When you hear the word bait, what do you think of? Does it conjure up an image of a man with fat fingers squeezing a worm onto a hook? Do you see him sitting in his boat or on shore waiting for the pole to bend so he can yank a giant fish from the water? If you do, it may seem impractical to use bait to catch something as small as a termite.

Now maybe you’re imagining a cup of worms being laid next to your home and all the termites squeezing out of the nooks and crannies to feast on it. After getting a belly full of poison they die in a big pile right there next to your basement wall–where they can be easily shoveled up and disposed of. You’re getting closer.

Some of you already know that termite bait doesn’t work anything like fish bait. You wisely relate it more to cockroach bait, and you are mostly right. Termite and roach bait are similar in many ways. Both are picked up by the insect and brought to where the “group” lives. And, both act as a toxin that continues to spread. But how it spreads differs.

Cockroaches and termites both have nasty habits. I know what you’re thinking, “Cockroaches and termites are nasty? I don’t believe it!” It’s true. And, it is these nasty habits that are exploited by the baits that are used to eradicate them.

Cockroaches are not picky eaters. They’ll eat toothpaste, hair, glue and even other dead cockroaches. When they eat a dead friend who was killed by toxic bait, they are poisoned by the bait, and soon die to become a meal for another roach.

Cockroaches also have a wonderful habit of leaving their excrement everywhere, and walking through the excrement of other roaches. Real nice, roaches. Real nice.

Termites go one step further with the whole “excrement” idea. They actually eat each other’s poo. This makes it even easier for a toxin to work its way through a colony. After the worker termites are eliminated, the colony is starved for food and goes into a suppression phase. As the colony starves, the queen starves. Without a queen, the colony dies.

If you’re looking to protect your home from termites, termite bait is the best way to go. It works to kill termites “before” they can damage your home. It isn’t perfect though. Sometimes the number of termites that take the bait from a bait station isn’t enough to fully eradicate the colony. But it is enough to warn a pest technician that there is a problem and zero in on where new bait should be placed. Call Active Pest Control and find out how a termite baiting system like the Sentricon© Termite Colony Elimination System can safely and effectively protect your home from termites.