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Home Homeowner's Guide Baiting Systems



Baiting systems Baiting systems
Termite fast food

Growing in popularity in the battle against ground termites is the use of baits. A number of baiting systems are available. You may have heard of Exterra, FirstLine, or Sentricon.


Advantages

  • Very little insecticide is needed.
  • Only a small proportion of a foraging termite population is required to contact the bait.
  • Regular monitoring increases chances of catching infestations before they get out of hand.

 

Disadvantages

  • For in-ground systems, it may take a while for termites locate the baiting devices.
  • Control is not necessarily instantaneous.
  • Added labor and maintenance costs are considerations.

 

How do baits work?

The survival of a termite colony depends on its ability to find food. The workers of the colony forage for food and share it with all the other termites in the colony, including the queen. Termite baits take advantage of this behavior.

Baits have two components:

1. A delicious cellulose matrix

2. A slow-acting poison

Termites consume the bait and distribute it throughout the colony. Since the poison is slow-acting, the termites have ample time to spread the bait. They also do not associate death with the bait--to them, it's just another food source.

A bait does not necessarily destroy the termite colony. Ultimately, all a bait can be expected to do is suppress the termite population to a level where termite activity is no longer detectable.

How Sentricon(TM) works

The Sentricon bait system has been thoroughly tested by the University of Hawaii Termite Project. Click here for a look at how Sentricon works.



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DISCLAIMER: Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of the product by the University of Hawaii, the College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources (CTAHR), the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences (PEPS), the Cooperative Extension Service, or the UH Termite Project, to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.