Termites and preventing the little bastards!

[Mrgreenharvest]

Ok so this summer I should be able to get a nice outdoor grow going, and the plan is to make a nice big organic mix and dig some holes..problem I've found here on the westside is termites in the ground, seen too many cases of them doing damage..

any one know a way around this? cheers.

 

[Squiggles]

there is an ant poison available that works on termites i thinks its called antrid
past it around the entrances works a treat alternatly id get it proffesinally sprayed
let it fallow for a few months and then get your grow area orginised
just my thoughts on the matter mate
i dont know of any non toxic termite alternatives

 

[Mrgreenharvest]

cheers for the reply mate! sadly it probably won't be that easy, the old lady has just bought some land up in the hills and i've offered to go up and get her sorted with a few outdoor plants come summer, i was just going to make an organic mix and let her hand water it, ph and nutes probably won't be on her want list, i was hoping for something organic friendly that kills them off..i use to have an organic spider mite powder that seemed to work great on those buggers..maybe i need to go find me some termites and try it out..

 

[High Country]

I thought termites only ate dead or rotting material. I live in a high risk termite area and my house is protected though occasionally they have a go. I have never seen termites attack any of the trees or shrubs in my garden. If the plants are healthy they should be OK.

 

[Mrgreenharvest]

ah well there ya go, cheers for that HC!

 

[Butte_Creek]

I thought termites only ate dead or rotting material. I live in a high risk termite area and my house is protected though occasionally they have a go. I have never seen termites attack any of the trees or shrubs in my garden. If the plants are healthy they should be OK.

Absolutely incorrect.

I've seen and heard of termites eating up into a live healthy marijuana plant, doing significant damage. I live in California, but doubt the termites over here are any different. Predatory nematodes will kill them from experience, also heard about pelletized neem keeping them away.

 

[FlaDankster]

Boric acid

 

[Mrgreenharvest]

yeah i've seen them starting off at the bottom in the root base, can't say i've seen a really bad case where they've eaten up into a plant before, but this is what i'm trying to avoid, i will only be going up to check every weekend or second weekend, and that could be enough time to do damage i think..

Boric acid..sounds interesting, tried this from experience FlaDankster? also great job on your recent LUI13 harvest (i think it was you) quite nice stuff, friend of mine harvested one a little back.

i was thinking about neem too, because of the effect it seems to have on other mites, any one tried this?

 

[FlaDankster]

Boric acid..sounds interesting, tried this from experience FlaDankster? also great job on your recent LUI13 harvest (i think it was you) quite nice stuff, friend of mine harvested one a little back.

i was thinking about neem too, because of the effect it seems to have on other mites, any one tried this?

I have not....and thankful about it!

But have read on it some."May" also benefit plants too.Lots online about it's use as termite control.Don't know about the neem oil.

And thanks....second round is in and lookin nice too.

 

[BUNDY & COKE]

G'Day mate, we had a few probs with termites some years back and we used Red Cedar Chips in our holes, seemed to work fine. The little fucka's don't like it one bit. Hope this helps you out mate.

BUNDY......

 

[Mrgreenharvest]

cheers for that, any idea where to get those chips? bunnings perhaps?

 

[luvaduck]

An old logger told me once he would get piles of newspapers about a foot thick, weighed down with stones, and put these around the place. The termites love the easy feed and once they have moved in, the paper bales were tossed in the fire, ants and all. I guess it's true.....

 

[wilbur]

you can buy ant spray at rural supply outlets ... but not in city areas because it's considered too dangerous. however, the powers that be reckon on the farm is ok so if you go to a rural town to buy it you should be right.

spray a perimeter around each of yr plants. the stuff biodegrades within twelve months.

cheers!

 

[greenmatter]

never used boric acid on termites but it works great on ants. i know they use it as an organic bug control all the time here. 20 MULR TEAM/BORAX laundry booster costs about $4 for a box. water that stuff into an ant hill and they leave (or die..... hard to tell which)

 

[rexamus616]

The dreaded WHITE ANTS!

I've lost plants to them before, and now they are back!


One day, the plant looks ok, the next day, its totally wilted and comes out of the ground with only an inch or so of root, eaten off into a point like a fucking beaver or something did it.

Dug into the ground to find termites everywhere!! And when i broke open the stem, it was full of them!!!


Heres my tips to get rid of them: (and at the end of the season, we will see how it worked!)

- Don't use wood in your planting mix (eg. sawdust/pinebark/woodchips) <--Unless you use 'Red Cedar' chips or 'Australian Cypress' chips.

- Make sure any manure you use is composted (turned completely into humus) <--I was lazy and used some uncomposted cow manure, the termites are feeding on the little fibres of grass in the manure!....

- Tilling (digging) the soil around the plant to disrupt any tunnels they may have made into the moist soil around your plant. (They are attracted to moisture so you may have more problems in a dry year - when the area around your plant is the only source of moisture for them)

- As mentioned above - 'Ant-rid' powder, or borax (be careful as it is a trace element and toxic to most life in high doses), or Pyrethrum or 'Permethrin' poisons also.


But these only treat the termites you can see around the place. To really get rid of them, you must destroy the nest/colony/mound. (since they can travel upto 100m from the nest to feed)

Also, there are many different species of termites in Aust. And they all feed differently...

 

[luvaduck]

Try diatomaceous earth fines. Google it. Ive been using it in the chook pen for mites and the termites eating the pen. Has worked rather well.

 

[nimbin1]

hi all. on the east coast of oz we also suffer white ants....and they suck. you spend all year lugging buckets of water and digging massive holes, than just as she starts to flower and the stems go woody in come the termites. that's after you have battled roos,rabbits,possums, theifs and pork choppers . this year i found a product at big w called confidor in a tablet form. you put them in the soil, they are taken into the plant via the roots and viola no more termites. well that's the plan anyway. for the theifs ,while the plant stems are still green and soft just insert three double edged razor blades in a sorta. triangle pattern into the stem. all's fair in love and war.hope you sort your termites problem.
the plant grows they are barely visable . easy to see who has been ripping your plants, the are the ones with bandages on their hands, recovering from micro surgery that was used to re attach their tendons.all

 

[nimbin1]

sorry about msg being muddled up,having trouble with the " smart" phone and not sure how to edit posts . its always adding words and moving things.really over technology.nimbin1.

 

[hard rain]

hi all. on the east coast of oz we also suffer white ants....and they suck. you spend all year lugging buckets of water and digging massive holes, than just as she starts to flower and the stems go woody in come the termites. that's after you have battled roos,rabbits,possums, theifs and pork choppers . this year i found a product at big w called confidor in a tablet form. you put them in the soil, they are taken into the plant via the roots and viola no more termites. well that's the plan anyway. for the theifs ,while the plant stems are still green and soft just insert three double edged razor blades in a sorta. triangle pattern into the stem. all's fair in love and war.hope you sort your termites problem.
the plant grows they are barely visable . easy to see who has been ripping your plants, the are the ones with bandages on their hands, recovering from micro surgery that was used to re attach their tendons.all

Anyone trying Confidor (the spray anyway) just be aware that it has a witholding period which means theating/smoking for a period of time after you use it. I am not sure how that works with the tablet form?

As much as I hate rippers, that's a pretty nasty trick with the razor blades.

 

[4tokin]

As much as I hate rippers, that's a pretty nasty trick with the razor blades.

As fucked up as it is, only a fool goes back for seconds.
I left the blood stained handprints on my fence as warning to others.