A neighbor of mine had some lettuce, cabbage and broccoli started and didn't want to bother with them this fall/winter so she asked if I wanted them. Sure I said. It had been about a month when I noticed rows of dirt all over one of the pots. Further investigation reveals bugs and one of my loaded and flowering tomato plants is wilting. I got her pots out of the green house and started looking online to see what the bugs were. Any guesses? They were termites. Fortunately I had sprayed the wafer board walls, window sills and everything else with bleach. So far the other plants are ok. I sure didn't expect anything like that let alone termites.
MJ

On Saturday, November 8, 2014 9:39:45 AM UTC-5, wrote:
A neighbor of mine had some lettuce, cabbage and broccoli started and didn't want to bother with them this fall/winter so she asked if I wanted them.. Sure I said. It had been about a month when I noticed rows of dirt all over one of the pots. Further investigation reveals bugs and one of my loaded and flowering tomato plants is wilting. I got her pots out of the green house and started looking online to see what the bugs were. Any guesses? They were termites. Fortunately I had sprayed the wafer board walls, window sills and everything else with bleach. So far the other plants are ok. I sure didn't expect anything like that let alone termites.
MJ

Never spray bleach! It will destroy the nails or screws that hold the waferboard on.

Steve Peek wrote:
....
Never spray bleach! It will destroy the nails or screws
that hold the waferboard on.

and (not knowing what the waferboard is made of) may
degrade pretty much any organic material quite badly.


songbird

On 11/8/2014 9:39 AM, wrote:
A neighbor of mine had some lettuce, cabbage and broccoli started and didn't want to bother with them this fall/winter

so she asked if I wanted them. Sure I said. It had been about a month
when I noticed rows of dirt all over one of the pots.

Further investigation reveals bugs and one of my loaded and flowering
tomato plants is wilting.

I got her pots out of the green house and started looking online to
see what the bugs were. Any guesses? They were termites.

Fortunately I had sprayed the wafer board walls, window sills and
everything else with bleach. So far the other plants are ok.

I sure didn't expect anything like that let alone termites.
MJ


Having seen termites near the house and knowing that neighbors had
treated for them I decided to get a contract with Terminex and treat my
house for peace of mind. They injected Thermidor around the house and
inspect annually.

Damned if a colony did not establish itself in a wood pile on my
concrete patio about 5 feet from the house. Terminex came out and
sprayed the bottom of the pile but apparently termites were just in a
couple of pieces of rotted wet wood near the top of the pile.

This sounds like a similar situation. Nothing to panic over but
something you should not neglect.

On Saturday, November 8, 2014 7:21:33 PM UTC-5, songbird wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:
...
Never spray bleach! It will destroy the nails or screws
that hold the waferboard on.

and (not knowing what the waferboard is made of) may
degrade pretty much any organic material quite badly.


songbird

The waferboard has quite a thick coat of paint on it so I think that has helped. Still checking every day for signs and so far there are none
MJ

Frank wrote:
....
Having seen termites near the house and knowing that neighbors had
treated for them I decided to get a contract with Terminex and treat my
house for peace of mind. They injected Thermidor around the house and
inspect annually.

Damned if a colony did not establish itself in a wood pile on my
concrete patio about 5 feet from the house. Terminex came out and
sprayed the bottom of the pile but apparently termites were just in a
couple of pieces of rotted wet wood near the top of the pile.

This sounds like a similar situation. Nothing to panic over but
something you should not neglect.

a good ramble jumping off point.

termites, ants, bees, beetles, pillbugs, and of
course many other insects are a part of the whole
system which recycles organic materials. fungi
are another critical part of that cycle.

while you may want to build with organic materials
in areas prone to termites and such, it's usually a
much better choice to use non-organic materials
instead (glass, metal, stone, cement). you may pay
more up front, but you can then avoid the use of
poisons.

here we've got wood exterior with many points of
possible entry into the house. i can seal it up with
caulk, but that is at the cost each year (because the
wood expands/contracts each year) much better could
have been completely avoided using a different material.
*sigh* we don't seem to have termites around much at
all, but ants are another story.

i spent several days this past fall caulking and
sealing up cracks to keep the ants out that were
coming in (black carpenter ants are not to be ignored
when you find them in your house). tracking them down,
finding where they were coming in...

removing all dead wood from around the perimeter of
the house and back about 100ft might keep those types
of ants and termites from coming in, but if your house
itself is wood in any way or even has an inviting crack
in the exterior then you are vulnerable to ants. they
are everywhere, and you can poison them all you want,
but they will be back. they have millions of years of
experience with dealing with the worst that the universe
can throw at them and they are not going away any time
soon.

