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Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas!
Michael Wienecke
Hey, so today on the podcast, we want to talk about the most detrimental, destructive, worst termite that you can probably get in Alabama. Very rare termite. But we have actually seen some an uptick in in this type of termite. So this type of termite, we don’t ever want to hear anybody has this the Formosan termite?
Travis McGowin
Yeah. And, you know, the general public probably doesn’t distinguish between one and the other for most and Eastern subterranean, which is, you know, the, the typical one that we end up dealing with here in our area. But unfortunately, like, most pests, it’s probably true that the, the prevalence of the Formosan termite is probably on the rise. I mean, especially with things migrating like it, like they do across the country. So tell us a little bit about the Formosan. Termites, Michael?
Michael Wienecke
Yeah. So I’ll talk about the migrating. So it’s funny, you said that, you know, we’ve had a lot of rumors around here saying that it’s coming from the wood from other states. And that’s why we’re seeing a huge uptick, which, which could definitely be true. But we actually had our first case of a infestation of for most termites inside a stucco home in a window. So, you know, for most things are similar to Eastern subterranean, Eastern subterranean, typically have to have ground, and then they get up into your house that way from from the ground. So for most things that can kind of fly in, if you have a rotten part of the roof, or rotten part of your Eve. This particular job that I did, it was a windowsill. So it was just a little bit of rot right there in the windowsill. And that’s all it took. They built a nice little spot right there. And now they are running a muck through the window, they’ve already chewed out the window sill and the the frame itself, so and then going into the sheetrock. So they’re just more detrimental. They they’re a much bigger colony than Eastern subterranean. So the Formosan termite just it’s got a lot more family members, therefore, it’s got a lot more eaters.
Travis McGowin
Yeah. And I like how you said that a lot more eaters? So can you kind of give us an idea how quickly a colony of Formosan termites might be able to eat out, like you said, a window frame like what you found there in your area, or, you know, an average wall Boyd or something of that nature, like how quickly can a population of Formosan termite damage your home.
Michael Wienecke
So this particular customer was a quarterly customer, it wasn’t she was not a termite customer. We do as we’re, you know, treating your home, we’re also looking for any issues such as termites, or moisture issues, or anything that could potentially cause a pest issue in the first place. And I would say, she had her quarterly service, and probably a week or so after that. So she had called us two months after her quarterly service, and she had already had a pretty major infestation in that one spot in the house. So it can happen very quickly. Like I said, you know, once once we got in there, and were was able to see behind the wall a little bit where we tore out the sheet rock. It it’s just, it’s something out of a horror movie, compared to regular Eastern subterranean is where you may see, you know, a couple of 100, you know, going back and they typically move pretty slow. These guys were just I mean, 90 to nothing working hard. And a lot of them
Travis McGowin
well, in, you knows, as homeowners, myself included, it’s kind of unnerving, that an insect that is the size of a termite, something that small can do such a major damage to your house, especially in such a very short minut amount of time. But if there’s anything that homeowners can do to alleviate their house from being on the menu, or at least help alleviate their house from being on a Formosan, termites dinner plate menu, what are some things that homeowners can do?
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, so it kind of comes down to just you know, maintenance of the house. Some homes are harder to get on the roof, but it’s really nice to get an inspection once a year, just making sure that you don’t have a roof leak. Because these two story homes, it’s kind of hard to see that they have a roof leak because sometimes people were never upstairs or their kids maybe upstairs and they’re not looking for that. So just inspecting the home making sure that if you’ve got a small rotten spot, or if your gutters are leaking behind your behind the gutter, you know, into that roofline, it’s not going to go away, it’s going to cause more of a problem. And it’s going to cause issues you know, with termites with roaches with ants. I mean, it’s so many other issues. So just making sure that your house is kept up and not A lot of rod around the house.
Travis McGowin
Alright, so last thing, you done an inspection you’ve located that horror show that you called the group of Formosan termites that you found of the house. So what’s the next step for here at pesquisas pest control, elaborate to the customers? What are we going to do to treat their property to ensure that the termites are removed and gone, and then that they don’t come back?
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, so once we’ve located the issue after doing a full home inspection, making sure that there are no other other areas where these termites for most sins or Eastern subterranean czar, we’re going to completely protect the perimeter of the home with a baiting system. And then depending on the situation with this situation with this particular customer, we use an aboveground bait. So it just goes right up against the wall, the sheet rock, it’s, it’s secured to the wall and then we check it every quarter. Those termites are going to find that bait they’re going to start eating that bait taking it back to the colony, and over a fairly short amount of time. You’re gonna get total colony elimination
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
