Ever since 1996 we have constantly strived to improve the effectiveness of the Green Termite Bait System.
This has led us to some very interesting results and findings about termites that you won't find in any textbooks.
We will share some of our results here with all our visitors and we welcome questions from the many scientists and researchers studying termites that visit this site.
Our theories and conclusions are our own. Others may draw their own conclusions or duplicate our experiments to confirm our results.
Copyright: Green Pest Control and Green Termite Baits 1996 - 2008
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Experiment 1.
The following sequence of photos shows the way subterranean termites (schedorhinotermes intermedius) approach and feed on Green Termite Baits which were installed around a suburban home in Robina on the Gold Coast - Australia.
 Click images to enlarge
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1. Termites start nibbling on all the underground surfaces of the bait. |
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2. Slowly they start to develop tubular galleries along the grain of the timber. |
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3. Soon there are extensive galleries that are perfect for dusting with Intrigue® termiticide. |
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4. Photo shows Intrigue® lightly and effectively coating the active termite bait. |
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5. Termites continue feeding on the bait; unwittingly taking the Intrigue® back to their nest and sharing it around. The nest begins to die. |
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6. All that is left of a bait after termite activity ceases. A new bait replaces this bait in a nearby location to double check and ensure that all the termite activity has ceased. |
7. If there is no further activity on the replacement bait in the following few months, then it is most probable that the termite nest was destroyed.
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Green Pest Control has proven the above sequence to be accurate and effective in hundreds of cases with our existing clients throughout the Gold Coast.
Note: The six baits used in this sequence are not the same bait as that would be impossible to achieve without disturbing the termites. However the baits were all taken from the one location.
Experiment 2.
We took several of our Green Termite Baits and hammered them directly into termite nests in bushland around Southport.
The baits were checked fortnightly for 3 months and it appeared that nothing happened. Other baits were placed in the ground a few metres from the same nests and were quickly found and attacked by the termites.
The two photos below show front and back shots of the only marks found on one of the baits in the nests that we tested. The majority of our baits had absolutely no marks whatsoever even though they were plunged deep into an active termite nest and surrounded by thousands of termites. Were we surprised!
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1. Termites start nibbling on all the underground surfaces of the bait. |
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2. Slowly they start to develop tubular galleries along the grain of the timber. |
Conclusion:
Not all termites in a nest eat timber. It is already known that soldier termites don't eat timber. It would also appear that the worker termites in a nest do not actually eat timber directly either.
Foraging termite workers eat the timber and return it to the nest where other workers distribute the food. This is just another reason why Intrigue® termiticide is so powerfully effective at controlling termite colonies.
It is estimated that only 10% of the population of termites in a nest actually leave the nest and forage for food. The other 90% busy themselves with the many other nest activities.
Additional Comments.
Intrigue® will always work if a sufficient amount is returned effectively to a termite colony. The Green Termite Bait System gives you that golden opportunity.
The key point is "effective application". Many other termite bait systems fail because they do not offer an effective means to apply sufficient termiticide to a large enough population of foraging workers.
Notes.
Although termite workers all look the same, there is no doubt that they have a diversity of functions with-in a nest. (Not including the Queen, Alates, Soldiers or Nymphs/Juveniles). We would suggest the following functions for workers:
- Foraging scouts.
- Foraging feeders (the ones that do the damage).
- Gallery (tunnel) builders.
- Grooming workers.
- Nursery workers.
- Food distribution workers.
- Workers that attend the Queen(s) (A nest may contain more than one queen!)
- Workers that build and extend the nest.
- Workers that recycle dead termites.
- Workers that feed other workers.
Some scientists believe that only 10% of workers in a nest actually forage for food and damage property. We believe this could well be true. Plainly workers are programmed with set tasks, and even when a perfect source of food is placed directly into a nest, it will remain untouched because the workers in the nest do not have the capacity to actually feed on it.
Hypothesis 1 is that foraging feeders do not return to the heart of the nest to disgorge their bounty of cellulose, but rather disgorge their load at the 'gates' to the nest.
Hypothesis 2 is that maybe when they have returned to the nest their programming is to only share the food around, and they don't start to eat again until they leave the nest.
There is no doubt that termite societies are interesting and highly developed. We welcome all feedback and additional information about this communal insect.
It has also recently been discovered that the termites that actually chew off the timber at a food source have the sharpest teeth (mouth parts). They stay at the source of food chewing off the timber and making little balls of it for other workers to gather up. Once their teeth are blunt they become little dump trucks and transfer the little balls of timber back to the nest inside their gut. It is then regurgitated up and workers in the nest then divide it up to feed all the other workers, soldiers, juvenile termites and of course the Queen. This process is known as 'Trophallaxis'.
The Queen needs to lay her quota of a 1000 eggs per day, just to keep up a steady supply of new workers with sharp teeth. The co-operative work and goings-on with a termite colony is truly amazing. They don't have unions! Ha...
We can learn a lot from termites. Apart form dreading them for the damage they cause to our homes, we should also respect them. Or at least respect the creator or evolution for the amazing way insects with such a tiny brain each, can co-operate and achieve such amazing ends. Each termite doing it's job like clockwork.
Fortunately for us, we can rely on their very own clockwork nature to carry back a non-detectable termiticide to the nest. This principle is the heart and soul of a quality termite bait system that makes it such a powerful tool to destroy the entire nest.
Experiment 3.
Green Termite Baits were placed around a home in Upper Coomera and monitored monthly. Ten metres downhill from the home was a retaining wall that had extensive termite activity (Schedorhinotermes Intermedius).
After two months a single active Green Termite Bait was dusted with Intrigue®. This bait was located between the house and the retaining wall.
Activity ceased in the bait after six weeks.
The retaining wall was checked for termite activity four months after the bait was originally dusted and there was no longer evidence of active termites.
Conclusion:
The nest that was feeding on the retaining wall and approaching the house was destroyed.
Termite Activity on the Gold Coast - Australia.
Over the past sixteen years we have noticed a change in the balance of termite populations in our region.
It appears that Coptotermes is on the decline and that Schedorhinotermes is on the rise. Our records show that Schedorhinotermes now account for about 90% of all termite damage to homes. We suspect that the reason for this is because of the proliferation of garden mulch which is highly attractive to Schedorhinotermes. The mulch retains water in the soil and is a food source for termites. To learn more about mulch click here.
Intrigue® is known to be much more effective on Schedorhinotermes than the old arsenic trioxide dust. Another good reason to insist on Green Termite Baits to reduce the risk of termites finding their way into your home.
Future Developments.
We are currently running trials on a termite bait (patent pending) for use indoors where termites are known to exist but are not able to be treated easily by traditional methods. Early successes are promising. However we will not release our new product until it has past several trials under various conditions, including differing species of termites.
We won't sell anything that doesn't work to your complete satisfaction.
It is also quite possible that even though we design a perfect internal bait, labelling restrictions may prevent us from releasing it.
Stay tuned!
