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Adora
12-12-2004, 09:21 PM
Looks like my house has termites T_T.

I woke up at about 4:30 this morning to the feeling of something crawling across my eyelid. I grabbed the thing, and then threw it off me, and went back to sleep. That's about the only thing I can handle at that time of the morning.

Then, about 15 minutes later, I feel something shifting under my side, I jump up and turn the light on, and there are two little bugs on my bed which I promptly kill and sweep onto the floor. But I'm kinda weirded out and worried they might be bedbugs, so I go crash on the futon on the lounge.

Ten minutes after THAT, I get a bug in my knickers (not in the crotch area, thank the sweet merciful IPU), so as you can tell, I'm really fucking weirded out. These things don't bite though, and keel over from a spray of mortein.

Fast forward and it's now 7:16 am (my sleeping patterns are so out of whack) and I put some of these little things that appear to be all over the house in a jar, and log on to find some answers.

And now, it seriously looks like my house has termites, because the bugs look exactly like this. (http://www.whatsthatbug.com/termites.html) Also, yesterday and the day before were two absolutely sweltering days after a good week or so of heavy steady rain, which apprently is a time when the little buggers are really active. Fuck.

JoeP
12-12-2004, 09:47 PM
Bug ger.

I couldn't have slept after the second one. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight without closing up the room and spraying. btw how hot is it there? Closed windows not great here atm...

ceptimus
12-12-2004, 09:52 PM
Shit :(

You could take a photo of one of the beasties and ask bug girl at JREF for a positive ID. She's some kind of bug professor, and is always being asked to identify various critters.

Termites are really icky. I'm glad we don't have them in this country. Is there any way to exterminate them, before they destroy your house?

livius drusus
12-12-2004, 09:58 PM
Oh man... I'd still be rolling on the floor screaming if that had happened to me. From what I've read termites are a bitch and a half to get rid of. Who owns your house? Is this school housing or your parents or a regular rental?

Adora
12-12-2004, 11:58 PM
Eh, I'm a bug kinda person. I love bugs and spiders and insects and creepy-crawlies and such. I could have been an entymologist, if I wasn't lazy and therefore sucky at science and maths.

I brushed my hair though when I woke up properly, just to make sure there were none in it, because at that point I didn't know what they were, and whether they were going to do anything nasty to me. But yeah, then back to bed and nice por... I mean sweet dreams XD.

House belongs to folks. Read: My parents pay the mortgage. The big thing about this is we live in a relatively old (not "old old") Queenslander which is made entirely out of wood/wood products (except for like, windowscreens and underneath stuff, obviously). So we need to get it checked out quick. Apparently insurance doesn't cover damaged wood replacement either X_x erk!

btw how hot is it there? Closed windows not great here atm...
Pretty stinking. The breeze comes and goes, but never stays for long. Like I said, it's been raining a lot too, so it's pretty humid. All the windows and sliding doors are open in my house, but it's pretty cool inside because we have insulation, wooden floors, it's a raised house with the garage & laundry underneath (also very open, and lots of nice cool cement and dark places) and our house is very big and open. I can only imagine how yuck it must be in pokey little modern houses at times like this.

Is there any way to exterminate them, before they destroy your house?
I guess it's fumigation, but I don't know a lot about the process.

Dingfod
12-13-2004, 01:33 AM
Try this site: http://www.termite.com/australia/
If a pest control company uses Sentricon, it works. No fumigation, no sprays. It is a bait system. The place bait chambers in the ground around the house with a particularly tasty bit of softwood in it. They check them on a routine basis. If termites are found, they replace the bait with a poisoned bait containing a slow-acting poison that the termites carry back to the queen and drones, the eat it and die. It isn't cheap, neither is whole house fumigation, but Sentricon works quite well.