The art of termite control has not changed much during the past twenty years. Although pest control professionals are able to effectively control termite populations within people’s homes, many innovative researchers are attempting to create more advanced methods of insect pest control. Perhaps the phrase, “pest control”, is misleading, as today’s ambitious developers are currently developing methods of pest “eradication”, rather than “control”. Traditionally, pest control professionals focus on controlling insect pest populations so that they can be herded into areas where they will not cause environmental or structural damages. There is an unimaginable amount of individual insect pests in various vulnerable regions around the world. This is why complete pest eradication from a particular region has long been considered an impractical goal. However, this thinking is changing quickly, as several researchers have now developed ways to completely eradicate termites from structures so that they can never return to inflict more damage.
Termite control methods can end termite infestations, but in rare cases, surviving termites can infest a home a second time. This is why termite eradication methods may be preferred over control methods. At the moment, two pest control innovators have created their own unique method of termite eradication.
In many cases, several different subterranean termite colonies are interconnected below the ground. These interconnected colonies can span numerous miles, and each colony can contain well over fifty thousand termites. When termites infestations are eradicated within homes, many more termites remain underground and nearby. In order to fully eradicate all termites in a particular region, one innovator created a non-repelling chemical that attracts termites to the soil where it is applied. This chemical is then transported by the affected individual termites to the larger colony where it is then spread to other termites before killing them. Another method of eradication that may become available in the future involves a wood-filled box that is buried beneath soil. This wood provides an easy meal for foraging termites, but once termites enter the box, the wood is replaced with a fatal poison. Placing these boxes near neighborhoods can kill termites before they can infest a home. However, it should be noted that these two methods only work for subterranean termites. Dampwood and drywood termites are largely above ground insects, which makes these two particular methods ineffective for their eradication.
Do you think that “eradicating”, as opposed to “controlling” termite populations will truly lead to fewer infestations?