leave the house. Ok, shut down the skimmer, closed off the top of the tank, left powerheads running, sealed up the sump and crossed fingers. They sprayed, we returned two hours later, opened the windows and aired out the house. Uncovered all, kicked the skimmer on and away we went.

Day one passes, then day two comes. Wake up to all my fish dead with the exception of my yellow tang. Now I cannot for sure say that it was the exterminator, but I did everything that people told me on RC to do by the book. That was the day I decided that either I was breaking down for good, or going bigger. So bigger I went.

Just my story, have told it many times. Just be careful. Good luck. You have gotten some good info from the people, but yes get more estimates.

 

[malulu]

thank you for the great info:
- i will be sure to protect my tank and not trusting what they say about SAFE.
- get more estimate (they don't work in the weekend, i have 3 company coming in on Monday to check)

Mike,
I will call you tomorrow for more info, will post result, progress here, so others could learn more from your tricks...

Best Regards,
-David

 

[mynd]

At one time we thought we had a problem with termites with a door we purchased at home depot. Luckily they were just in the door. The whole house extermination would have been a tarp covering the whole house and fumigated. That would have run about 5k about 15 years ago..

Bottom line get it done fast and hope you / no one has to go through that hell.

 

[Sorcha]

MikeM has the bases covered. You are not alone, we had swarmers hatch in our kitchen last week. We also have Wood Boring Bees & Carpenter Ants too. I know the pricing on Termites varies based on the treatment and the square feet of the house. We paid around $1300 for a tiny house with a massive problem 6 years ago and just paid $1885 for the service on a bigger house and for more than just termites.

And where did we get ours? LOWES! Bought a dozen bags of mulch last season and one bag was totally infested. We saw them hatching in the garden outside the kitchen window and quickly scooped out the mulch. When we broke the pieces of mulch open, they were completely filled with larve and eggs. Didn't see them again until last week, when they hatched in and around the same window.

Apparantly not too uncommon to get termites that way. Little SOB's...

And now I totally see why people retire to condos.

 

[malulu]

thanks for all your support.

i checked with mikem, although it is easy to do with new build house, for my house's setting/condition, it would be little bit too much work for me to handle... so we are going to use the easy way out, we decided to let a PEST company to do an initial services (to make my wife feel a little safer) and will decide later about next year to do the annually maintenance or not.

after some 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions, we nail down to one company to charge $650 for first service, and will charge $175 annually afterward, if agree with the on going maintenance, they will be coming every year to makes sure it is termite free and apply treatment if needed.

thx
-David