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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

yes, u can buy chlorpyrifos or cypermathrin from any hardware shops and spray by yourself or contractor. after spray,u can coat the roof truss with with the common wood stain ( kind of paint), for door etc u can either piant wiht wood stain if u want to see the wood grain or normal paint (eg alkyd, polyester etc) to cover the toxic chemicals. (non translucent)
roof - make sure that u spray on both end /cut and nail spot coz termite can go in from here.

those treated wood is usually in greenish color but sometime sawmills cheat consumers with pigments.
common chemicals for wood use in outdoor is CCA (copper chrome arsenic) - green in color
some of them cheating by jsut soak with CCA to show it is green color. it shud be pressure reated , force the chemicals to go inside the wood cells. the longer time , the higher the pressure hte better.
anyway, they are too many cheating outside. in fact u dun have to spray if it is proper treated. spray is short term. pressure treat is longterm and wood can last more than 100 years. the wood primeter is deeply cover with chemicals, nailing have no affect.