By Shirley Mozingo, At Home, June 10, 2006
In early May, a friend and resident of Southern
Shores saw some insects flying around inside her living room window
that she believed were termites. She quickly called the local office
of a national pest control company and a representative came out
the next day.
"He went under the house and said the termites
were coming up inside the cinderblock foundation. He said they would
have to come in and drill holes in the cinderblocks to inject an
insecticide and bury traps around the house," she recalled.
After signing an annual contract for termite treatment
to the tune of $1,342, she was telling a neighbor about the flying
termites when the neighbor said, “I’ll bet you don’t
have termites. You have flying ants.”
 “That
bothered me all night,” my friend admitted, “So the
next morning, I Googled ‘flying ants’ and there they
were – those little guys that had been flying around my window.
It was real obvious they weren’t termites.”
She called the pest control company and rescinded
the contract. The Federal Trade Commission’s Cooling-Off Rule
gives consumers three days to cancel purchases of $25 or more and
get a full refund if they buy an item in their home.
“Many times people get swarming ants diagnosed
as termites. That’s because most people who come out and do
termite inspections are also salesmen and they are on straight commission.
When you’re on straight commission, there can be a tendency
to be a little less than honorable sometimes when you’re getting
a percentage of a $1,000 contract,” said Robert Hancock, 57,
president of Outer Banks Pest Control.
Fraud has become so prevalent in the industry that
so-called “bug lawyers” – attorneys who only handle
lawsuits against pest control companies – are increasing throughout
the termite belt, which includes North Carolina and most of the
southern states.
Reported complaints include improperly applying
fungicide; performing “windshield” or “drive-by”
re-inspections for customers with annual contracts; submitting fraudulent
pest inspection reports; performing ineffective or illegal treatments;
billing for services not performed; falsifying records or reports;
and practicing misleading sales tactics, such as signing customers
up for monthly inspections but switching them to quarterly ones
with no reduction in cost or, as in my friend’s case, leading
her to believe that the insects she saw were termites.
“I love this industry. That’s why I’ve
been in it for almost 40 years, but it does lend itself to a lot
of unscrupulous people,” Hancock said.
Hancock has a degree in entomology and studied
insects for 10 years while working in the regulatory division of
the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture. He owned five pest control
companies in Oklahoma before retiring and moving to the Outer Banks,
where he opened a family run company six years ago.
One of the first lessons Hancock teaches his clients
is how to distinguish between swarming ants and termites.
Ants have elbowed antennae and a constricted midsection
(a “waist”) while termites have neither. If wings are
present, the front and back wings of ants will vary in shape and
size, while the front and back wings on termites are very similar
in shape and size.
This is the time of year that both kinds of insects
are swarming and, contrary to rumor, ants and termites can coexist,
said Tommy Jump, president of Four Seasons Pest Control.
This is the time of year that both kinds of insects
are swarming and, contrary to rumor, ants and termites can coexist,
said Tommy Jump, president of Four Seasons Pest Control.
“I’ve opened up bait systems and found
ants in the top and termites in the bottom. Ants will eat termites
if they come across one, but termites live off cellulose,”
he said. Termites survive by ingesting cellulose, which is found
in wood and wood products such as books, carpets, drywall, flooring,
paneling, canvas, cardboard and furniture.
The destruction they can cause is related to their
unique ability to convert the cellulose in wood and paper to sugar.
The do this with the special aid of protozoa and bacteria that live
in their digestive tracts.
It's been said that, if you live on the Outer Banks,
there are three types of termites: those you had, those you have
and those you will have.
In reality, there are more than 45 different species
of termites in the United States that fall into three major types:
the drywood, subterranean (also called ground termites) and Formosan.
In North Carolina, our main problem is with subterranean
termites, the little critters that normally live below ground before
tunneling into our homes. Pest control experts attribute 95 percent
of the annual damage done by termites in the United States to the
subterranean species.
To make a house less susceptible to wood-chewing
insects, foundations should be as impenetrable as possible and there
should be no direct contact between the soil and untreated wood.
“Laying wood debris or firewood beside the
house is a ‘no no.’ If you have any untreated wood next
to your house, that’s basically inviting termites in,”
said Jump. “You also don’t want sand building up against
the side of your house because that creates a bridge that termites
can cross to get in and avoid treated areas.”
Finding tunnel-like pathways on your foundation
may be evidence of infestation.
“Mud tunnels are the first things to look
for. You should have a qualified person come out and take a look
at that. Hopefully, it will be somebody honest who will tell you
what is going on under there,” said Jump, who recommends that
homeowners go into the crawl space with him so he can show them
evidence of infestation.
Other indications that a house may have termites
include sagging or spongy floors; cracking paint; moisture problems;
soft wood that’s easily penetrated with a knife; loose plaster;
jammed doors or windows; wood that sounds hollow when tapped with
the handle of a screwdriver; and a thin, gritty gray-brown film
on the surface of damaged material.
Once termite infestation is confirmed, it’s
best to get at least three estimates and then evaluate what each
company is offering in terms of both the treatment and a guarantee.
You should not feel pressured into making a quick decision.
“If you suspect you have termites, don’t
panic,” said Fawn Pattinson, executive director of the Agricultural
Resources Center Pesticide Education Project, a nonprofit consumer
advocate group based in Raleigh that works to prevent human and
environmental exposure to toxic pesticides.
“There’s a misconception that, if there
are termites at your house, they’ll destroy it instantaneously.
“So, people often make decisions before they
get all the information. You do have time to gather all your options
and make an informed decision.”
Termites eat about a foot to a foot and a half
of a 2-by-4 a year, Hancock said. “That’s not much wood
when you talk about the overall structural integrity of a house,”
he said.
The best treatment depends upon the house, its
location, the extent of infestation and your budget, the experts
say.
“You ask yourself, ‘How old is the
house? Where are the termites coming up? Why are they coming up
in that spot?’” Hancock said
Treatments may include a partial or whole-house
application of a termiticide, wall injections, foam treatments or
bait stations.
Hancock prefers treating a house with Termidor,
a liquid that is applied to the home’s foundation walls and
creates a continuous treatment zone that is guaranteed for 10 years.
If a house shows no signs of infestation, Hancock
recommends no treatment “unless the people will worry themselves
to death about termites. Then I tell them to get on a program,”
he said.
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