Why Liquid Termite Treatments Work

Subterranean termites & their destructive nature

Subterranean termites are the most destructive termites in New Jersey and the United States. These little wood eaters are head and shoulders above drywood termites in terms of damage. Annual drywood termite damage is in the hundreds of millions, while subterranean termite damage is in the billions of dollars. How do these tiny insects do so much damage? It is because there can be thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even over a million individual subterranean termites in a single colony. And more than one colony can feed on a home or business at the same time. That is a lot of mouths to feed! And feed they will, if they stumble onto the wood of your property.

When subterranean termites make their way up from the soil into the wood of a home, they are not content to simply nibble away at the first area of wood they come to. They will spread into any area of a home that they can reach. And they can do this for years, silently and unseen, until minor damage turns into major damage that cannot be repaired. When termites work their way into a dwelling, at first the damage isn’t noticeable, but over time they can cause enough damage to support structures so that walls begin to bulge, ceilings begin to sink, and floors can develop a slope. When the structure of a home begins to shift and sink because of termites eating away at the interior of the wood, signs of the infestation may include windows that do not work properly anymore, either sticking open or refusing to open. And doors that do not work properly either. Termites can do irreversible damage if they are not stopped in their tracks.

When subterranean termites get into a business, they can slowly eat away at floor joists and supports, creating a potential hazard for both customers and employees. Outside balconies can become unstable. Decks and patios can begin to warp. And bulging walls, dipping ceilings, and sinking floors are unsightly. While termites are an often overlook commercial pest, they shouldn’t be. No business needs the added cost of termite damage on top of all the other costs of overhead.

Whether you own a home or a business, it is important to have termite protection you can trust. We think liquid termiticide is the way to go.

Liquid termite treatments for the win

For decades, liquid termite treatments have been the go-to solution for pest control companies, and this treatment method is still as viable as it ever was. In fact, Termidor® termiticide/insecticide, the product that the experts here at Arrow Pest Control trust to protect homes and businesses from termites, is the number-one termite control product in the United States, offering unparalleled control for subterranean termites. Let’s explore why Termidor works so well.

At its core, effective pest control relies on the science of entomology to combat the negative impact of insects such as the subterranean termite. When entomology and pest control work together, solutions are more intuitive and more targeted. Here are a few characteristics that researchers have discovered about subterranean termites and some facts about how Termidor uses this knowledge against those termites.

How liquid termite treatments use their foraging habits to eliminate these wood-destroying insects

Researchers know that termites are relentless. While ants will target a single food source, and organize a line to transport the food source back to their nests, worker termites never stop searching for food, even when food has been found. They are always tunneling and always searching. This relentless search for food will have these insects finding any hole in your pest control treatments–no matter how small. With this knowledge, methods have been developed to ensure that a complete barrier is established.

• A trench is created to make sure that the product is put deep into the soil all the way around the foundation perimeter, which does not allow for any gaps where termites can get through. Specialized formulas have been developed to increase permeation and ensure full protection. And pest control technicians use well-established methods to make sure the product goes from the bottom all the way to the top of the soil, so that termite workers can’t climb over the barrier to get to the wood of the home or business being treated. This is a complex process that is best done by a pest control technician who is certified in the application of Termidor. When done properly, trenching stops relentless termite workers that can come at your home business from any direction.
• The barrier around the property must be complete, so it is necessary to drill holes and inject the termiticide in proper intervals. Professionals use special techniques for drilling. They know how far to space the holes and how to cover holes when the treatment is done, leaving little or no visual indication that the drilling ever occurred. Together with trenching, a skirt of termite control product is established around the entire structure, keeping relentless termites from getting through. While it isn’t exactly like having a force field around your property, it is about as close as you can get to having one.

Liquid treatments use grooming habits to kill termites

Researchers know that termites are social insects that spend a great deal of their time grooming each other. It might seem surprising that an insect that lives its life underground would be concerned about staying clean, but it is true. Subterranean termites groom a lot. Termidor is designed to take advantage of this grooming behavior.

