Arkansas is known as the Natural State for its beautiful vistas, plethora of state parks, and as an agricultural hub. Unfortunately, all this nature comes at a cost. The same moist soil from which all this life springs makes us a hotbed for subterranean termites. The good news is that pest control agencies have been battling termites for decades, and we’re quite capable of keeping these silent destroyers far from home. For homeowners in Northwest Arkansas looking to protect their home from termites, there are a few options on the market. Most companies will choose either a termite spray or termite bait stations. At Natural State Pest Control, we use Sentricon termite bait stations to provide 24/7 termite protection for a few reasons. Firstly, the ease of install, the proven track record of the product, and the superior protection the Sentricon system provides.
Traditional termite sprays require a trench to be dug around the perimeter of the home, which disturbs the soil and any landscaping around your home. Worse still, that same trench will need to be dug again each time the home is treated. One of the many reasons we prefer Sentricon to traditional termite sprays is that a Sentricon installation bypasses this step, causing only a minimal disturbance to your lawn while keeping your curb appeal intact. Rather than digging a long hole around the entire perimeter of your home, Sentricon only requires us to dig a foot or so deep every 6-8 feet. The stations are installed flush with the ground and are green in color so that they blend into your lawn without drawing attention to themselves.
More important than the system’s aesthetic qualities, though, is its effectiveness. The Sentricon bait system was introduced in 1995, and 30 years later, it’s still on the market. The product is virtually unchanged from its original design because there’s not much to improve upon. The stations contain a bait that termites prefer to wood 10:1, as evidenced by this independent experiment. Once the termites find the product, worker termites take it back to the colony and feed it to the other types of termites, including the queen. Once ingested, the product prevents termites from molting. Since termites must molt multiple times a year, one can assume a colony that’s come into contact with the product will be eliminated within a few weeks. (For insects that move as slowly as termites, that’s actually pretty quick!) Another wonderful thing about the stations is that they’re only toxic to termites, which means that the other insects that are important for maintaining your soil, like worms and pillbugs, are unaffected by their presence. Most chemical sprays will be toxic to a broad range of insects, meaning that the environmental impact of the treatment is much greater.
Once the Sentricon stations are in the ground, the home is being protected 24/7. To maintain the stations, we schedule a maintenance check once a year. During that service, the termite technician will use a scanner and the graph of the stations around your home to locate the stations and check the bait inside. They’re looking for termite activity, and ensuring there’s adequate bait in the station to sate any foraging termite. In fact, our technicians often find termite activity on stations even around homes that haven’t reported any termite issues. This is because termites will forage for food at distances nearing the length of a football field! The beauty of the system is that it prevents the termites from ever making it to your home in the first place by providing a barrier of prevention that eliminates the colony, regardless of the environment in which they’re placed. In areas like ours with rocky soil, ensuring that there’s a perfect seal around the exterior of the home is tricky business, which is another reason we stopped using them– it’s harder to guarantee protection. For companies that still use them, the hope is termites will come into contact with the spray and end up taking it back to the colony with them. Unfortunately, because the termite may die before he makes it back to their den, that’s difficult to guarantee. With the delayed effect of the product in Sentricon stations, there’s a very good chance termites will bring the product back to the colony before the time for their next molt. Some pest control agencies argue that an eliminated termite is an eliminated termite, no matter how it happens. But we disagree– taking out the entire colony is the surest way to protect the home.
At the end of the day, termite protection comes down to “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” You don’t want to solve a termite problem once they’ve eaten their way into your floorboards through your crawlspace, you don’t want them to make it to your home at all. While sprays can provide temporary protection for your home, their unsure results and environmental drawbacks make them an inferior choice to bait stations. Sentricon termite bait stations provide long-term, low-impact protection that the team at Natural State stands behind. For questions about termite inspections or to receive a quote for your home, reach out to us at 479-927-6350.