lesley street

Hi!
We have just begun my skills assessement application through Go Matilda (if Royal Mail ever deliver the forms) and hope to settle in Adelaide.

Just viewed a rather worrying web site that sayes termites can devour the wood in your house in three months!!. Wondered if anyone living in Adelaide could let us know how big a problem they really are. Are most of the houses constructed with wooden frames or are they brick built? The site said :scared that you cannot insure against damage. Is that so?

Very many thanks

Lesley

Grayling

Don't know how widespread the problem is but my son has a house in Norwood. There is termite damage to the woodwork at the rear of the house which needs to be repaired. It is just seen as an everyday house maintenance problem and is common in some areas.

Every city has it's problems ie. Cockroaches in several or Fire ants in Brisbane.

Have to get used to it I'm afraid.

Good luck

G

Sandra

Termites are all over Aus to some degree and you need to have a reputable survey done before you buy a house otherwise you can get a real lemon!

Once the house is bought the termite problems have to be look at annually or as recommended by your survey. There are excellent but expensive baiting systems with three monthly checks for activity and less expensive poisioning or barrier options which are supposed to last a year.

We bought a house with a prior termite infestation and we had a fully invasive house report done before proceeding - included cutting holes in the walls etc to check. You should be happy and comfortable with the people who are conducting the survey and they work for you - not the agent or anyone connected with the house sale.

Insurance can be dependant on your insurerer and the type of protection you get for your house. Basically like most things - spend enough money and most things can be got! So if you get three monthly checks on your house with a reputable company - then although it is costing you - you are going to find out about any real problems before them become too big or expensive - like insurance ?

Do not panic about termites - just be sensible and find out more so you are aware before you buy. And stating the obvious - check out loads of local advice and companies and not plump for the one charging most with the biggest scare stories.

Good Luck - do not worry!

Cheers

only edited for typo they vs then! The rest is all me!

Wol

We had a house in Florida until March: there are something like 150 termite colonies per acre, reputedly!

The EPA in the States stopped the use of the effective oil-based termite killer, which is put underground before the house is built, a few years ago because of the effect on the ground water table.

Dow chemicals provide a system called Sentricon in the US. It's quite clever: termites will not eat poison so a series of little holed tubes are sunk around the house containing 6" softwood pieces. Every month they are monitored: each has a unique barcode which is read by a handheld scanner. The beauty is that Dow automatically keep tabs on the monitoring by the local franchise, and is a tube is missed HQ come down on them and they can lose the franchise.

If - when - termite infestation is found, the live termites are decanted into another replacement tube which is made of poison and doesn't have holes. The only way the little buggers can get out and back to the colony is by eating it, so as a last resort they do eat it.

Apparently they then secrete a pheremone which says "that stuff is OK to eat" - and the rest of the colony descend on the bait and consume it, take it back to the queen and the colony dies.

It's a pretty involved process but apparently you have to do something like this otherwise you don't get to the heart of the colony and killing a few million bugs AT the house doesn't do anything about the zillions down the tunnels.

That's what Dow say, anyway!

NickyC

Yup - you get termites (or white ants) everywhere. We've had them in our house in Sydney. Our kitchen floor must have been particularly delicious because they managed to do quite a bit of damage before we noticed. What was a flashy jarrah-looking wood floor is now plain old cypress pine (cos the termites don't like cypress pine).

Cost a bloody fortune to get it fixed - treatment was about $2000 and involved cutting traps in the floors of most rooms so the soil under house could be treated, plus they drilled zillions of little holes all around the outside and injected god-knows-what. New floor cost another few grand. An expensive exersize.... We're a bit more vigilant now

Trevglas

Its not just termites you need to worry about. My bro-in law in Canberra is in a constant battle to stop cockatoos eating his wooden house and decking.

lesley street

Thanks to all for your thoughts and advice!