Say, how about those termites?

[phantom power]

It looks like the entire continental United States will be inhabitable by termites, in a decade or so. Houses require periodic treatment with expensive chemicals to prevent being eaten. Pretty much all houses currently built are built with wood, and at the very least dry-wall and ferring strips. Termites are very happy to eat the paper backing on dry-wall. And, of course, the ferring strips holding it up.

So, imagine a future, say, thirty years from now, where (a) Every home in the continental US is vulnerable to termites and (b) nobody can afford the treatments to prevent them.

[Selatius]

1. Would we then build homes out of stones and bricks like the Romans?

At least then we could be assured our buildings could last several centuries unless looted or destroyed, a monument to a once-great Republic that became an Empire.

[phantom power]

3. I don't know. You can build with block, metal studs/joists, and drywall...

If you can afford it. They might get the paper on the drywall, but nothing will fall down on you. The structure would be safe.

[Xipe Totec]

5. In California?

:scared:

[katmondoo]

2. My last house was just as you descibed

I sold it and I hope the new owner continued with termite treatment. I told her to.

[hatrack]

4. Well, at least Tom DeLay will have something to do with his free time . . .

:evilgrin:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. I work for a termite and pest control company

If you are concerned about protecting your house from termites, you can hire a professional, who has to abide with legally enforced guidelines to protect your home (and in most states the work is accompanied by a guarantee of from 1-5 years which can be renewed at a moderate price). Or you can go online, get some borates, and do the job yourself. Heck, on ebay you can even buy products like Premise that are supposedly for licensed pest control operators only. I would recommend you get Truman's Scientific Guide to Pest Management Operations for detailed instructions on how to do the job. Eco-exempt is one product you can legally buy that is organic in nature and is labeled to kill termites, though the label says nothing about prevention.

If you want to make sure your home is termite-free, follow these common sense tips:

1. DO NOT have any wood chips, firewood, railroad ties, etc, touching the ground and also touching your home. Wood to ground contact is what attracts termites. Keep leaves and other junk from around your foundation, as these attract bugs of all kinds and also hold moisture. Get rid of dead wood in your yard, like old trees and bushes. Make sure your crawl space is at least 12" high and you don't have wood stored there.

2. MAKE SURE you have no water leaks. This is an attractant not only for termites but for other insects as well.

3. Termites will come up through expansion joints and around plumbing (drains, etc) that has been set in concrete if there was no pre-treatment of the soil before the house was constructed.

4. The way to know if your house has termites is to check for any "dirt" like substances around the corners of windows. In a crawl space, look for mud tubes going up from the ground to the floor joists. If they are dry, they are dead tubes; active tubes are "muddy". Termite damage looks similar to dry rot and moisture damage on wood. If you see what looks like a lot of little nail holes up and down a board, this is more likely to be powder post beetles, another wood destroying insect. Also carpenter ants like to chew wood (that has started to decay) in order to make galleries to house their colony. Premise Foam works great at destroying these, btw.

5. Spring and fall are termite swarm seasons. Swarming termites (alates) look a lot like flying ants, which swarm at the same time. The difference that is easiest to spot is the body-flying ants have a pinched in body; termites have a fat body. Don't worry about your house unless you see the swarm coming out of cracks in the floor or walls. Swarms in woods are probably going to stay there.

My company uses Premise products, and their website is www.nobugs.com You can go there to read more about termites.

BTW, our termite treatments range from $400-2000, depending on the size of the house and the amount of work we have to do. Renewal fees are $95 each year.

[phantom power]

7. I always dread seeing termite swarms around my house.

It's like seeing a Raven on my window, quothing "nevermore"

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. There are usually a few colonies per acre

and so it is not unusual to see the swarms. The thing to remember is that this is a splitting off of one colony, and they are looking for a home. Don't make yours attractive to them, and they won't go there.

[Union Thug]

8. Call on the Mofu people

They will invoke the jaglavak to chase out the termites... Great Nova special. Check it out.

[Javaman]

10. Simple way to prevent termites and carpenter ants...

just make sure that grass, shrubs, bushes, etc are cut away from your house.

Keep the grass trimmed low that is against your foundation.

They won't have a route to get into your home that way.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Also make sure you don't have moisture problems

this attracts all kinds of insects. Crawl spaces need at least one vent on each wall; if your crawl space is damp, you can get vents with fans to dry them out. Also make sure your crawl space is deep enough-minimum of 12" clearance--and for heaven's sake DON'T store wood or cardboard in your crawl! Talk about termite attractant!

[hunter]

11. The ants and spiders around here think the termites are quite tasty.

It's the damned rats that make me crazy, and my current dogs are not good rat catchers because we also have smaller pets.

The dogs accept the rats as other pets, and won't even kill them if they are stealing their food. But the owls and hawks will come by every once in a while and grab a rat.

[losthills]

13. Termites are friends of the earth.

They are the great recyclers.

And recycling is good...

[phantom power]

14. That's fine, except that I'm not finished using my house yet.

Have you ever had a termite colony try to "recycle" your house while you were still living there?

[losthills]

15. No offense to you personally...

But I think it's a disgrace that we are still building houses that are uninhabitable in summer or winter without a continuous input of air conditioning or artificial heat. That the vast majority of us still live in these rube golberg crackerboxes is one of the root problems of the problems we are facing. African tribesmen, Navajos and Eskimos lived in more sensible shelters. Modern homes were designed back in the Seventies that maintain a liveable temperature, throughout the year, in any climate-- passively. Passive designs should be the norm by now instead of the exception.

And we are still building suburbs of homes by the thousands that require continuous inputs of energy to keep them habitable and require the residents to commute to work in their personal autos. The termites may be doing us a favor...

[phantom power]

16. Be that as it may...

All the termites care about is whether the house was built with cellulose. Anybody who built their earth-ship with wood is just as vulnerable as the most egregious McMansion. Or, will be, when winters no longer dip below freezing in the northern states.

[tom_paine]

17. I'd like to be glib and say maybe that will fizzle out like the Killer Bees

which were supposed to be swarming all over CONUS by now.

(being allergic to bee stings will make a person remember things like that)

Not to be glib about Global Warming, but just becuase the environent is going to be habitable by termites, does not mean that insect is going to be the dominant one to refill vacating niches.

The idea of all the houses ionthe US being munched into rubble at once is pretty :nuke: and therefore interesting to ponder. This effect is made so much more 'real' by the fact that the rate of climate warming is increasing so prapidly now that we have PLENTY of real :nuke: - level problems, including rampant :nuke: proliferation, for that matter.

Oh, and the little fact that the Bushies have :nuke: 'd the international structure, no matter what the result of their dog and pony show in Annapolis.