Rougue Termites?

[THEMAN]

I had some questions about termites and so I did a search. I found several post regarding fear of them but none that really said what to do with them if you had them. My father in law brought me 1/2 cord of termite infested rounds that his neighbor left when he moved(Thanks a lot ). In any event I read that most will die because their home/den/nest is in the ground and since they have been removed from atop their homes they should die. Well exactly how long does it take them to die? He brought the wood over in June it is now November, I split a couple of rounds last night and there they were fat and happy. The wood is DRY very dry. When I split a few of the rounds last night they wouldn't register on the moisture meter. According to some of the other post the termites like wet wood and can not live in dry wood. Strike two!. I have some termite insecticide that I could spray on the wood pile after I split the rounds but I don't see how the spray will penetrate enough to get to the unexposed termites. I can also throw around some Borax as I read in other post but then again how is that going to get to them deep in the wood. Unless they come out to get it.(maybe they do I'm not an entomologist, & haven't studied termite behavior) After reading some of the other posts I'm not too worried about them attacking my other wood but where does that leave me? Throw out the wood? I sure as hell don't want to bring it in the house and risk one or some of those little buggers getting out of the wood waiting to go into or on the way to the stove. Not to mention that now I'm worried that they have started a home/den/nest in my dirt under the wood pile.(since they have not died I figure they most have rebuilt, haha) nor am I sure I should burn the wood if I spray it with the insecticide. It could be released when burned and/or it may "poison" the cat in my stove.(catalytic combuster that is, not buffy the kitty, you can hand up with peta now) Please advise.

 

[Duetech]

I think your concern of the termites going into the ground is well founded. It is time for them to go dormant, or underground in my area. Try rolling a round that is in contact with the ground to see if they have made tunnels or burrows in the ground. If they have you should treat the ground or they may be close neighbors for some time. Not knowing your weather and seasonal swings I would be very uncomfortable about them. With cold nights here I would split the wood and stick it right in the fire and I would not split more than I need. If the buggers are happy to stay in the rounds and the weather getting colder I would not split any of it until it got real cold. Other than that I would look for a dump to throw the wood in or I would call the neighbors and my friends over for a bonfire but not tell them what I found in the wood. I normally split a lot of wood in the winter. Rounds that I find with carpenter ants go right into the fire as soon as the rounds are split.

 

[onedog]

Not a good situation to be in. I've had termites attack my home and had Orkin do the treatment 4 or 5 years ago. I burn mostly hedge and termites don't feast on it so I pretty much figured it was safe. Had some large rounds of another specie (not sure what it actually is) that I started splitting in late summer and saw where some termites had tunneled to it. Termites have to return to the ground often (every few days) for moisture otherwise they die. Above ground, they build their mud tunnels to protect them from the environment.

A few years ago, I found some termites in some wood that I brought home so I placed a call to Orkin again. The Orkin guy kinda chuckled and didn't recommend anything since my home had already been treated. You could tell he was disappointed though as he thought he was gonna score another payday. He said that here in the midwest, an acre could host up to 17 colonies. I would treat it with whatever you got and then have your home/garage/out buildings checked for signs of infestation. It you don't know what signs to look for, call in an expert. It'll be costly if you have to have your home treated.

I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that some of my non-hedge firewood will likely be food for a colony. Check your wood closely before bringing it into your home and separate out your infected pieces and place in a dry area off the ground. If it stays dry, it should be termite free within a week or two.

Good luck.

Onedog

 

[THEMAN]

I think your concern of the termites going into the ground is well founded. It is time for them to go dormant, or underground in my area. Try rolling a round that is in contact with the ground to see if they have made tunnels or burrows in the ground. If they have you should treat the ground or they may be close neighbors for some time. Not knowing your weather and seasonal swings I would be very uncomfortable about them. With cold nights here I would split the wood and stick it right in the fire and I would not split more than I need. If the buggers are happy to stay in the rounds and the weather getting colder I would not split any of it until it got real cold. Other than that I would look for a dump to throw the wood in or I would call the neighbors and my friends over for a bonfire but not tell them what I found in the wood. I normally split a lot of wood in the winter. Rounds that I find with carpenter ants go right into the fire as soon as the rounds are split.

