Oct 20, 2012 – Drywoods Local Treating
QUESTION:
I have found Drywood Termite frass at four different locations around the exterior perimeter of a home with wood siding. Would the proper treatment be to drill near the kickout holes and inject Premise? I am asking because the label tells me that this should not be the only means of treatment. I am unsure what other types of treatments are needed. Thank you for your advice.
ANSWER:
Well, I briefly looked over a few of the Premise labels and admit I did not find the precaution you mention regarding not using the Premise local treatment as the only treatment. But, labels are extensive, so it could be on there somewhere, but I wonder if you might have been reading that with respect to local wood treatment for Subterranean termites and not drywoods. That would certainly stand to reason, as the presence of subs tells us that there must be some pathway from the soil to the wood that needs to be addressed, and treating only the small area where the subterranean termites are noticed is not likely to control that much larger problem.
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I have found Drywood Termite frass at four different locations around the exterior perimeter of a home with wood siding. Would the proper treatment be to drill near the kickout holes and inject Premise? I am asking because the label tells me that this should not be the only means of treatment. I am unsure what other types of treatments are needed. Thank you for your advice.
ANSWER:
Well, I briefly looked over a few of the Premise labels and admit I did not find the precaution you mention regarding not using the Premise local treatment as the only treatment. But, labels are extensive, so it could be on there somewhere, but I wonder if you might have been reading that with respect to local wood treatment for Subterranean termites and not drywoods. That would certainly stand to reason, as the presence of subs tells us that there must be some pathway from the soil to the wood that needs to be addressed, and treating only the small area where the subterranean termites are noticed is not likely to control that much larger problem.
For drywoods it's also possible that a label advises that some additional treatment should be considered, but with the small colonies of drywoods and their tendency to stay only within the wood of the structure it also is possible to eliminate that colony by injecting the wood and getting the insecticide into their active galleries. Premise Foam may be a good choice here as the foam expands and pushes further into the tunnels, offering a greater chance of treating more of the surfaces.
However, the nature of drywood termites also is to have relatively small colonies, although even with subterranean termites research has shown that multiple colonies of these termites may be feeding on the wood of a single structure, and eliminating one of them would not necessarily affect the others if those others do not also come into contact with the active ingredient. But, the small drywood colony in a small area of wood - perhaps only a single 2x4 wall stud - may be only 1 of many separate colonies of drywoods in the same structure, and killing one or two colonies could leave behind other colonies that remain alive and well. This is the benefit of whole house treatments, such as fumigation, where you know that every cubic inch of wood throughout that structure has been treated and all termites are dead. Perhaps this is the intent of the statement you refer to, that considering treatment such as fumigation may be a more certain way to eradicate all termites.
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