# Termites in hardwood floor



## SoCal Homeowner (Jul 15, 2008)

I have trails of termite holes in my recycled hickory hardwood floors. The floors are glued and nailed onto 3/4 plywood. There is also heavy paper taped at seams between the hardwood and the plywood. The plywood sits ontop of mastic and is nailed into the slab.

The house is a concrete block house with metal windows. There is a metal shim strip (1") and then drywall over the block on the inside. Should I expect the termites to crawl up and infest the roof?

I am not sure how to go about treating the infestation. I am extremely handy and would like to do this myself if at all possible.

I thought about getting the appropriate insecticide and putting it at the edges of the floor (pull up the trim along the walls). Also, about drill small holes into the floor and injecting a pesticide and then patching and restaining.

I am not sure what products would be most appropriate and how toxic they would be. Any recommendations you can make would be appreciated.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com

:thumbsup:


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## SoCal Homeowner (Jul 15, 2008)

*Reply to Post*

This website looks interesting, but it appears to be focused on termites under the home. My termites are in the home - under the hardwood floor.

Anyone have any suggestions for termite treatment under a hardwood floor?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

http://www.utoronto.ca/forest/termite/termite.htm

The "trap, treat and release" method can be used anywhere. It exploits the fact that termites instinctively groom each other.

Basically, the procedure is to build a simple termite trap out of cardboard and set it where the termites are likely to find it. You then collect the termites and treat them with a slow acting insecticide. You then put the termites back into a new cardboard trap and put that trap back into it's original location. The termites that return to their nest to tell the other termites where to find cardboard (mmmm, yummy!) will be groomed by the other termites who will lick the slow acting poison off their bodies. So, for every treated termite returning to the nest, you'll kill hundreds of untreated termites.

You simply keep doing this until the termite count in your trap drops to zero and stays there.

The good thing about this method is that it doesn't rely on chemicals which whose effectiveness diminishes with time. It relies on the instinct in termites to groom one another, and instinct is not something that weakens in time.

The person who developed this method, Dr. Tim Myles of the University of Toronto Urban Entymology Program cannot patent the method because it was developed through his work at the University of Toronto, so the rights to using the method belong to the University of Toronto. And, since they are owned by the Province of Ontario, who are funded by the taxpayers of Ontario, the right to this information belongs to the citizens of Ontario. So, the Ontario government is giving the information away free to anyone who wants to rid their property of termites. It's an extremely simple procedure, and the City of Toronto is using this new method to rid entire neighborhoods of termites.

The people at the web site posted above will answer all your questions. They won't care if you live in Ontario or not.

I learned about this new method on the Canadian Discovery Channel. It's inexpensive, easy to do, and very effective at eliminating termite colonies.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

SoCal. Are you seeing any visible critters? You make mention of trails but no mention of seeing Termites. Is there any poo?


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