The following article appeared in the March 21 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
It appears the city may be winning its war on termites.
The number of termites turning up in city traps decreased by 67 per cent between the first and second half of 2010, according to a report submitted to the city’s planning, building, environment and engineering department.
Tim Myles, the city’s termite control officer, said this drop represents a “very dramatic” decline, adding that for the first time in five years, no new city blocks reported infestations.
“If we continue (to see) those kinds of results, between years, for a couple more years, we’ll have very few termites left to trap,” Myles said.
Myles and his two technicians trapped more than half a million termites between spring and fall of 2010, coating them with toxic zinc borate and returning them to their colonies.
When other termites tried to groom them by licking them clean, they were poisoned, too. “Once you get it in some of their guts, it starts recirculating into everyone’s guts,” Myles said.
Before the province approved the experimental use of zinc borate, Myles had to use parasitic nematodes, which he said were less effective.
But the trap-treat-release method can only be confirmed a success once this year’s data is collected and compared to last year’s, Myles added.
“We have to wait and see what happens,” he said. “Are those numbers going to be down? Or are they going to be really strong again in the beginning of the season? We don’t know yet.”
The eastern subterranean termite, or reticulitermes flavipes, spread north from the United States in the early 20th century, reaching Guelph in the 1970s. About the size and colour of a grain of rice, it thrives in dark, moist places and bores into wood.
Myles first began battling Guelph’s termite hordes back in 2000. He was hired for his current position in 2007.
Currently, a total of 43 city blocks are classed as either containing host infestations or adjacent to host blocks. By far the largest concentration of termite activity falls within a downtown enclave bordered by Woolwich, Clarence, Dufferin and Tiffany streets.
“We’re ground zero, but we didn’t know that when we moved in,” said Mary Calarco, who has lived in a house on Woolwich Street between Clarke and Clarence since 2003.
After discovering an infestation in the root cellar in her basement about five years ago, Calarco took swift action and had the property sprayed with permethrin, a termiticide. But the termites only multiplied, eventually climbing into the second-floor bathroom.
“They had crossed over a stairwell,” Calarco said. “God only knows how they do that.”
The worker insects have driven her to distraction, demanding constant vigilance and several renovations. “If you miss one tiny spot, they will go undetected and silently work away, and move further into your house,” Calarco said. She believes city staff are well-intentioned but feels their suppression program is not working.
Last year, new termite activity was discovered in dead trees along the Speed River near Marcon Street, a block south of Tiffany, on property owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority.
Ward 2 Coun. Ian Findlay said residents in his downtown constituency have been sounding the alarm on termites since at least 2006.
“There was definitely a need for the city to provide a more fulsome, comprehensive response,” he said, adding Myles has since made “significant progress” in controlling the local termite population.
“I think the objective for Tim is to work himself out of a job,” Findlay said. “That’s ultimately the goal. How realistic that is will depend on the co-operation of the neighbours.”
The city will mail an update on termite activity and control to all residents in the affected areas at the end of March.