Going Nuclear
They're back. The termites that is. Those wood eating monsters that will not die. After more than a year of peace, we found over 10 new mud tunnels. Subterranean termites, as the name suggests, live underground but create tunnels into your house where they invite themselves for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast.
They are fast. They can go through several board feet of wood in a matter of days. They spread out and cover the house in a matter of weeks. In a few months, they can eat through beams a foot thick.
They are smart. The common approach of tenting houses and filling them with poisonous gas does not work with these things. All they do is cap the ends of the tunnels and wait underground until the coast is clear. Then they open the ends and go back to work.
They are persistent. Even flooding the ground with poison only means they look for another way to get in. And take my word, they will get in.
They can be controlled, but they can not be eradicated. The current state of the art is to leave baits out that include a slow acting poison. So slow that they don't raise an alarm to it. Tomorrow, the termite company will be coming out to install some of these baits. It will then take a month or more until the current colony is reduced in size or they move on to another house.
Comments
They gave been around a few hundered millions of years before we came on the scene. And they will be still around after we leave.
Our Tasmanian friend has a reasonable good defense. Untill they eveolve a steel-house eating subspecies.
Posted by: sjon | February 26, 2003 06:31 AM
They haven't been able to eat steel, but many houses and buildings, including those substantially built of steel and concrete still have wood in them. Wood is used to create areas for nailing; insulation; in the form of cabinets, furniture, or doors. These monsters will attack all of these things. There is no stopping them.
Run for your lives!
Posted by: Dan | February 26, 2003 06:46 AM