Exterminator has ears for termites

If you’ve ever lived in a wooden house–or even a concrete house with wooden components–you know that the battle against termites is never ending. In the case of our studios here at Channel 5 where some of the wood dates back to the mid eighteen hundreds, that fight has been going on for over a hundred and fifty years. That’s why when one exterminator showed us a new weapon, we thought it was worth sharing. Janelle Chanona has the story.

Eddie Robinson
“Wheneva termites tek and feed inside ah di wood, wheneva they di eat, you wah hear popping sounds as they deh tek and tear up the wood.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
For the past seven years, Eddie Robinson has been learning the art of detecting and destroying wood lice, also known as termites. But more recently, Robinson invested in the latest in pest control technology; a high powered microphone that pin points the exact location of the wood eating insects.

Eddie Robinson
“What it does, the sound comes in and goes into this microphone, which magnifies it like ten thousand times.”

Janelle Chanona
“So what it sounds like?”

Eddie Robinson
“It sounds like popcorn. They are feeding in the wood and as they are breaking off the wood fibres, it sounds like when you are popping popcorn.”

And to prove his equipment works, Robinson visited our studios today where tell tale signs indicated that termite infestation had advanced as far as our anchor desk.

Eddie Robinson
“What this is called is frost. Frost is the faeces of insects; this is actually the frost of dry wood termites. The dry wood termites do not require any ground contact, they live in dry wood and they feed on the wood fibres.”

Within seconds, Robinson found the termites munching away.

Eddie Robinson
“What would be done in this case would be identifying, as we have done, where the termites are feeding and then drilling a small hole in the area where you get the most activity and injecting a termiticide foam inside the area. Actually just like the foam you use to shave, the termiticide foam goes in there and it doesn’t kill the termites immediately, it’s a slow acting termiticide where the termites will be contaminated and as they move inside the wood, they would also contaminate the other termites.”

But why is Eddie so gung ho about termites?

Eddie Robinson
“A person’s home dah one of the biggest investments, so in order to protect the investment properly you need to have the proper equipment to detect the termites as well as the equipment fi tek and do the necessary insecticide application.”

If you want to listen to your house slowly disintegrate, contact Eddie at 621-2674. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.