Baiting in concrete

Termite baiting allows a home to be protected from Termite colonies by eliminating the colony before it gets to the home. 

Baits are installed around the perimeter to feed the termites a bait that eradicates the colony. But what if the home is surrounded by concrete? 

That's where we use in concrete bait stations. 

First - we make a nice round hole in the concrete..

BORING! Hmm.. Soft like butter!

A Sentricon Always active bait rod, along with it's built in extraction plastic ring thingy and a stainless steel cap.

Next - We clean up our mess and install a Sentricon Always active termiticide rod in the hole.

And Voila! We put a beautiful stainless steel cap on top which seals with an expandable rubber grommit.

The Sentricon Always active rod will now protect the home from any termites foraging in the vicinity of the home. The termites will feed on the rod and take the termiticide back to the nest, this will gradually eliminate the colony so it's no longer a threat to the home!

An in concrete baiting system ready to go!

The cap is installed and seals the rod in it's little hidey hole!

"Inadequate" Ant Capping

Ant capping is barrier that prevents termites from being able to get into a building undetected, this is generally made of a strip of galvanised metal shielding. It's very purpose is not to stop termites completely, but to give them some sort of obstruction so that they have to build a mud shelter tube to go around. 

These can often be overlooked and forgotten about when renovations take place, repairs or changes are made to the existing building and sometimes can just rot away without anyone noticing.

The ant capping metal shield with it's inspection edge being completely covered by a cover strip.

This ant cap was not joined properly during construction, and to add to the potential problems, is clearly rusting away.

An addition to this property has resulted in the ant capping being compromised, you can clearly see that the ant cap does not completely cover the new vertical cover strip, causing an easy passage for termites to get in undetected.

Vertical Transitions such as this one, are a commonplace entry point for termites.

This photo clearly demonstrates a vertical transition where the ant capping is not joined, for the ant capping to be effective both the lower and upper sections of ant capping need to be joined in the middle to form a continuous barrier. In this particular case, it was virtually impossible to visually inspect between the two levels as there was poor access. That's why it's important to get it right during the construction phase.

Why every place needs termite protection.

 Wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer set up a camera trap in the Peruvian Amazon, after returning what did he find? Termites had infested his camera setup and had done some significant damage to the camera, which, by the way is not wooden!

Before you dismiss his post, we'd like to highlight that the genus of Termite was Nasutitermes, a common genus in the Central coast, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie regions we service. We often find them around homes during our inspections, and have done many eradications in homes infested with this genus of termite. 

So, even if your home is made of steel, and you don't have a termite management system in place, imagine what these termites could do to your camera, or computer, or Tv,  bookcase etc.?

http://petapixel.com/2015/09/17/termites-ruined-this-photographers-jungle-camera-trap-dslr/

Termites infested this camera. Photo Copywright Jeff Cremer. 

Nasutitermes in the shutter/mirror mechanism of the DSLR. Photos Copywright Jeff Cremer. 

A sad sight for any photography lover. Termites all over the lens, effectively destroying the optics! 

The termites completely destroyed the camera, fortunately he was able to recover data from the memory card. 

Extreme Termites!