[Mrgreenharvest]

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

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.....

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!

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by hard rain

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.