When termite workers pass through a Termidor liquid barrier, they don’t realize it. Termidor is undetectable to them. Those termite workers then share the insecticide with other workers in their colony, and the product works its way back to the nest.

Since Termidor doesn’t kill termites immediately, it can work its way all the way back to the queen. Termidor calls this the “transfer effect,” and it is what makes this product even more effective than traditional liquid termite insecticides. It also allows Termidor to compete on the same footing as newly developed bait systems that promise colony elimination. It is the best of both worlds: chemical and bait.

Termidor takes advantage of the way termites eat to destroy the colony

Researchers know that termite workers don’t carry food back to the colony. They share food with each other through a process called trophallaxis. When grooming causes the active agent in Termidor to get inside the gut of worker termites, it can be shared termite-to-termite, without being on the outside of the termites. This makes the “transfer effect” even more powerful and farther reaching.

Eliminate the queen for victory against termites

Researchers know that the termite queen is vital to the life of a termite colony. She controls everything. With chemical pheromones, she turns worker termites into soldiers and worker termites into male and female winged termites that leave the nest to create new nests. These chemicals are what she uses to direct every activity within her colony. If she is killed, she ceases to give these chemical instructions to her minions. This can lead to the death of the colony, if her death does not allow a new queen to arise in her place.

How does a new queen rise to power? The current queen produces a pheromone that inhibits the development of more queens within the colony–so there is no chance that her throne will be usurped and no chance of rivalries. But, when that queen dies, she stops producing this chemical inhibitor and one of the workers in the colony develops into a new queen, ready and capable of taking over the role of the old queen. Termidor takes this into consideration. It is slow acting, so it is able to spread through the entire colony, removing the potential for a new queen to emerge and take the place of the dead queen by destroying all of the workers in the colony.

Liquid termite treatments vs termite baiting

When it comes to stopping termites dead in their tracks, liquid treatments have some clear advantages over systems that use bait in bait stations to safeguard property from termite damage.

Termidor termiticide/insecticide is a complete barrier

A liquid barrier goes all the way around the property. And, when you are trying to prevent persistent and relentless termites from eating away at your equity, this is the only way to go. You don’t want to give these wood-destroying pests even the tiniest hole to get through. And you don’t want to give them time to find the bait in your bait stations before you start to protect your investment from their destructive presence.

Termidor termiticide/insecticide is fast

Termidor’s Transfer Effect works slow enough to get all the way to the queen, but faster than systems that use termite bait. With over eight years of test data, Termidor has shown that it can provide 100% control of termites in less than 3 months. But bait can take more than 6 months eliminate invading colonies. This is because many bait systems do not have active ingredients in their stations all the time. The stations act as termite monitors at first. When termites are detected, the technicians then change the lesser bait out and put the more powerful, termite colony elimination bait into the plastic ground receptacles.

Termidor is always active and always potent. When termites come to feed on your home or business, your termite defense will be working to stop them immediately–not in a few months when the technician comes for a routine visit and discovers that the bait in your stations has been fed on by subterranean termites (or is currently being fed on by subterranean termites).

Termidor termiticide/insecticide is eco-friendly

When bait/monitor systems are advertised, they often point to the fact that they are an eco-friendly option. While they are certainly eco-friendly, it is important to understand that a liquid barrier is not the opposite of eco-friendly.

The active ingredient in Termidor is Fipronil. This is the same active ingredient used to treat dogs and cats for fleas. In fact, the amount of Fipronil in products that are used to treat pets is greater than what is found in a Termidor termite application. In 100 gallons of diluted Termidor solution, only 8.4 ounces is the active ingredient.

Some other ways liquid treatments are misunderstood

You may have heard some companies boast that their treatments don’t require trenching and drilling, as though this process might be harmful to your property, but drilling and trenching is a procedure that has had decades of refinement. Your technician knows how to trench and drill in a way that is not only safe for your property but often invisible once the process is done.

