I purchased a house in the Finger Lakes Region of NY which is loaded with termite damage. They have eaten some of the lathe up to the ceiling on the first floor, as well as a good portion of the laundry room floor. I believe they are still active. They appear to be subterranean termites with numerous (hundreds at least) of workers. I have not seen any swarms though, I have had difficulty locating someone to treat the house because of the way it is constructed as well as the extent of the damage. I am hoping to be able to do some treatment by myself, or to locate a reputable exterminator in the area. The house is built in three sections. The front has a crawl space with fieldstone on dirt. The middle is a full basement of fieldstone on dirt. There are few mud tunnels as the fieldstone provides easy access without the effort. The back third of the house has an unknown foundation. It appears as though the floor joists rest directly on the dirt. Any suggestions or comments? Thanks, Edog

You need to use the Sentircon system. Its bait stations placed around the house.

Here is a link for the product.
http://www.dowagro.com/sentricon/us/index.htm

There are three ways to rid a house of these types of termites.
1. Chemical sprays that are put into the ground to build a barrier.
Problem with that. Water well perhaps to close to house or type of soil surrounding home. The fact that they need to dump a lot of water and chemical into the ground worries them because of the possiblity of the chemical leaching into your fieldstone basement.

2. Sentricon or similer type of system. This is a bait system that attracts the little buggers. They bring the bait back to the nest and prevents them from reproducing. It removes the entire colonie. Problem with this is you need to have the system checked every year until the buggers are removed.

3. Burn house down. Not an option I would choose but jail would not have any termites to worry about..

Thanks for the laugh!!! Believe me, after four years of living like this and not getting anywhere I've considered option #3. I don't think they'll let me bring my loyal lab with me though! Have you used the Sentircon system? Do you know others who have???

I use something similar to Sentricon, though it is not that brand name, unless that's what Terminix uses here in VA. I've had no problems but also had no infestation to start with. There were termites in the area though since I saw them swarming in the backyard the first couple of springs I was here. I didn't see them this year, but I was working a lot of hours. One word of caution though; anywhere you have bare wood in contact with the earth, you are just asking for termite trouble.

It is a primary method of termite protection all over NJ where there is either a well on the property, or for what ever reason there is a concern of the chemicals getting into the house. Slab homes also use this for fear of drilling into the pipes buried underneath.

It does not work quite as fast as traditional methods, but it does work. Use the web site to obtain a dealer in your area. See what they have to say.

In some cases they use both traditional methods and this system. Each home provides diffrent challenges. So yours is not unique.

They do not use the "traditional" method in NY state.

Exterminaters love the "bait stations" because there cheap to buy and most companys like Terminex and Orkin charge almost $100.00 a piece to install them, there cost is about $28.00 a case, and take about 1 min to install with a bulb planter, then charge you every few months to come back and check them.
There going to place them on the outside of the house out far enough away so there behond the drip line of the house.
The termites you have are nesting under the house so the bait stations located out away from the foundation do no good.
Termites are blind and if they have plenty of food in your home there's no need for them to go looking round the house looking for a tiny 2" tube of so called bait 4' from the foundation.
For any hope of getting rid of them in the long run your house really needs to be lifted to get it up off the ground. Even with a liquid treatment and trenching the whole foundation there's going to be spots that are not going to get treated be cause some areas are just going to be to low to get to.
The new chemicals being used travel no more then 10' from point of contact with the soil and when picked up by the workers it's carryed back to the queen for food, once shes gone the nest dies out.
I've inspected 100's of homes with the sentracon system installed, nd had been there for many years and almost always found active termites still in the house.