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What Every Homeowner Needs To Know About Subterranean Termites
by Fran Phalin
What's cream-colored, less than an inch long, and can be found chewing off your home's foundation with an overall cost of $2 billion in damages each year? Definitely not your friendly neighborhood bug, that's for sure. Subterranean termites, considered to be the most destructive pest in the United States, are found in every state except Alaska.

Where do they live and what do they eat?

These dehydration-prone termites are attracted to areas with lots of moisture and must live near the soil or other above ground source to survive. Underground colonies of subterranean termites can contain up to 2 million members and are organized within a caste system, ranging from the queen and king termites who are the "colony founders" to the lower classes. Soldier and reproductive termites fall in between and help support the entire system with the former fighting off predators such as ants. Worker termites, the last group, consume wood and provide food for the rest of the termite colony.

Subterranean termites feed on anything that contain wood fiber and cellulose such as paper, cardboard, and plant products. Their primary source of food include dead trees and brush, but when the land is cleared by human intervention and houses get built, termites will start to attack the building structures.

Termites can penetrate buildings through wood that sits on soil and through building tunnels called mud tubes in foundations. They can also enter easily through cracks or openings in foundations.

What kind of damage can they do?

Homeowners are fearful of subterranean termites for good reason - these termites can collapse an entire building completely. A colony of termites can work diligently and chew through fragments of wood with their strong jaws.

Experts report that termites normally take three to eight years to cause any sort of tangible damage, based on feeding patterns. Other sources estimate that under humid and moisture-filled conditions, a termite colony composed of 60,000 workers could potentially consume a one foot of 2 x 4 inch pine in 100 to 150 days.

How can I tell if I have termites?

Since subterranean termites live underground, the best way to look for termites in your home is to watch out for mud tubes protruding from hidden areas, such as wall crevices, baseboards, and sub-flooring. Blistered wood, soil in cracks, and weak or broken structures can also be a sign of subterranean termites. If you see any appearance of termite entry into your home, call a licensed termite inspector to evaluate your termite situation and what can be done.

Anteater Pest and Lawn Services provide a proactive termite program for inspecting termites, termite damage, and mud tubes. Anteater will install monitoring stations around the perimeter of structures to serve as an early warning system.

How do I get rid of termites?

Pest control professionals utilize three different types of treatment that include soil treatments, wood treatments, and baits.

Soil treatments work to decrease the population of termites and protect the structure long-term. This treatment contains liquid termiticide diluted with water to be injected into the soil around the foundation of the home. This treatment can also be used simultaneously with wood treatments and/or baits.

Wood treatments protect wood from termite infestation and reduces the infestation during treatment by painting unfinished wood with liquids like borate materials.

Baits are put into the ground where there are signs of termites. The bait is usually an insect growth regulator (IGR) or a slow release toxic agent. Once termites eat the bait and return to their colony, it becomes manifested in the colony and reduces the termite population there through weakening the entire colony.

How can I prevent termites in the first place?

Prevention methods for termite infestation include reducing the the potential for termites to enter your home and should be reviewed by homeowners. Most of the treatments described above utilize chemicals, which can be toxic to animals and even humans.

The only permanent non-toxic termite treatment is produced by Termistop USA, which uses Flanges and Blockouts, a non-chemical solution that prevents termites from entering the home at the service penetrations through the slab. The Termimesh System, composed of stainless steel mesh, creates a "physical barrier" to termite entry when it "keys" into the concrete. By addressing these areas during construction with Termistop Flanges and Blockouts, Pest Control Operators reduce the need to apply chemical termiticides within the living space of the building.

Many green building programs around the country emphasize the use of physical barriers and non-chemical termite solutions. Termistop qualifies as a physical barrier in many of these programs, designed to eliminate the need for chemical re-treatments in the interior of the home. Anteater Pest and Lawn are also certified dealers and installers of the Termimesh System.

Prevention is the way to go

The impact that subterranean termites can have on our home is tremendous and can be economically ruinous. Preventing termites should be a priority for concerned homeowners and the permanent non-toxic termite treatment is a great way to prevent termite infestation while serving as a environmentally friendly option.

About The Author:
http://www.anteaterpestandlawn.com

Before you step on that cockroach consider this, they were here before humans and are likely to remain long after we're gone. Science experiments reveal the amazing enduring cockroach!
by Mort Barish
Science experiments sometimes find the oddest things. These facts from experiments on this bug will give you some respect for the creepy crawler. Cockroaches have been around for 400 million years. Dinosaurs have come and gone. Entire races of people have come and gone. But cockroaches remain. Would you believe that there are over 4000 different species of the little buggers?

If there is a nuclear attack, we will die, but the cockroaches are likely to live. Humans can withstand a one-time exposure of 5 rems (a radiation measurement) of radiation. A dose of 800 rems will kill a human. A cockroach, on the other hand, can withstand up to 67,500 to 105,000 rems before succumbing. Think of the science experiments conducted that came up with this fact! Next time you chase a cockroach with a can of spray in your hand, you'll feel him laughing at you.

