Termites

[Spurious]

This is my first post in this forum, even though I've 'lurked' around for a while.

 

Has anyone had trouble with termites eating roots, and the inside of the main stem before ?

And if you've had this trouble, what measures have you found effective in combating them ? Both as an after-measure, and preventative.

 

Thanks, Spur

 

http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/taplab/images/termite.jpg

[Ozzy420]

termites, i have never heard of termites muching out on mj before, i dont know anything about that but some of the other growers mite know something about it and will be able to help u out

[Spurious]

I might just add that growing out in the scrub of WA, the termites are ferocious. Edited October 21, 2003 by Spurious

[pipeman]

hey there Spurious, welcome to Oz Stoners. Nice avatar too

 

Sorry can't help you with the termite problem. I would try applying termite poison myself. The idea is the poisoned dead termites are carried back to the Queen for food, she dies then the nest is gone. I don't know though, the poison could mess with your plant as well.

[Spurious]

Yeah, when the forest ground starts to dry out during the course of a summer, the termites gravitate towards anything with a bit of moisture. ie lush plants.

 

I haven't grown for a while, but I used to use chlorpyrifos as a barrier deterrent. Pretty nasty stuff, but it was the only way not to roll up and see your tufting six footers lying on the ground with no roots! Heartbreaking.

 

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that I may be able to use watered-down 'Confidor 200SC'. From what I've researched, pestcontrollers are starting to use it around structures.

[Luke Skywalker]

Damn man, that's a nasty pest to have to deal with... I had a termite problem when they decided that the roots on my hydroponic tomatoes were a good feed... They came up thru the ground and the bricks, found the wooden crates, and burrowed through the planks, then used the area where the wood and foam (yes, polystyrene, the broccoli boxes you can buy at supermarkets as cheap eskies, great way to get cheap hydro pots together) joined to burrow straight thru and munch on the roots... Needless to say really, the plants, crate and box were ruined, I had absolutely no idea that they could go through polystyrene... but I guess they can.

 

To get rid of them I found the only thing to do was remove the crates, and pots which were infested, and use an ant/temite insect foam injected directly into the exit hole from the bricks... The whole surfaces surrounding were also sprayed... After a few days, just to be sure, I poured boiling water down into the bricks all over to kill any of the remaining population.

 

Termites are vicious little bastards, and will go through almost anything to get to what they want... You considered using pots and raising them on bricks? They might have a bit of trouble with that... You could also consider some of the insecticides you mentioned, but then you lose the organic nature of the outdoor grow. Be very careful with any insecticide that you use, as it will likely be drawn up into the plant, and then end up in you. Make sure you don't use anything systemic, as IMO it's possibly the worst thing to use on a food or smoking crop as a preventative measure...

 

I think you can make baits, to draw the termites away, but other than that I don't know much about termite protection outdoors.... Can you give us some more specific information as to your area, aspect, local vegetation and plantlife and soil type? It may help us to help ya a little better... anyway, hope that little speil helps, in all likelihood it didn't, but I thought I might chime in anyway...

 

I remember seeing 10-12 foot high termite mounds all over the countriside where I grew up.... looked kinda pretty... although a little ominous at dusk...