November 2004 / Vol.1 / Issue 6

Hello and Welcome to the November Greenpest News. Each month we aim to provide you with some useful information, keeping it short, sweet and pertinent.

Contents

1. Pest Talk
2. Bedbugs Revisited.
3. Customer Question of the Month.
4. Quote of the Month.
4. Monthly Special

Pest Talk

"If you suspect you have termites, please do not disturb them."  Have you ever wondered why pest controllers make that request? 

There are a lot more reasons than you think.  Here's the first and most important reason:

• You'll save you money.

Many a time I've visited a home that had a fair amount of termite activity in the skirting boards and window frames, but the termites had gone because they had been disturbed too much, abandoning the timber and heading for better protected areas of the house.  What this now means is that walls may have to be opened, concrete drilled, trenches dug and many other extra repairs may be needed to eliminate the invaders.  Cost?  Around $1,000 - $3,000. 

On the other hand, if the termite galleries had been left alone and the termites had still been present and accessible when the pestie arrived, a simple dusting with Intrigue® termiticide dust (applied very carefully by a skilful professional) would most likely have destroyed the nest.  Cost?  Around $165.

Needless to say, that is a huge saving.  What's more, the $165 treatment is likely to be the best treatment in the long run too!  Combine it with a termite bait system to help prevent the problem occurring again and you can save thousands of dollars more when you decide to sell your home!  The reason is simple.  The $1,000 - $3,000 treatment mentioned above is very likely to be noticed by any competent pre-purchase termite inspector who will write the following line in his report to a prospective buyer of your home, "The home appears to have had active termites and a termite treatment has been carried out." etc.  That little line will probably chop $10,000 off the asking price of the home. 

Here's the point.  If you find termites, resist every urge to look at them or spray them with surface spray, which is what $95% of people do!  If you have disturbed them, don't spray them!  Try to return them to a feeling of safety.  Use masking tape or duct tape to cover up any holes you may have made in their workings (galleries and leads), then call your local professional pestie. 

TIP: Do you want to know how to tell a good pestie from a not so good pestie?  You just have to ask one simple question:  "Do you use arsenic or Intrigue® to treat termites?"  Just select the pesties who use Intrigue® . 

Here are the other reasons why you should never disturb termites:

• If the termites abandon their workings, identification is much harder, and identification often assists in the decision of which type of treatment is most suitable.

• Termites often withdraw to a point of safety and then explore and damage your home in other areas.  Areas that may be hard to inspect, reach and treat.  This can lead to further costly damage and repairs.

• Termites use pheromones to indicate and mark whether an area is safe for travel, a good source of food, or a danger zone.  If you disturb the termites these pheromones may prevent the termites returning to areas of easy access for treatment.

• If termites are still present a skilled pestie can often get a good idea as to which direction the termites came from, and just how active they are (how big the colony is) , which are facts he can use to facilitate the best course of treatment and control.

• If a treated zone is required on the outside of the home, especially around the suspected entry point of the termites, then having active termites in the home that are likely to pass through the treated zone to return to the nest will facilitate quicker destruction of the nest.  (If using Termidor® or Premise® termiticides.)

• The ability to leave an active gallery or two untreated, whilst everything else is treated gives your professional pestie a means to monitor the success or failure of the initial treatment.

To sum up, if you discover or suspect termites in your home, don't panic and don't disturb them.  Find a good pestie and have them investigate for you.   Just be careful that you don't get a "cowboy" who might blow your chances of success either by disturbing them badly when they take a look (some pesties shouldn't be in the trade) or who chases them away with arsenic dust.  (As explained later in this newsletter.)

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Bedbugs Revisited.

If you haven't already read our first newsletter about bedbugs then please check it out here.. http://www.greenpest.com.au/newsletter_june2004.html

Bedbugs are one very nasty little creature to get, and extremely tough to get rid of.  The reason they are tough is that you can kill the adults and the nymphs but there may still be microscopic eggs in hard to find places that can then hatch much later and slowly reinfest a room.  They can hide in places where surface sprays will not reach them.  Nor will fogging or insect bombs or gas or smoke insecticides.  They can walk over a treated surface and not die.  They appear to be highly resistant to many modern pesticides.  Like I said... tough little blighters.

They are dirty little blighters too, leaving nasty black stains (their droppings) on mattresses and other harbourages that simply will not clean off.

Bedbugs are terrors.  They build up in numbers quickly 2, 20, 400, 4000... infestation in just a few months!

One recent case we came across was a situation where the bedbugs appeared to have been eradicated successfully, but six months later the problem reappeared.

