Termiticides applied as perimeter treatments to the soil surrounding foundations are a common method of preventing subterranean termites from entering structures. The applications have been standardized over a period of more than 40 years to include several components depending on the foundation type. In the case of a monolithic slab foundation, a trench measuring from 4 to 6 inches wide by 4 to 6 inches in depth is excavated around the foundation wall with one side of the trench being formed by the foundation wall itself. The termiticide is mixed with water to form a specified concentration, and this termiticide:water mixture is applied to the trench at the rate of 0.4 gallons per linear foot of trench.
This study measured the termiticide concentration deposited around 20 structures after an application of a known concentration of termiticide:water mixture was applied. The amounts of termiticide found in the soil were not in proportion to the concentrations of termiticide:water mixtures applied. The variability in the post-treatment concentrations was too great to allow their use in determining the concentration of the original termiticide:water mixture applied to the soil. Conversely, the concentration of termiticide in the original mixtures could not have been used to estimate or predict the final concentration of termiticide occurring in the treated soil.
Species 1: Isoptera Rhinotermitidae (Subterranean termite)
Keywords: Termiticide, Residues
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