After Woolwich once again declared war on termites in the township with the launch of a new program last year, the latest battlefront is garden waste – encouraging residents in areas with termites to clean up the kind of debris that can attract the insects.
To that end, the community dumped trash cans last month for residents to fill, said site manager Dave Heuchert.
“There were five garbage cans in Elmira, one garbage can in Winterbourne, and they were open to the public to dispose of garden debris or termite-infested wood,” he said. “It was a great weekend in the sense that there was a lot of participation.”
It’s easier to kill termites outside before they infest homes and better for homeowners too, he said. When they’re in, the township’s program goes to fight them.
Once discovered, exterminators use sprays in termite-made ways called tubes and set traps outside to further kill the population.
“Every active termite tube that is found in the house gets a borate spray on the tube that acts as a bait and kills these active termites,” explains Heuchert. “The traps outside the home are designed to gradually deplete the population over time. The cleaning of the stump habitat removes termite nesting sites, and the properties of the red zone preserve nematode treatments that allow further suppression of the basic biological population. “
There are currently 125 properties in a red or blue zone. Red zones are properties with active termites or near properties with active infestation. Blue zones are a peripheral border area that is closely monitored. Most of the activity takes place in one section of Elmira, with one spot in Winterbourne.
Termite problems were first noted in Elmira in the early 1980s, with 31 homes infected at the same time. This “termite area” resulted in a 1981 charter that gave community workers the authority to inspect properties that had termite problems and order the removal of wood and infested material while overseeing the remediation work. Since the statute was tied to a state grant, it was finally repealed when the funds were cut in the 1990s.
Since then, all termite programs have been put on hold. However, last year Woolwich took steps to resume its war on the termites by establishing a new control program and statute in effect.
“Our hope is [that] We’re seeing a significant drop in population, ”Heuchert said of the latest iteration of the battle.
The impact termites can have on a home can be devastating. Protecting residents’ homes may be at the forefront of the program, but Heuchert explains that if not controlled, the termite population will grow.
“You can certainly damage parts of the house. The other big problem is how they migrate, ”said Heuchert. “If the program hadn’t been implemented and you came back in another 15, 20 years and re-examined these areas, I think you would find that the area has expanded. So there is really a way to stop this migration so that it doesn’t affect other sections of the settlement. “
While complete eradication of the termite population in Elmira may not be feasible, Heuchert notes that similar programs have been running in neighboring regions to great effect.
“The same program has been carried out with great success in Kitchener and Guelph. So we hope that we won’t see any more termites, ”said Heuchert. “The expectation and based on the track record is that the population will basically be gone.”
