We are with you, Patrick.

you must have been writing when I posted about Formosan Termites. Sure hope they do not make it to SW Florida. They are horrific and impossible to control.

Check this out. There is a huge amount of info on the net about this pestilence.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science...es.neworleans/

My this site is weird. LilMsFoodie, when I posted the second of my two long posts above, I specifically noticed they were still together. Then when I came back, your post was between them. How did that happen?

Anyway, I did Google Formosan Termites and it is scary stuff. Yeeecccchhhh. Although from what I read, I wonder if those are the type termites the people saw.

Just for the record, you can only get rid of termites by removing the wood where they've laid their eggs. So when your place is tented to treat for termites, they will almost assuredly re-appear in 6-8 years. That's why it's a good idea to get the exterminators contract (at a small yearly charge) to have them re-exterminate when the little buggers return. Generally, they arrive on new less dense wood, even before your house has been built. I have an addition on my house and the 50-year-old portion of my house never had them but the new part had them after five years. I think that's the real problem with those Formosan buggers is that they will eat older wood not just the wood from young quickly-grown trees that is used nowadays. Your house is new construction? Be on the lookout for them. They swarm during their mating season -- spring, I think.

my understanding from two years ago was that every building in the French Quarter had them. We saw the damage they were doing at many places, Jean LaFittes, Court of Two Sisters (a beautiful courtyard with appalling food), you name it.

I had a lovely suite at the the Monteleone hotel with no termites in site but the bartender said they had problems with them. They like dampness, a problem when you are in a city below sea level.

LMF

I've managed to avoid termites in 18 years in Florida and 3 years in Hawaii. Now we just built a house in North Central Florida. The pre-treat done by the extermination company was so strong I couldn't bear to visit the site for a douple of days. Yet I'm told the pesticide is so watered down in Florida (by law) that I'd be crazy to not have it inspected each year anyway. Just had the first inspection and we passed, but this thread has me thinking a little more about the little buggers!

Patrick, I disagree with your statement: "If people see termites it PROBABLY means that the homeowners don't care, and are not having inspections of their home, nor dealing with the problem to get rid of them."

I own a beach house in Florida. Every single house on my block has been tented for termites! We had our own house "boron" treated - you don't have to leave, because the poison is actually boric acid, not poison - and we have children and were worried about the chemicals. We also keep up with the annual inspection$. What a joke they are! They rarely find any, however we've found them repeatedly on our own, and had them come back out and "spot spray". We've repaired the damage, and life goes on. But don't make the mistake of thinking we don't care. We do, we're just out of ideas on how to keep them from returning!

Joan, one reason you go with the guarantee and annual inspection is because if you have to get your house tented every 8 years or so, add up those payments and you might find that in 8 years the cost of tenting has escalated to make it worth your while. Of course you have to find a company that has been around awhile and will still be in business in 8 years.

We had a rental in Tampa and the neighbor had a double lot with a pile of dead wood and some dead trees next to our house on the empty lot. I never doubted that those buggers were spending their winters in my house and not his.

Joan, don't forget I said PROBABLY. We had our buildings treated with the boron deal too -- drilling into every door and window frame in the building. But two years later they showed that we still had termites or had them again, and we tented the building. That's been another three years and no return. But my main point was that if you are getting a good inspection every year it is very doubtful you will ever see a termite. They should be discovering the effects of them before they swarm and you can actually see them. I have to tell you that having lived here for 30 years and having had many problems with termites, I'm not sure I've ever seen one. I have seen the little piles of sawdust that tells us the larvae are at work -- but again if you are on top of it and the company does a good job, it isn't too likely you'll actually ever see the little buggers.