the black ants that were coming in were actually
coming from a nest over 70ft from the house. we have
a lot of dead wood in various areas (left to rot
intentionally, i'm not clearing it out) and it is
there for good reasons so there will likely be other
attempts to set up shop here in the house, but they
first have to cross quite a distance of crushed
limestone mulch so they aren't finding much organic
materials in there to attract them further (water and
insect remains i can't do much about). sometimes the
black ants were finding a path which included crawling
right over me and my perch here. that's no fun in
the middle of the night...

another time we had ants set up shop in the ceiling
of all places. figured that it must have been a new
queen that landed on the roof and found a crack to get
through and it was good enough for her... took us a
few weeks to get rid of them once we found them
crawling across the floor.

now that we have a better roof (another *grr!* and
*sigh* aimed at my ex-step-dad who used the cheapest
shingles and didn't do it right anyways so deserves a
swift kick in the pants for that too) i'm hoping to
not repeat that experience the rest of the time i'm
living here.

the prime attractants to ants in the house itself
would be the piles of flour, sugar, etc. that Ma keeps
on hand to make stuff with. just a few crumbs found
by a foraging scout and the game is on for the ant
colony that strikes such gold. i'm pretty sure that
if i did not keep a close eye on the perimeter and
sealing up cracks that i can find that we'd be invaded
by them quite a bit more.

i like ants, btw, they're facinating creatures.
E.O. Wilson cowrote a great book on them called
_the Ants_ and much more is being discovered.


songbird

On 11/11/2014 8:31 PM, Derald wrote:
Well,as long as we're rambling....

songbird wrote:

i like ants, btw, they're facinating creatures.
E.O. Wilson cowrote a great book on them called
_the Ants_ and much more is being discovered.
Well, the little dears lost a bit of their charm by eating my onion
seeds the evening after planting last month and lose a a bit more, from
time to time, by hauling away brassica or other small seeds just about
as quickly as they can be placed in their beds. Of course, nothing
quite matches the thrill of disturbing with ones hands a tribe of fire
ants that has established itself in the retaining "timbers" of a raised
bed. ...eeeeYOW: Instant awareness.
It may not be true but I remember reading (in a source the name of
which I fortunately no longer remember) that termites were not a serious
hazard in more northern (NA) climes until central heating and/or air
"conditioning" became widespread. Of course, in this Florida climate,
insects are year 'round and termites always are active. Depending on
subspecies, the winged instars swarm up out of the ground, resembling
sparkling smoke, between October and about May. In my immediate
environs, they begin swarming on warm sunny days anytime from late
January through about March.

Yup! Fire ants, Formosan termites, nutria rats, etc. Just count the
critters that have come to this country in my short 75 year life span.
Not to mention the Chinese tallow tree, that one pretty much took over
every spot under a fence or a power line as birds spread the seeds.

I carry a "hot shot" pen whenever I go to the garden, fire ants hit me
so hard a time or two that I passed out. Around here they dig nests as
deep as eighteen or so feet deep. First time you notice is when there
are little piles of sand or soil above ground and then the biting
starts. We patrol the perimeter daily with fire ant killer.

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

Well,as long as we're rambling....



i like ants, btw, they're facinating creatures.
E.O. Wilson cowrote a great book on them called
_the Ants_ and much more is being discovered.

Well, the little dears lost a bit of their charm by eating my onion
seeds the evening after planting last month and lose a a bit more, from
time to time, by hauling away brassica or other small seeds just about
as quickly as they can be placed in their beds. Of course, nothing
quite matches the thrill of disturbing with ones hands a tribe of fire
ants that has established itself in the retaining "timbers" of a raised
bed. ...eeeeYOW: Instant awareness.

yeah, fire ants are not something i would like to
deal with (but they and i have met when i was vacationing
in the south some years ago). have you heard of crazy
ants? have those reached your area?


It may not be true but I remember reading (in a source the name of
which I fortunately no longer remember) that termites were not a serious
hazard in more northern (NA) climes until central heating and/or air
"conditioning" became widespread. Of course, in this Florida climate,
insects are year 'round and termites always are active. Depending on
subspecies, the winged instars swarm up out of the ground, resembling
sparkling smoke, between October and about May. In my immediate
environs, they begin swarming on warm sunny days anytime from late
January through about March.

that would likely be true for roaches also.


songbird