We have termites in our house. Well, thankfully it's not our house but the house we rent. They've been there for a little while now, maybe 5 months. At first we notice a dirt line along the floor board and I would scrape it to find lots of little termites. I would go and spray the crap out of the floor boards and scrub them down and we wouldn't see it again for a few weeks. One night I went to find something under the bathroom sink in the kids room. I never really go under that sink, it just has some light bulbs, bug killer refills, things I don't use often. So I go and I'm trying to be quiet because Brayden is sleeping right outside the bathroom door and I pull out what I'm looking for and it's moving, literally moving. I
FREAK out. I throw the box and take some deep breathes trying not to scream. I slowly go and look into the cupboard and find the termite dirt all along the back of the cupboard and ALL the cardboard boxes from the lightbulbs, my leg wax strips, the medicine, all eaten. It was so disgusting. I sprayed the crap out of there and spent the next hour and a half cleaning all the dead termites out of the cupboard, salvaging all the lightbulb and other things from their skeleton boxes and trying to get myself to stop itching.
We told the land lord about it who mentioned it to the home owner. We ended up discussing it with the home owner when they were in town from the States on a visit a month later. At the time since I hadn't seen any evidence of the termites in a while we decided it wasn't really that big of a deal and left it at that.
This week I started to go through everything deciding what needed to be packed, trashed or given away and I knelt on the base of the cupboard and my knee sunk in. There was no more wood there, just the paint! The termites ate all the wood from that chunk of the cupboard. Good thing pretty much the entire house is made of cement! I just kind of brushed it off as it happened when I had cleaned the cupboard out before because I looked around and cleared everything out of there and didn't see anything termite.
I moved from the cupboard under the sink to the closet. I started with the top of the closet because we never use it and new I could pack whatever was in there or throw it away and it wouldn't be missed in the next 5 weeks before we move home. Well I opened it up and reached up (it's higher then what I can see) and tried to pull down the Uno cards I could see lingering barely over the edge. Yup, the box started moving!!! This time there were no sleeping kids so I called for reinforcement! "RYAN"
This is what we found:
It's like an actual termite house in my closet. Too disgusting. All I keep saying to myself is: 35 more days, 35 more days, 35 more days. In 35 more days we'll be out of here and they can treat the house, tear it down, I don't care... because I'm Canada bound and I'm not coming back!
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Ack! Anything moving inside my house is really disconcerting - I can't imagine a termite infestation. So, this time you're moving home for good? No more Philippines?
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteSocial Caste of Termites
Workers, smallest in size, are the most numerous of the castes. They are all completely blind, wingless, and sexually immature. Their job is to feed and groom all of the dependent castes. They also dig tunnels, locate food and water, maintain colony atmospheric homeostasis, and build and repair the nest.
The soldiers job is to basically defend the colony from any unwanted animals. When the large soldiers attack they emit a drop of brown, corrosive salivary liquid which spreads between the open mandibles. When they bite, the liquid spreads over the opponent. The secretion is commonly stated that to be toxic or else undergoes coagulation with the air, which renders it glue-like.
Finally, there are the reproductives. They include the king and the queen. The queen can sometimes grow up to six centimeters long while the lower classes are generally less than one centimeter.
SO.GROSS.
Kaitlyn makes me laugh! You girls have such a good sense of humor :)
ReplyDeleteoh my that is a gross thing indeed .. I would have high tailed it to a hotel !! neat to see up close don't you think?
ReplyDeleteBattling termite infestation is really a pain! Our house had the same problem. To our surprise, the termites came from underground and they chewed their way into the very foundations of our house. These little critters are real sneaky, you know? They’re like special agents who penetrate a whole building of enemies. We immediately called for pest control, and it took them 3 whole days to clear the whole colony of termites. The next time this happens, maybe I’ll just buy a pet anteater. Hehe!
ReplyDeleteLucile Lynch