One day, back in the fall of 2016, Termite Terry’s father lost his balance and fell against the frame of their home’s kitchen door. He was in his 80’s, didn’t have a good sense of balance, and wasn’t very mobile. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt but they were very surprised at how the door frame fell apart when he hit it. They quickly discovered that the door frame had been completely eaten and hollowed out by subterranean termites.
Termite Terry’s mother immediately called her son to find out what they would need to do to get rid of these termites. Termite Terry would have loved to send his crew right over to take care of the termites, but his parents lived in Phoenix, Arizona.
Being a good son, Termite Terry got on the phone and called the owner of a termite company in the Phoenix area. Terry had previously met this owner and he thought they had a pretty good reputation. He asked for them to go look at it and let him know what they found. This company went out and performed an inspection of the house, on November 29th, 2016.
The owner of this company called Terry back a few days later. He said his mother’s house would need a full treatment, all the way around the house. Their price seemed fair, so he told them to go ahead and do the job.
Six months later, in June of 2017, Termite Terry’s mother noticed that the subterranean termites were back. She had found several termite mud tunnels growing up the side of the house (Subterranean termites live underground. They build small tunnels made of mud so they can stay protected from the elements and other predators. The tunnels are constructed so the termites can work their way into structures to eat the wood. They then take this food (wood) back into the ground to feed the colony).
The termite treatment was still under warranty, so the company sent their crew out to perform a retreatment.
In December of 2017, the company called and said that her warranty was going to expire. They offered her an opportunity to go on an annual maintenance program. She accepted their offer and paid the fee for this additional service.
In April of 2018, Terry’s mom was putting stuff away in the laundry room when she noticed that a shelf was ready to fall off the wall. After a closer look, she saw that the subterranean termites had ruined the shelf. She was covered by their annual service contract, so she called them back to do another treatment.
Terry’s mother was getting frustrated with the situation and asked the technician what product they were using to treat the termites. It is interesting to note that the technician told her he did not know the name of the product they were using.
The annual termite service was renewed once again, in December of 2018. However, only two months later, she noticed even more subterranean termite mud tunnels growing up the side of her home. Terry’s mother did not know what to do, so she asked if Terry would call the company to find out why this problem had not gone away.
Termite Terry called the company so he could speak to their technician. During the conversation, Terry expressed his concern that this termite problem shouldn’t be all that difficult to solve. Terry then asked what product they were using, and the technician told him that they were using a different brand of termiticide. Terry asked him why they weren’t using Termidor, and the technician said they did not have it in stock (Since its introduction in the late 1990’s, many in the pest control industry have considered Termidor to be the “gold standard” of termiticides. This product has achieved this recognition based on exceptional results found in government testing, laboratory results, and “real world” experience.).
The technician told Terry that their product worked just fine for them, and that he would be able to solve the problem if he could do another treatment. The technician also went on to say that if this treatment didn’t work, that they would order some Termidor to try at another time.
Since his mother’s home was still covered by the other company’s annual service plan, Terry told him to go ahead and perform the treatment.
One week later, near the end of February 2019, Terry’s mother inspected the outside wall of her house and found four more mud tunnels growing up in the same place that the technician had just treated!
Termite Terry’s mother called and told Terry what had happened. By this time, Termite Terry said that he was fed up with this other termite company, and that he would take care of it himself.
In April of 2019, Termite Terry loaded up his truck with all the equipment, and drove to Phoenix.
Once there, Terry realized that the treatment had not been done properly. That meant that the entire job would have to be done over again.
Termite Terry’s treatments are always done according to the manufacturer’s instructions. That meant that Terry would wind up using over 60 gallons of Termidor mix on his mother’s house! In addition, the interior walls where termite activity was noted, were treated with an additional 3 gallons of Termidor foam.
His mother’s house is now free of termites and she can live happily ever after.
We asked Termite Terry why he thinks the other company’s treatment failed. He said, “No one knows for sure, but it was fairly obvious that the other company did take short-cuts. For example, instead of placing application holes in the concrete hardscape at 12 inch spacing, many of the holes were 16 to 20 inches apart. And, instead of digging a trench around the house and injecting the termiticide into the ground at 12 inch spacing, the technician simply walked around the house and applied the termiticide, using a hand-held garden sprayer. A company can cut a lot of labor and material costs that way, but it doesn’t always work. Also, they saved themselves a lot of money by using a less expensive termiticide than we do.”
Do you have a problem with subterranean termites? Call us at (949) 631-7348 and we’ll be happy to set an appointment for you at your convenience. And, you should always remember that all of our full subterranean termite treatments come with a one year, money-back guarantee. If we don’t get rid of all of your subterranean termites, your treatment is FREE!
