Friday, May 26, 2000
Termites ready to stop swarming, start eating
By Mike Pulfer
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bill Lipe, owner of an exterminating company, probes termite damage in his Fairfield home.
(Michael Snyder photo)
| ZOOM |
|
The bad news is they're swarming. The worse news is they're about to stop. And eat. Houses.
Subterranean termites are anything but sub this year, experts say. They're plentiful. They're healthy. And, as soon as they're done with the mating thing, they're going to be hungry.
“In Cincinnati, it's not if you get termites, but when,” says Bery Pannkuk, technical director at Scherzinger, a Pleasant Ridge pest-control company.
“This is the longest (termite) swarming season I've seen in 20 years,” Mr. Pannkuk says. At one point, “We were getting 1,000 calls a day” about millions of swarming termites.
Termites apparently are out to set a record on property damage. A single colony — usually 250,000 to 500,000 insects — can eat a linear foot of a 2-by-4 in a year. And it's not uncommon for two or three colonies to visit the same house.
Termites aren't big but they do plenty of damage.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
| ZOOM |
|
An Indian Hill homeowner is anticipating a $30,000 bill for termite repairs this summer.
Yet again, entomologists and pest controllers are telling us about the down side to good weather.
“We've had a mild winter, a mild spring and abundant moisture, says Dr. Mike Potter, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. “Everything that would set you up for a buggy year.”
Diana Grinkemeyer, who with her husband, Bob, runs Delhi Pest Control Inc. in Delhi Township, says business has been ""crazy.”
“I'd say this is probably our best spring ever,” she says.
Good news for exterminators.
Bad news for homeowners.
In the case of the Indian Hill house, the previous owners learned about the termites living with them when they signed a deal to sell the property. The buyers and sellers negotiated a significant discount in the purchase price to compensate for the damage and cost to fix it.
Bug Busters' Bill Lipe of Fairfield found himself in the same predicament as some of his best customers. His wife, Pam, came home from work a month ago to find termites swarming at the dining-room ceiling.
The Lipes had owned the 40-year-old ranch-style house for about a year, but, “It's on a (concrete) slab, and slab houses are more difficult to inspect,” Mr. Lipe says. “When you have a basement, you can look up and get a much better inspection.”
Busters employees drilled holes in the floors and walls and injected chemicals that apparently cleared the house of living termites — but not before they ate $1,200 worth of ceiling beams and rafters. “We haven't seen any since,” Mr. Lipe says.
Swarming termites are not new arrivals. By the time a colony matures enough to swarm and reproduce, it is at least seven years old. Individual worker and soldier ants live less than a year; the queen can live for decades.
The swarming season, which normally lasts two to three weeks in mid to late spring, has been in progress here for more than six weeks and shows no sign of letting up, Mr. Pannkuk says. “The season is just unbelievable.”
Many termites survive Ohio winters, no matter how severe, says Milan Busching, curator for invertebrates at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. “They just dig deeper in the ground.”
But, “insects, in general, survive better during a mild winter,” he says. “Their abundance and how their populations are doing depends much on the weather in the spring.”
Late frosts apparently take their toll on active termites. “We just didn't have that kind of weather this year,” Mr. Pannkuk says. “It just warmed up in February in the 60s and 70s and never cooled down enough to stop anything. It's been a slow boil ever since.”
In the South, and New Orleans in particular, the dreaded Formosan termite, the most destructive species of all, is destroying houses and other structures by the hundreds.
Mild weather has lured the Formosan as far west as California and as far north as Tennessee. But experts don't expect it to become a serious problem here.
Still, if you want to live in a neighborhood where termites don't go, consider leaving the Tristate.
Around here, “There are two kinds of houses,” Bug Busters' Mr. Lipe agrees. “Houses that got 'em and houses that are gonna get 'em.”
Jessica Johnson, office manager at Complete Termite and Pest Control, Mason, says older houses in older neighborhoods seem to be infested more frequently. The taller the foundation, she says, the better your chances of avoiding termites, which prefer to build shorter tunnels linking them to the earth.
“If you pound a stake in the ground ... anywhere in Cincinnati, in 30 to 60 days, it will have termites,” says Rick Steinau, president of Ace Exterminating in Golf Manor.
|
SOMETHING BUGGING YOU?
|
Name your next best enemy. If termites don't bug you this year, some other insects probably will. Coming soon, by the millions, thanks to another mild winter past:
• Ants. Fire, odorous, pavement (sidewalks), and wood-destroying carpenters.
• Roaches. Pennsylvania wood cockroaches.
• Wasps.
• Pill bugs.
• Beetles.
• Crickets.
• Mosquitoes.
All are making initial appearances now, a little earlier than usual, experts say.
Still not scared? Listen up: The combined weight of ants and termites on Earth exceeds the combined weight of its men, women and children.
Source: Scherzinger Pest Control
|
Orkin, the Atlanta-based pest-control giant, says termites cause more than $1.1 billion in annual damage to U.S. houses.
Their routine: to build protective mud tubes from their colonies to the buildings they eat. They travel back and forth — sometimes as far as 300 yards — usually every day. Because of their thin skins, they can die in dry conditions, so they use saliva to keep the inside of the tunnels moist.
And they do eat wood and other cellulose-based products, like paper and cardboard. They don't just chew it. Microorganisms in their little tummies break dinner into carbohydrates and sugars.
To their credit, termites help break up fallen trees in the forest and return nutrients to the soil. But if a colony of termites makes its way to and into your house, you'll probably want to fight.
Professional pest controllers, in most cases, typically offer two options.
The older, more traditional approach includes pesticides injected into the ground and the building. Some termites will be killed; others will be diverted by a chemical barrier in the ground.
The newer, more common approach, involves pounding stakes into the ground, every 10 feet, around the house. Initially, the stakes are filled with soft white pine wood to serve as bait. After the termites discover their treat, the wood is replaced with cellulose material impregnated with chemicals that kill them.
Property owners, particularly those who consider themselves good neighbors, generally prefer this approach because it does more than chase the termites to the house next door.
Typical cost to rid an average house of termites is about $1,500 to $2,000.
“If the building is already infested, it's tough for the homeowner to handle the job himself,” Mr. Brown says. “You can do preventive things and be effective, but it's tough to get 'em if they're already in there.”
Study: Festivals worth millions
Termites ready to stop swarming, start eating
Americana to reopen under new owner
Park buyer no stranger in Butler
Port authority asked for Banks
Sentinels: Don't let chief's slur slide
'Son of Beast' cleared to reopen
Ambulance firm owes $861K, Ohio says
Basilica altar will be moved
Miss America helps veteran, family go home
Bank robberies up this year
Clerk wings would-be bandit
Deal lets Bengals manage stadium
Hillary Clinton comes back to Cincinnati for more money
List of Memorial Day observances
Butler County
Clermont County
Hamilton County
Northern Kentucky
Warren County
ADHD.com pays attention to parents
GET TO IT
Grandmother tries heal old hatreds
Brichto's projects build understanding
Leis defends views on Mapplethorpe
Pig Parade: Marbleized (Pig)ment
Retiree spreads his success to others
Search ends for CCM dean
Send us your cyber-speak
5 named to board of MRDD
Carjackings begin with holdup at ATM
Central State reduces student loan defaults
Crisis Card offers hope in palm of hand
Four honored for civic service
Ky. tobacco farmers get $140 million
Newport wary of gambling plan
Officer sues two Ludlow councilmen
Phone tax to finally die
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Tristate Digest
Visit helps cheer ailing classmate
