Termites work silently and invisibly, sawing into your floor joists, cutting into your wall studs, hollowing out the heart of your home and hiding the damage until it's too late.

One of the greatest hazards any homeowner faces is termites, which may do more damage than fires, storms, and earthquakes combined. Termites survive by eating wood, paper, fiberboard, cotton fabrics, and other cellulose products. If ignored, termites can actually threaten the structural integrity of your house, and this is where the danger lies.

Houses and other buildings provide termites with the ideal combination of warmth, moisture and food. Termites can find ways to enter your house that you've never thought of. They are small enough to gain entry into hidden areas of basements, crawl spaces, and concrete slabs, through openings as small as 1/32nd of an inch.

Although small in size they are large in numbers. Termites congregate in enormous underground colonies that house hundreds of thousands to millions of individual termites. They are dispersed throughout the soil at feeding sites around your home and can forage hundreds of feet from their colony.

Termite survival depends on finding edible material to support the colony. Moving out from their colony, they tunnel through the soil in search of moisture and food. They forage around mulch beds, near air conditioner drip lines and below gutters. they also like tree stumps, decks, buried wood, construction material, and piles of firewood. a loose mortar joint, a small space around a drain pipe, or a settlement crack in the basement is all they need to gain entry into your home.

Termites can build mud tubes across many feet of concrete, brick, cinder block, treated wood, or metal termite shields into even the upper floors of a structure

Termites eat wood from the inside out, often defying detection for years while doing extensive damage to the wood - and threatening the integrity of your home.

The FirstLine Termite Defense System effectively controls subterranean termites, the most destructive termites found throughout the United States. It's the most comprehensive and effective program designed for complete control of termites. It's the only system in the industry that includes termite baits, liquid termitcides and software for complete control. Your pest management professional has been specially trained by FMC to use the complete FirstLine Termite Defense System

The process begins with a
thorough inspection.

First your pest management professional will complete a thorough inspection of your home and the property around your home to evaluate termite activity, identify sources conducive to termites and make recommendations to reduce moisture and food sources. He/she will then discuss the treatment plan with you before proceeding.
 

Then live termite infestations in or on the structure will be treated.

Your pest management professional wants to stop any live termite infestation from further destruction of your property before the introduction of a monitoring/baiting component. For optimum protection of your home, your pest management professional will make a localized treatment of Talstar Termiticide/Insecticide.

Talstar has the longest average residual in the industry, creating a powerful barrier of long lasting protection. United States Department of Agriculture research shows that Talstar Termiticide/Insecticide provides 100% control for nearly 12 years and in some states, such as Florida and Arizona, it provides 100% control for 15 years. In certain cases your pest management professional may choose FirstLine Termite Bait Stations (above ground) to control termites where active mud tubes are found.

Next, monitoring stations and bait stations will be used to detect and control termites around the structure.

The latest addition to the FirstLine Termite Defense System - The Defender unit - may be used around your home. The Defender  unit is a patent-pending, 4-chamber housing that can be used for termite monitoring and baiting with Firstline GT Plus Termite Bait Stations. The Defender unit is designed for quarterly monitoring because it has at least 4x more wood than any other station available and can hold enough FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Stations to kill 320,000 termites - four times more than before!

Or SMARTDISC Locators and Monitoring Stations and FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Stations may be used around your home based on the general use directions established by FMC and EPA Registered product labels. The SMARTDISC Locator is used with the Monitoring Station and the FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Station to help channel termites into the stations.

SMARTDISC Locators and Monitoring Stations, and the FirstLine GT Plus Bait Station

Typically, Defender units or SMARTDISC Locators and Monitoring Stations are placed around your home, about every 10 feet.

They are inspected on a regular schedule for the presence of termites. Once termites are found on a monitor, it is replaced with a FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Station.

Each station contains the active ingredient sulfluramid, which can kill at least 80,000 termites - that's 320,000 when all four chambers of the Defender unit have baits in place.

Unlike other termite baiting systems, sulfluramid can kill all castes of subterranean termites, including reproductives. The active ingredient disrupts the production of energy, causing termites to die. In some cases where termites are found in the soil, a FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Station (in-ground) may be used right away.

Your pest management professional will visit your house periodically to monitor the bait stations to verify termite activity, install additional stations where needed, and search for new infestation. Once the termites have stopped feeding, your pest management professional will continue to monitor for new termite activity and inspect your home on an annual basis.

There are several clear indications of termite infestation. In the spring in most parts of the country and in fall in others, reproductive swarmers emerge in great numbers. Sometimes, you may see them swarm, or you may only see signs that they have swarmed. Their wings break off after flight and you may find piles of wings that have dropped off. Often, you will miss the swarm, so be sure to look for others sign of damage to wood or visible mud tubes.

If you become aware of any of the signs of termite infestation, or your neighbors have termites, call your local pest management professional who is trained to use the FirstLine Termite Defense System from FMC.

He or she will inspect your home and around your home looking for areas that are vulnerable to termite infestation. Your pest management professional will examine areas where termites forage for moisture and food, giving special attention to conditions which are conducive to termite attack such as cracks, voids, and spaces where wiring and utilities pass through walls and slabs.

Pest management professionals are well trained in termite behavior. They know where to look for termites and can determine how they got there. They also know about available treatment options, and how to use them to protect your home for years to come