How to Treat a Home on Piers for Subterranean Termites
The preferred method to treat a house that is on piers is to treat each individual pier as if it were its own foundation. That means, if you use BioAdvanced Termite Killer Granules, then you need to apply them around every pier, and on all ground surfaces under the building. Then, simply water them in. If you are trenching, then you would trench around each pier.
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If you are using BioAdvanced Termite Killer Granules, make sure that you use the ones that contain imidacloprid and not beta-cyfluthrin. Keep in mind that granules are not recommended for Formosan termites, Western subterranean termites, or drywood termites. Also, for the granules to work, the soil around your house must be porous enough. To find out if your soil is suitable for granules, just do a simple perk test. Find a bare spot of ground by the house and spray some water on it. If the water seeps into the ground quickly, then the granules should work well. If the water just kind of sits there, then you should consider trenching. Please watch my video on how to apply them correctly. The link is below.
If you are trenching, then please watch my video on how to do that correctly. The link is below.
Of course, the problem with many pier homes is that they were built so close to the ground in some places that you cannot get under there to treat some of the piers. When you run into that situation, then you need to treat around the piers that you can reach, and then you need to treat around the perimeter of the entire building as well. It is important to understand that subterranean termites colonize in the ground and never in your house. If you have a pier home, then that usually means you have dirt under it. Therefore, it is possible for the termites to colonize directly under the house. That is why we like to treat around each pier. Subterranean termites always return to the colony fairly often to obtain the moisture they need to survive and to feed the other termites in the colony. If you treat around each pier, then it doesn't matter if the colony is directly under the house or not, because they will need to encounter the termiticide on their way to and from the food source. If you cannot treat around one or more of the piers, then that may present the termites with an opportunity to make their way into your house by exploiting the fact that a particular pier, or piers, were not treated. So, the best you can do is treat the ones that you can treat and then treat around the perimeter as well, hoping that the colony is outside the footprint of the house.
If you can see a pier, but you cannot access it, you can shoot a pesticide onto the pier by using a hose-end sprayer. Please watch my video on how to use a 20-gallon hose-end sprayer. Place the sprayer in the stream mode by removing the diverter tip from the sprayer. This will allow you to reach areas about 10 to 15 feet away. I recommend that you treat the piers every 90 days with Taurus SC. This will not treat an existing infestation, but it will prevent new termites from taking that root of entry. While you're at it, it wouldn't hurt to spray the other piers as well, even if you treated them with granules or trenching.
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Video on how to use BioAdvanced Termite Killer Granules
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Video on how to trench for subterranean termites correctly