Another case was where they were so bad that every item of furniture, every picture frame, even the carpet had to be replaced.  Cost? $12,000.  (This is more expensive than most termite problems!)

Why was everything thrown out and replaced?  It's because thorough spraying may still not get to all the eggs or every adult bedbug.  I personally saw one bedside table (that had been treated very thoroughly 4 times) get pulled completely to pieces, and what do you think we found deep inside the joins in the wood?  An immature bedbug biding its time!

I've included an image here of bedbugs taken on the job.  You can see the size of a mature bedbug relative to the letterhead on our A4 paper.  Please click on the image to see it in more detail.

In most cases several re-treatments will be required before complete control is assured.

I think it would be impossible for AQIS to prevent bedbugs coming in from overseas.  They are now pretty well established in Australia anyway.  Apart from damage control, I wonder if any research has been done yet to see if these unwelcome world travelling visitors carry any pathogenic diseases?  My prediction is that we are going to hear a lot more about bedbugs in the next few years.  I hope I'm wrong.

Customer Question of the Month.

Question:

Dear Jerry,
I was informed by another pest controller that arsenic dust was better than intrigue dust for killing termites.  Is this correct?

Just curious,  Peter B. (Liverpool - Sydney)

Answer:

The only similarity between arsenic (usually supplied as arsenic-trioxide) and Intrigue® termiticide dust is that they are both dusts.  The way they kill termites is completely different.  Historically arsenic has been used for decades for the control of some species of termites that cause damage of economic significance to homes in Australia.  It meets with varying degrees of success depending on the species of termite (some species are not particularly susceptible to arsenic) and the skill of the technician applying the dust. 

As we have mentioned in other areas of our web site, arsenic was used with the Green Termite Bait System prior to the release of Intrigue® in 2000.  Our success rate with arsenic was about 50%.  It mainly failed because it was repellent to termites and it was hard to effectively dust sufficient numbers of termites for it to spread throughout the nest and cause the nest's destruction. 

On the other hand our success rate with Intrigue® dust is over 95%. Intrigue® contains triflumuron which has negligible toxicity to humans.  Just one gram correctly applied to a Green Termite Bait will destroy a termite nest (all major species).  Intrigue® is non-repellent to termites, so it ensures the termites remain in the bait long after it is dusted.  It is then accidentally consumed by the workers and soon transferred back to the Queen ensuring her demise and the consequent collapse of the colony. 

Arsenic is cheap and nasty and poses an obvious health risk if it is misused.  Arsenic is sometimes used very poorly... used in such a way as to give people a false sense of security.  Many times I've encountered termites in a house that had been dusted with arsenic a few months earlier by a pestie who should have known better.  The termites appeared to go.  Success appeared to be so easy.  But in reality, the termites were simply repelled and ended up moving into another part of the home. 

The pesties I know who use Intrigue® absolutely love it.  Used correctly it has a great rate of success.  The pesties I've spoken to who don't like Intrigue® either haven't tried it (because it is 10 times the price of arsenic) or haven't the skills the use it correctly.  You've heard the expression: "A poor tradesman always blames his tools."

Bayer makes Intrigue® and I'm not on their payroll.  I recommend it because at the moment it is the best dust available for the destruction of a termite nest.  Intrigue® works great.  Arsenic works too, but there really isn't much need for it in modern termite control now that far more effective alternatives are available.  There is no reason for a pestie to use arsenic when there is a better and safer product.  Arsenic is cheap.  Intrigue® is very expensive.  I think that is the basic reason many pesties haven't even tried or don't use Intrigue®.  When it comes to protecting your home you want the best products, not the cheapest.

So. now you know how to tell the difference between a great pestie and an OK pestie. just ask them which termiticide dust they use.

One final note of caution.  The above sentence is a general guideline only.  Just because a pestie uses Intrigue® doesn't automatically mean he is competent.  There are also many very competent (if slow to catch on) pesties who use arsenic.

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Quote of the Month.

"My home couldn't ever get termites. We are very clean and tidy people."   Said to me by a sweet but very naive lady.

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Monthly Special Promotion - For Newsletter Subscribers Only.

This special is no longer available. Please go to our current newsletter for this month's special.

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The Greenpest News is Published by J & A Furnell Nominees P/L; Shop 23a Franklin Square, 60 Railway Street, Mudgeeraba, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of Jerry Furnell. The reader is encouraged to seek further information from appropriate government and statutory departments before taking any action based on this material alone.

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See you again next month.

Always... At your service,

Jerry Furnell
Green Pest Control & Green Termite Bait Systems.
Phone 1800 6 12345.

Copyright 2004 Green Termite Bait Systems & Green Pest Control. All rights reserved.

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