Does anyone know how effective and how much it is ?

There are no termites but as a future prevention, will it be good to have it done..

or there is nothing to worry about, as the chances are slim..

they offered a warranty of years, 5 yrs depending on material quality. but its a good prevention. do do it before move in as it will smell if they do it indoor. they will need to drill holes on the perimeter of the house and put in the material.

i have good experience with stopest (even though they struck my waterpipe) - if you want i can pass a contact to you.

I think, the treatment is not a one time treatment.. every few years, you need to call them up again (if you want to) to redo the treatment..

yes. they pumped bayer agenda around my house. warranty 5 yrs + annual inspection included. then after 5 yrs pump again. i read this agenda is pretty damn efficient - esp. when compared to regular spray.

How the cost roughly for 2-stry house?

dun believe in those short term pest controls! it is waste of $. the chemicals will gone when flushed/leached by underground water. oso the chemicals will also discomposed by itself after short period of time. it doesnt help at all if got termite. u r lucky coz yr hse are thermite free.
the best prevention is to make sure all wood are pretreated with chemicals before end uses eg furniture, frame, doors etc. chemicals impregnated/implanted with high pressure, the chemicals will go inside the wood cell not surface only. if oni surface it will discomposed by air, heat etc. today most of the sawn timbers (solid wood) are chemicals treated. but some of them cheating with lesser dosage, low pressure, shorted treatment time. standard is 6kg chemicals per m3 pressured in 2 hrs, the deeper the better eg 5cm so that the nails or holes/cracks do not lead termites into wood. if they treat properly the wood can last more than 100 years even placed at outdoor. pls take note today most of the engineering wood (non solid wood) eg chip board, fibre board, MDF, HDF etc are not treated (to save $ for competition). most of them use in furniture, flooring. maybe they purposely not treated and want u to replace every few years?? if they make it very lasting, they can close shop already..maybe they want to keep changing design/ fashion?? it is unlike solid wood used in non fashionable end use eg roof truss, door/window frame, solid doors, solid wood flooring mostly can last more than 50 years (coz they oso cheat some). p/s: i am in wood chemicals line. pls pm me if u want to know more about wood treatment.

it's true that they have to drill & pump chemical every few years.. thats why i run a set of pipes before i laid my tiles

pls take note that termites can migrate from your neibour houses thru roof trusses. so it is best if you can spray chemicals on the roof truss every 3-5 years. (short term protection) The more concentrate the better, the shop sell from 20% to 45% w/w. This is neccessary as most of the timber truss is not well chemicals treated. (cheated by saw mills)
pls dun spray the same chemicals on furniture, cupboard, cabinets and doors as it is very toxic to human.

drill and pump chemicals - dun believe this! it wont last long due to msia hot and wet wheather.

where can buy this chemical and how to apply?

actually i am pretty confident that drill and pump will work well. but not if your house is attached to untreated houses of course. you need to be able to create a perimeter ring around your property for it to work well. so it's bungalows only i guess.

bayer agenda is not or hardly water soluble so it will remain in the soil for a long long time. it's not immediate poison but will make the termites carry their deathsentence into the colony. this stuff is pretty convincing. i stay in a previous rubber plantation - so far so good. neighbour who just sprays got the roof eaten by a colony before. so have to spray and inspect every 3 months. the bayer agenda is warranted no termites for 5 yrs and all inclusive. more expensive initially but cheaper in the long run.

u can go to any hardware shop to buy the chemicals. I forgotten the name.
pls go to traditional hardware to buy as it is illegal to sell insecticide without licences (storing and selling), most of the traditional hardware shops sell secretly. hope u dun report to police ok? kasi orang cari makan lah coz to apply few licences (annually) need lot of $ and the profit not justified coz not many ppl buy.

buy a good spray with the pressure pump type. (plastic or metal)