Termidor termiticide/insecticide has been tested

When we say that Termidor termiticide/insecticide is 100% effective at killing termites 100% of the time in three months or less, you don’t have to take our word for it. This product has been stringently tested in the United States by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service and other trusted organizations, and it has passed with a perfect score on every test, even in harsh conditions and in difficult environments.

Termidor termiticide/insecticide has decades of success controlling termites all over the world. In Japan, during a 7-year study, it was proven to stop Formosan termites 100% of the time. In France, it was used to treat more than 20,000 homes over a period of 4 years without a single failure or callback. Test after test, Termidor has proven itself every time.

The danger of bait

When bait stations are used as monitoring stations, they act as recruitment centers. Worker termites take the bait and then go back to the colony to recruit other workers to come and feed on the bait. This takes time. And, while these stations are working to recruit termites and alert pest control technicians to the danger, other workers from the same colony may be feeding on the structure. After all, why would termites want to focus all of their efforts nibbling on tiny pieces of wood in a plastic station when they could be feeding on the wood of a home?

Another problem is that the recruitment bait actually does what it is supposed to do. What do we mean by this? Termites actually go and recruit other termites to come feed on the bait. This draws them in close to your home. If you have a pest control company that does not check those bait stations as often as they should, you’re going to have a termite “attraction” system, not a termite elimination system. And all of the termites that are drawn to your home will not focus on the bait. They will be feeding on your home as well. This can go on for months if technicians don’t catch the issue.

Targeted termite protection

Termidor is not only a powerful protective barrier for your foundation perimeter, it can be used to arrest termite infestations inside your walls as well. Your Certified Termidor installer is trained to recognize termite damage, termite signs, and conditions that promote subterranean termite infestations and target those areas with injections of pesticide. This application of Termidor achieves the same results as a barrier treatment. It coats worker termites and introduces the active ingredient Fipronil into the colony that has invaded your walls. When those workers groom each other or share food through the process of trophallaxis, they share the slow-acting poison. It then works its way through the ranks of the invading termite workers, all the way back to the colony and the queen. There is no better way of stopping termite damage in a home.

Arrow provides effective termite control in New Jersey

When it comes to stopping or preventing termite damage in Montclair, Clark, and Short Hills as well as throughout our multi-county service area, the experts here at Arrow Pest Control trust the number-one termite control product in the United States. Our technicians are certified Termidor installers with the experience and expertise to install a complete Termidor barrier around your property that will stop termites and eliminate invading colonies, no matter how many colonies are attacking.

Your Arrow Pest Control technician will also take care of maintaining your termite barrier and performing detailed annual inspections to monitor for the presence of termite signs or termite damage.

If you have Arrow Pest Control resolve a current termite infestation, your service comes with a one-year renewable warranty against re-infestation. When you renew your service, your warranty is also renewed. That means you’ll be assured of a greatly reduced chance of future termite damage, you’ll never have to pay a large price for retreatment, and you’ll have annual inspections from a trained and certified professional.

Arrow Premier

If you’re looking for a program that protects your home and family from common household pests PLUS termites and other wood-destroying insects, we recommend Arrow Premier. With this program, you get quarterly pest control and a wood-destroying insect program in one package! 

• Protects your home all year long.
• Consists of full interior and exterior inspections and treatments.
• Covers your entire property* including the attic, mailbox, play set, shed, and fence.
• Includes a certified termite inspection and ongoing termite control.

Pests targeted with Arrow’s Premier includes cockroaches, silverfish, spiders, earwigs, clover mites, millipedes, centipedes, crickets, ground beetles, boxelder bugs, ants (including carpenter ants, pharaoh ants and acrobatic), fleas (inside only), pillbugs, sow bugs, fruit flies, stored product pests, bees, wasps, hornets, carpenter bees (no higher than 10ft), mice, and rodents PLUS termites

*If you have a pool house that requires service, pricing would increase based upon the size of the structure.