Termites Tear Apart Townhouse in Red Bank, NJ
Challenge
We were sent out on a service call for a property manager of a townhouse in Red Bank, NJ. The property manager discovered a "winged pest" in one of his buildings and was afraid that is was a termite. We arrived on the scene, conducted a thorough inspection of the entire property, and found a termite mud tube in the living room. Upon closer inspection, we found a few expired winged termite swarmers on the carpet, confirming the property managers suspicion that he has termites.
Termite mud tubes are tiny tunnels made up of mud, dirt, or termite droppings in which termites use to travel safely from the colony to a food source. Termite swarmers are winged termites whose main role in life is to reproduce and create new colonies. Both flying termites and wingless termites have a thick body made up of one part. We continued inspecting the exterior of the home and found a wooden trim board below a sliding glass door that was damaged by termites.
Solution
Termites live beneath the soil and enter homes below the ground level of the dirt. For effective termite treatment, the soil in which they are living and breeding must be treated. Here, to reach the soil, I needed to drill a series of small holes into the concrete slab and inject a liquid application directly into the ground.
This application binds to the treated area and creates a protective zone that termites cannot detect. The termites come into contact with the product, but they aren't eliminated immediately. The termites bring the product back to the colony and share it as they come into contact with one another. The product spreads throughout the colony, soon “smothering” the nest. In a short amount of time, the termites are gone and the owner now has complete protection against termites. I scheduled a follow-up inspection to re-inspect, assess the treatment, and determine if any additional treatment steps are necessary to resolve the infestation.
