Termites and Termite Protection

This is a post that I may add to (and clarify / correct) as I learn more.

Termites matter.  I think everyone I know knows someone whose house has been attacked by termites and the results have never been good.  So laying down termite protection when you are building is a very important step and one that builders should never skip over.

And because nearly all new houses these days are built out of timber, a termite attack is an attack on the structural integrity of the house itself.

What Are Termites?

Termites Attack! (not actual size, thankfully)

Termites (in Australia they are also called white-ants) are little insects that live in big underground nests.  They dig their way underground in tunnels in search of their favourite food - cellulose.  What is cellulose?  It is the primary ingredient in wood and the stuff that actually makes wood strong.  Termites live on cellulose and will travel a long way from their nest to find it.  They are a bit like ants in this regard for scavenging.   However, there is one big difference - termites hate sunlight and they hate being dry, so they never travel above ground.  All of their travels back and forth between their nest and a food source are underground and this is what makes them hard to detect if they start to attack your home.


Termite Protections used by Builders

If your house is build on a concrete slab, then the slab itself is a pretty good termite deterrent, given that it is very big and rather hard to chew through.  But the wily little critters are resourceful and persistent, so builders use special "treatments" on concrete slab homes to prevent termites from attacking by killing them.

People in the building industry refer to termite treatments as being "Part A" and "Part B".  Put simply, "Part A" treatments are put in place before the slab is laid, to prevent termites from coming up from underneath.  "Part B" treatments are put in place after the slab is laid and are intended to prevent termites from scaling the walls of the concrete slab.

What is a Part A Termite Treatment?

"Part A" treatments create a barrier beneath the slab, and can be either a physical or chemical barrier.  A physical barrier is typically a mesh of some kind, that termites can neither crawl nor bite through.  A chemical barrier is a spray (typically an insecticide) that is applied prior to laying the damp-proofing (the thick black plastic), prior to laying the concrete slab.

What is a Part B Termite Treatment?

"Part B" treatments are basically the same two options, these being physical mesh barriers or chemical barriers.  I have conflicting research that seems to suggest that chemical sprays used for Part B Termite treatments are only useful as long as the soil in which they are applied is not disturbed

Some of the physical barriers are designed to force termites to burrow up the outside of the wall of your house in search of timber to munch on.  They cannot do this exposed, and instead they will lay down small brown dirt tunnels on the outside wall of the house, in which they can scamper up and down.  These are easily spotted and will (hopefully) give you early warning of a impending termite attack.

Real Termite Protection

But this really brings home the point about termite protection when building a house - it is not really part of the construction process, but is a measure to protect against future damage to your home.

In reality, the best way to protect against termites is frequent inspections of your house perimeter and nearby trees to look for termite damage that might indicate there is a nest nearby.  I won't write about that here, but for those interested, there is a good site at the CSIRO that provides useful information on preventative measures termite protection.

http://www.csiro.au/en/Outcomes/Safeguarding-Australia/Termites.aspx