Americans - how do you protect your house from termites?

Question

it seems very expensive here in Europe, the man wants to drill holes in my walls every 8 inches and inject poison. This is just to prevent termites, we don't have them already.

Answer 1

GET AN ESTIMATE FOR A COMPLETE JOB....TO KILL ALL EXISTING TERMITES AND PREVENTION...THEN TAKE THE MONEY YOU WOULD HAVE SPENT ON THE TERMITES AND BANK IT SOME WHERE THAT WILL PAY A HIGH YIELD.....AND WAIT TO SEE IF YOU EVER HAVE ANY PROBLEMS,,,MAYBE NEVER,,,,YOU WILL BE THAT MUCH AHEAD IF YOU DO HAVE ANY PROBLEMS IN THE FEATURE YOU WILL HAVE THE MONEY READY.

Answer 2

Hmm.. a buddy of mine just had it done recently for prevention but they simply injected the poisons in the ground and sprayed the exterior and underneath wood of the house. Injecting into the walls seems stupid as the termites come from the ground up not from the inside out. They will attack the sill (if its not pressure treated) first and work up.

Answer 3

I use ant poison and also consumer termite spray. Also keep an eye out for evidence of swarming in the spring. When that happens, maybe once every five years depending on how it rains, I spray the whole outside of the house. They still get in but so long as I keep an eye on the bottom of the house I can stop them from colonizing. Occasionally I have to make repairs and use treated wood for repairs but still it's cheaper than these rip-off artists.

Answer 4

I have termidor, which is applied much the same way, plus a trench around the outside and inside of the crawlspace wall. It supposedly works for five years though. I was charged $780, house is 40'x25', everyone said that was a really good price.

Answer 5

this sounds silly but did you know that fire ants
eat termites like gravy and bisquits?

yes that is true
that is a cheaper alternative that the drilling and poison

Answer 6

We call the Orkin man. And yeah it's fairly expensive here too.