I don’t often get excited about new products but this one has the Pest world buzzing. Pardon the pun.
All industries have breakthroughs in technology and Pest control isn’t immune to these changes.
Termite baiting has come a long way in the 15 years I have been involved in installing these systems on the Gold Coast and I think they may have peaked here.
From the old plastic tub with layers of pine offcuts and cardboard to Exterra and Termatrix, which were designed specifically for the job and then came Sentricon, always active. They were all effective and all had their flaws but that’s what we were given to work with at the time.
Termites are very timid and some of these systems require you to disturb the Termites that could result in false colony elimination. What I mean by that is when the technician next visits to check the station and the activity has ceased, giving the technician the indication that they have eaten enough bait and the colony has been eliminated, where in reality they have been ‘spooked’ and now the technician has lost contact with the colony and they could have gone anywhere. Including into the house.
Other systems rely on you applying bait to the system on point of contact when the stations have been checked and Termites are seen in the stations. In this instance, you are a step behind especially if they have eaten all the timber in the stations and have left before you had a chance to engage them with bait. And again, if Termites are present, the amount of disturbance could cause the colony to disappear before elimination has occurred.
And some of these stations have been made cheaply and fail due to their lack of durability and every time you go to the site you have to replace lids and bodies because the lawnmower or whipper snipper has damaged the station. In these cases, I’m not sure how you are supposed to keep Termites interested with all this disturbance going on.
Trelona termite baiting systems have been cleverly designed to be durable, highly effective and adaptive to existing systems.
Efficacy – The superior Trelona bait matrix is set in the stations from the get go with a shelf life of about 5 years (depending on weather patters in those 5 years) but 5 years is a good yardstick. The bait is dry and protected in canisters that termites can easily enter and feed and feel safe from predators so as not to get ‘spooked’. And if the baits are being eaten when the technician arrive, we are a step ahead as before we didn’t have this option.
3 monthly checking of the system is the standard and baits are easily replaced when they are empty.
Durability, the stations are similar to other systems except they are simply designed and tough, and if installed correctly will never need replacement lids or bodies.
Adaptiveness – Your existing system in most cases can be retrofitted with Trelona baits to upgrade the system for a one-off fee to bring it up to date with the latest technology without replacing the entire system. So even if you have a tired old system around your house, we can breathe life back into it and give you the peace of mind to sleep well at night knowing your house isn’t being eaten by Termites.
Ok, so how does it work?
A Dan Purkis Pest Control Technician will come to your property, give you a free quote and upon acceptance of a 12-month contract he/she will install Trelona ATBS stations every 3 meters around the entire perimeter of your house (where possible – 5 meters being the maximum span between stations). In some cases where the driveway is more than 5 meters wide, we will drill what we call ‘in concrete stations’ by drilling an 83mm core drill into concreted areas and fitting a special cap in which we will house the bait in waiting for the Termite activity to occur. The next step is every 3 months a technician will come to your house and inspect the baits to check for activity. If there is activity, an assessment of the situation if replacement bait is needed or the decision is to let them feed and the technician will return in 30 days to reinspect. We will return every month until colony elimination has occurred and give you hard copy reports on the arising developments.
Myth busting – Why would I attract termites towards my home?
Well, the fact is that baiting systems don’t attract termites from far and wide, but only attract Termites that are foraging in your area within a couple of meters of the station. So, the termites are already there.
Safety – Is the bait that is in the stations safe around my kids and pets?
Yes, for starters the bait is considered less toxic than salt on the poisons register. We are trying to kill an insect about the same size as a grain of rice and slowly at that, not a 10-20-100Kg mammal. Also, not only is the station difficult to open but the bait itself is housed in a locked hard plastic container of its own within the stations. So again, your peace of mind is secured.
For any further advice, don’t hesitate to call 0413116864 or email to admin@dppc.com.au
