For termite technicians drilling can be some of the hardest work of any job. At times the cement can swallow your entire drill bit it’s so thick. Your back locks in a hunched over position as you fight thick shrubbery and the sun beats mercilessly upon your head and shoulders. Dull bits can make simple work long and drawn out and so many times after a job your ears are left ringing from the constant high pitched pounding noise. Each hole you drill puts you one step closer to the end of this torture but when you look up and the sweat stings your eye, you see you have a mile to go. After all this and it’s time to shoot the precious liquid barrier that will free this home from the ravages of the hungry termite. You start applying the liquid and your heart sinks as you watch these holes that you fought so hard to drill reject your mix. Termiticide spews back in your face and onto the walls, leaks on the floor and puddles wherever gravity takes it. There seems to be no reason for this rejection but after all that work it doesn’t matter. You have to get the termite chemical under that slab and no matter what it takes at this point you take the steps needed to make this job a success.
In a perfect world termite liquid would shoot into the drilled holes and set up a continuos barrier but this doesn’t always happen. The reasons are varied from hard packed dirt to physical obstacles that block your product from getting to where it needs to go. Construction crews are famous for throwing unwanted trash in the forms and then the cement is poured and their Slurpee cup is forever encase under the slab. Roots, form boards, rocks or other debris can all contribute to the displacement of your liquid which the termite who thrives in this subterranean world will take advantage of.
Solving this dilemma may mean shooting with lower pressure, reaming the drilled hole with the injector, using directional tips or drilling a new hole. Add to this the looming threat of hidden pipes and the need to go gingerly so you minimize the risk and your simple termite job just becomes more and more complicated. In termite work you never know until you shoot if you’re gonna have a smooth job or endure one more laborious task to make the barrier complete. Here is a short video of some termite work I did and a perfect example of how holes in the same slab send the liquid termiticide in many different directions.