I think I will get rid it. Shame to have to get rid of 1/2 cord, but better than having to rebuild 1/2 of the house. Last week I was up in the Sierras cutting some wood and when I got back into town to split it, I hit a nice round with the maul and oh baby welcome to the epicenter of carpenter ant metro. With on fell swoop of the maul bam! instant ant farm looked like a scene from Indiana Jones haha. I rand to get the Diazinon while my brother auditioned for the show stomp. I sprayed everything I could see moving. Which after awhile it seemed everything was moving! I joined in on the stomp audition and I think we got them all but who knows. Getting back to the termites, I will look for the burrows into the dirt and if I see any then I suppose I can treat the soil. Hopefully that will be then end of them.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think if I had some space away from the house, I'd split the wood into small splits and stack them loosely - maybe cross hatch all the wood to get max air space. I'd also put something under the stack so no wood was touching the ground. The idea would be that the termites would have to find another place to live once the wood was split and stacked off the ground, and that I probably already have termites on the property (assuming the wood came from some place nearby and termites are a normal thing in your area) so any escaped termites would not be a new thing in my yard. That is more or less what I do when I find Carpenter Ants in wood, which happens a lot here. We don't seem to have a lot of termites, but plenty of ants, so if a few extra carpernter ants escape from some wood into my woodlot, it really doesn't matter - the place is already saturated with carpenter ants.

 

[gzecc]

Have you thought about buying the stakes that you put in the ground. Some how they attract and kill the little buggers. Might be an option. Keep the wood put in a stake or two come back next year for review.

 

[iceman]

spray the wood with dish soap and water mix should take care of them... and yes they will try to tunnel in the ground but they dont know where they are going...... so spray the ground just in case some fall into it ... but split the wood and spray other wise they will stay in there until the wood freezes through

 

[TreePapa]

Burn the whole 1/2 cord in a giant bonfire? Don't think the buggers would survive that!

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[Cal-MI]

Remember both termites and carpenter ants require a queen. Without their queen, who was left in the damp ground at the old location, the colony will eventually die. Getting the wood to dry ASAP is an excellent idea.
Carpenter ants OTOH have their queen in one particular spot in a tree. So the queen could be in one piece of firewood.

 

[THEMAN]

Remember both termites and carpenter ants require a queen. Without their queen, who was left in the damp ground at the old location, the colony will eventually die. Getting the wood to dry ASAP is an excellent idea.
Carpenter ants OTOH have their queen in one particular spot in a tree. So the queen could be in one piece of firewood.

That's what I thought about the queen but then again the woods original location was about 3 city miles away from the wood pile at my house. They made that trip around 5 months ago and they are still alive and kicking so I wonder if the queen hitched a ride or if they found another here(I hope not) which would mean that I already had termites here. Another thing I heard is if they are dirt termites with one solitary queen that if you kill the queen in the ground the termites will subsequently die. But as I said these little buggers are out of the norm. They have survived away from their queen in dry rock hard wood.

 

[Cal-MI]

California may be different than Michigan. I hear there are now imported, more aggresive, Formosan termites. Their rules may be different than what you and I are used to. I suggest you consult your states extension service to see what you have there.
Here is the Texas info.
http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/b-6080.html

 

[Tony H]

I would get rid of it by bonfire or ? no need to spread any more around your yard.

What make you think they were rouge termites ? Were they carrying a copy of some new book

 

[LLigetfa]

What make you think they were rouge termites ? Were they carrying a copy of some new book

Rouge is French for red. Were they French commie insulting termites?

http://rougue.urbanup.com/1815104

 

[THEMAN]

I would get rid of it by bonfire or ? no need to spread any more around your yard.

What make you think they were rouge termites ? Were they carrying a copy of some new book

You are correct in saying that Rouge is French for red. However, the definition of Rogue(I apparently misspelled it in the title) is According to Dictionary.com as follows: "Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal."

"varying markedly from the normal." This is why I eluded to them being rogue ants. Because most of the posts that I read said that they would die when taken away from the colony and they would not survive in hard dry wood, yet these varied from the normal and were still alive in both hard dried wood and miles away from their colony. So no they were not carrying a new book nor were they rouge in color they were blanc(Franch for white) ;-P