JoeD wrote in message thlink.net...
I was wondering if the follwoing is generally true. Please remember I
live in the NYC area so I am assuming that there is only one type of
termite here.
The guy who is repairing the damage in my neighbor's house said, even if
an extermanitor treats the house by injecting chemicals around the
paremeter, any termite nest with a queen established above the ground
in the house will not be destroyed. The termites will continue to feed
moving up into the house until they have no more wood. He says that is
why they found a large number termites in the house even though that
house was treated some 2 years earlier..

When I asked several exterminators the same question, they said this
doesn't happen. The nest (this area) is always below the ground and that
the whole nest will be destroyed all the way up into the house.

The subterranean termites I deal with in Arizona are Reticulatermes.
They generally nest only below ground and have to return to the ground
for moisture. However - if there is a moisture source above ground
they can remain longer above ground. I've even seen mud tubes hanging
from a cieling.

If the moisture source is interrupted and/or stopped, the termites
will attempt to move back to the ground. If they cannot, they die.

There is an exception to every rule though. Formosan termites break
all the rules. They readily establish above-ground colonies in voids.
If the home is treated just with a perimeter barrier the Formosans
will live happily on and continue to destroy the structure.

I don't believe NY has any Formosans and neither does AZ (we had a
short bout with them when some timbers were shipped-in from Louisiana,
but they're gone now). Texas, Hawaii, Florida and California are the
real hot-spots for them. So he may have been talking about Formosan
termites.

Phantom and Premise are both non-repellant termiticides, which means
the termites pass readily through the poison, share it with the colony
and the whole colony is killed. Termidor may be in that group too
(can someone who knows if Termidor is repellant comment on it?)

Repellant termiticides don't work well because the termites will probe
continually in the soil until they find a tiny spot which isn't
treated and enter the home through that.

Hope that helps.