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Added on March 1, 2011, 6:20 pmmost insecticides/pesticides are water soluble.. if u ask the pest control co ofcoz they said no la. u can ask them to test immediately.. even it is solvent type, u need a very strong solvent and the smell is terrible. (some ppl mistaken the smell is coz by the chemicals)



This post has been edited by lucerne: Mar 1 2011, 06:20 PM

Do you think tat staying at a condo also have termite risk?

yes. if the surrounding hv termite risks eg forest with die trees. usually engineering wood (eg HDF, MDF, chip/ fibre board, plywood etc) will infested first eg cabinets, non solid wood flooring eg laminated floors etc

all the above are not pre- treated (to save cost or they purposely want u to change more often)

termite will then move to solid wood furnitures especially those not well or partially treated (cheating to save cost)

rubber wood usually is quite well treated becos the treatment is cheap (boric acid and borax is very low cost), they dun mind to treat fully.

but if u buy rubber wood furniture from IKEA then it is not treated at all. IKEA want it to be green or chemicals free. so if u like rubber wood, pls buy from normal furniture shops.

low cost boric and borax can not penetrate into harder wood eg kempas, nyatoh etc so the treatment are more expensive. But most of Msia wood processors are cheating. (our regulatory bodies eg MTB, MTIB etc do not enforced, all are sleeping).

US, Europe, Aus/NZ, Singapore etc are fully enforced, their regulatory dept certified full treatment even for engineering woods.

lucerne,

i did my homework - you might want to read about agenda:

http://escience.bayercropscience.my/bcsweb...MY_Agenda_25_EC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipronil

i dun believe in drill in pump method as the chemicals will wash away by water eventually and affect the ecology. even u pour oil under the ground u wont see again after few months.

Fipronil - not sure if it is easy available and cost but i recommend the common available chlorpyrifos. u can get it from any hardware shops. it is very cheap. buy the more concentrate one eg 40% w/w to have more value. can add more water. if too dilute eg 20% w/w can not add too much water.
i still prefer to spray chemicals on wood/furniture and then coat /paint on top (eg wood laquer) to avoid possible toxication (by touching). This is more effective. ofcoz this need more work (spray job) than just drill and pump. but i think drill is waste of $. pls remember to wear mask (good one) during spraying.

hmm fipronil can also be used to paint the wood not a problem (extremely efficient). and since its not easily washed away at all lacing the soil is extremely efficiend (unlike the normal drill jobs i take it). its non toxic to humans and pets so added plus - i found this stuff very convincing. we also painted the beams and doorframes with it and pumped underneath a visible termite colony at my neighbours place. two weeks later - no trace (note: pumped underneath not on them, so they must get in touch with it first). its more expensive but will last easily 5-10 years so that saves a lot of hassle afterwards

is this fipronil available form the traditional hardware shops?

can we paint it on or spray it on?

when you say pump,you meant spray with a spray pump?

After spraying or painting, is it safe to touch? say i spray on roof wooden truss, then we climb into attic to do work,will we poison ourselves?

i dont think you can spray fipronil. either paint it on wood or pump underground. i think only certified pest control guys can do it for you. dont think hardwarestore got (at least the chinese one around my corner doesnt carry).

check for a dealer and get a quote. since it can last 5-8 years easily it's much cheaper than normal jobs in the long run. for normal contract like my neighbour pay initial pumping 1500 then every 3 months come and inspect (200 bucks or so) and respray the roof every 6 months (i think he told me its around 500). my treatment was around 3300 - including of annual inspection and retreatment should any termite surface during 5 years.

so my costs over 5 years: 3300

my neighbour: 1500 + 5*2 annual inspections *200 + 5 * 2 (twice a year) 500 for treating the roof (including the inspection i guess) = 8500

which is why i used fipronil. cheaper and the stuff is non-toxic to humans.

pls wash your hand throughly (with soap) after spraying/handling chemicals. i dun believe any pesticide is safe to human.
suggest to coat the wood surface with paint after treatment so your hand is not contaminated.

suggest to compare cost performance btw fipronil with chlorpyrifos.