Gold Coast Termites - How I Finally Got Rid Of The Little Buggers

My story begins about 2 years ago when we first discovered white ants or termites. We live on the Gold Coast, Australia near to the water which is one of the most desirable places for termites. Termites thrive in moist humid conditions so the Gold Coast climate being sub tropical is perfect for them.

Upon discovering the white ants which by the way we found because we could hear them chomping away on our architraves, we immediately contacted a pest control company. The first company arrived and took a look, did a bit of tapping etc and told us they would email us a quote. It took them almost two weeks to do this in which time we had already hired someone else.

The next pest control company came and did a thorough investigation of our entire house and also used a thermal imaging camera. They came to the conclusion that the termites were entering our house in a crack between our two concrete slabs. you see we had added on a couple of extension to our house over the years and where the slabs meet is where the termites were coming in. They had only managed to eat one part of our architrave in our entry so we felt we had caught them in time. The pest control company drilled a few holes into our walls where the termites were coming in and all along their route leading to our architrave and applied Premise foam inside the walls. Apparently this would be taken back to the nest and kill some of the white ants. We did that but were also advised to get a chemical barrier installed around our house. We have concrete driveways and paths around the entire perimeter of our house (so we falsely thought we were protected from termites due to being able to see them) so having this chemical barrier was going to be a nightmare. They told us they would have to cut our concrete and inject the chemical. It sounded messy but more importantly the quote we got was astronomical.

I then thought I'd do a bit of research and discovered the Sentricon bait stations which we had installed for around $1200. We were told that the bait stations would contain some cellulose heavy timbers that would attract termites, once they eneterd the bait station they could be given the bait, take it back to the nest and problem solved. We had to pay a monthly fee for these stations to be checked every month.

Guess what? Not one termite was ever discovered or attracted to these bait stations. We didn't mind though thinking that we would just be patient and wait and we felt secure that the termites that were originally out of the house after the Premise foam treatment.

Well not long after that we heard the white ants again and found another architrave that had been eaten in another part of the house. To cut a long story short were not happy but knew something had to be done. Ok the foam hadn't worked, the bait stations were useless so what next? Well my husband decided to concoct his own chemical cocktail and drill holes in the wall and spray it in there. Yes it did work but only on the ones that were in that spot, the ants just kept coming up somewhere else. All the while we followed them around, getting rid of them and waiting to see where they popped up next. We next discovered them in an extension we did years ago that had exterior Masonite weatherboards. They were actually eating the weatherboards.

Enough was enough!! These nasty little buggers were not going to give up and neither were we so we decided to get the professionals in. We were recommended Aussie Termite Services by our neighbours who had also experienced the dreaded termites but hadn't had a problem since using Aussie. Aussie Termite Services service the Gold Coast (www.termitesgoldcoast.net) and Brisbane (www.termitesbrisbane.net)

It was the day before we were to leave for an Easter break and I spoke to Debbie and explained that we had found them but were going away for a week. They came out that very same day and were fantastic at explaining everything we needed to know as well as offering to come first thing in the morning to do our chemical barrier. We didn't even have to be home but since we weren't leaving until about 11am the next day (they arrived at 8am) I was able to see exactly what was going on. I didn't want to go away for a week knowing the white ants were busy chewing our house, they can do a lot of damage in a week.

The best part was Aussie Termite Services are a family run Queensland owned company. A lot of pest control companies are now owned by the Japanese but not Aussie. And being a family they know how hard it is for people financially these days and do provide the best advice at the best price. They were a third of the price compared to other quotes we had previously but they were the best.

They drilled holes around the perimeter of our house about 200 mm apart and injected Termidor into the soil then replugged the holes. Termidor is a non repellant chemical that termites can't detect therefore they cross the barrier picking up the chemical and either die or take it back to the nest, spreading it throughout the colony and BOOM!

We havn't heard an ant since or detected anything. There is an 8 year guarantee with this product providing you get annual inspections done every year just to stay on top of things. I'm so happy to finally have this problem solved.

I just wanted to tell my story to help others that might be in the same predicament. It was explained to us that once the white ants were already in our house and had invested a lot of time and effort to get there, why would they leave and go out to a bait station. That's why the bait stations didn't work, the termites had invested years getting to a yummy food source (our house), they weren't just going to give up. They had a series of intricate tunnels set up underneath our slab, they weren't going anywhere. Termites are very determined.

So if you need Termites Gold Coast pest control or Termites Brisbane pest control then definitely ring Aussie Termite Services. Debbie or David will be only too happy to help.

I should have taken photos along the way but only thought of it towards the end of our little termite journey. We are lucky that my husband was able to fix the architraves and replace the weatherboards himself which saved on repair costs. I've attached a couple of photos where we found them in my son's window architrave and some of their mud tubes we found inside the walls when we pulled off the weatherboards.

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