If you cut off its head, it could live for a month without it. And don't try drowning it. The cockroach can hold its breath for 40 minutes. If you try to seal them off, better not leave a space as thin as a dime, because that's all the space that a young roach needs to crawl into. Roaches of certain species can grow to six inches in length with a 12 inch wingspan. If all other sources of food fail you, a cockroach recipe has been offered that advises simmering in vinegar, boiling with butter, farina flour, pepper and salt to make a paste and then spreading on buttered bread.

Roaches can run at speeds of nearly 2 miles an hour. They can make up to 25 body turns in a second - the highest known rate in the animal kingdom. And, being nocturnal, they do most of this in the dark. So why don't they crash into things?

The answer is: their antennae. In a series of cockroach-assault course experiments it was found that these much-loathed insects boast highly flexible and seriously sensitive antennae one and a third times the length of their bodies and segmented into between 150 and 170 jointed sections.

Researchers found in science experiments that blinded and deafened cockroaches were able to navigate completely normally, even if their average speeds were lower than their sighted and air-current-sensitive counterparts.

Cockroaches are considered one of the most successful groups of animals; because they are so adaptable, cockroaches have adjusted to living with humans much more readily than humans have adjusted to living with them.

Cockroaches thrive in nearly every corner of the globe, despite our best attempts to eliminate them.

Why is it almost impossible to squish a cockroach before it shoots out of sight behind the refrigerator while it is often quite easy to zap it with the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner?

The answer is that the jet-propelled bug thinks with its behind. The cockroach is able to sense minute changes in the air flowing round its body using tiny hairs on two posterior appendages called "cerci" and that includes your foot coming down.

The vacuum cleaner, however, has even smart roaches fooled. If a vacuum cleaner approaches from behind a cockroach, the wind goes from its head to the nozzle. It thinks the attack is from the front and it turns round and runs straight into the nozzle.

And if food is scarce, adolescent cockroaches can live on a very reliable resource -- their parent's feces. I don't recommend recreating this particular science experiment.

In the natural world, dodging disaster is vital if you are not going to be pounced on by predators. Now, the world champion dodger has been crowned - the cockroach.

Japan has been able to stimulate the muscles in a cockroach leg with electrical signals so that its movements can be controlled. A tricky science experiment indeed!

There could be big advantages for the military. Rats could be used to check damage at bombed enemy factory sites, where their presence would be unlikely to raise suspicion. Dogs could be used to search for casualties on battlefields and cockroaches could be used to place surveillance devices in military installations.

Among the more futuristic scenarios portrayed in the study, robots called neural network bugs, built like small cockroaches, can crawl to the best location for surveillance. Researchers are now working on controlling and manipulating real cockroaches by implanting microprocessors and electrodes in their bodies. The insects can be fitted with micro-cameras and sensors to reach the places other bugs can't reach.

The most common injury for them to endure is the loss of a leg. If a predator tugs on a cockroach leg it will fall off at a preset point called an autonomy point, similar to a lizard losing its tail as a reflex to being caught by the tail.

Unlike some other insects which will gradually regenerate a leg over several molting cycles, the cockroach will delay its next molt in order to regenerate its leg. This will provide the cockroach with the swift feet necessary to escape the next enemy quickly. Six legs are better than 5 or 4. The fast escape of the cockroach requires the pattern of running which uses a tripod of legs on the ground at any one time.

One person reported that after cooking pizza in the microwave, the microwave was opened and discovered a small roach still alive.

The microwave oven is amazingly non-uniform in its heating. That is why most of them have carousels to keep the food moving through the focus of the power.

The roach found was clearly not at the focus of the microwave's power, otherwise it would have exploded under the heat at the focus. Another science experiment that I would not try.

Mort Barish is co-founder of Terimore Institute, Inc. Terimore provides hundreds of science experiments with step-by-step guides for children in grades K-12 to help them learn about science. Find fun, easy and award-winning science experiments at http://www.terimore.com!

Joke Center
Catholic Humor
A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye .... it reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
10 MILES

He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on without second thought ... soon he sees another sign which reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
5 MILES

Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives past a third sign saying:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
NEXT RIGHT

His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive. On the far side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the door reading:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
He climbs the steps and rings the bell. The door is answered by a nun in a long black habit who asks, 'What may we do for you my son?'

He answers, 'I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in possibly doing business....'

'Very well my son. Please follow me.' He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells th e man,

'Please knock on this door.'

He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the door...

This nun instructs, 'Please place $100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the end of the hallway.' He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the door pulling it shut behind him. The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing another sign:

GO IN PEACE.
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF
ST. FRANCIS. SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER