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Onzuka wrote:Give me the ants any day, James. What I don't want are red spider mites, mealies, sciara flies and slugs and snails in that order. Oh, I have also had problems with mice nibbling the plants on occasion, and usually only the Lophos!

I do hope I never have to deal with any of those problems, although I guess it might be inevitable They are without doubt much worse than ants, I was just thinking of things that make nests. And it's surprising that mice would nibble on cacti? Although I guess they chew on everything, a couple of years ago we had them in the walls of the house, and they developed an annoying habit of knocking on the inside of the walls while I was asleep at 2:00am!

I hope they haven't started chewing your house SnowFella!

This is what a termite tube looks like,they started showing up all over my house,we had them treated today.

Feel for you mate! Just hope my report tomorrow comes up clean when it comes to termites in the house and it's only the outdoors that's affected!
If it isn't then I'm not sure what I'll do as the house is on pillars and chewed floor beams would be a VERY costly thing to replace! Plus termite damage isn't covered in any structual insurance down here.

It's not funny and I shouldn't joke, but you need a pet anteater!

One advantage of the UK it's too cold for them, but if the climate warms who knows?

By the sounds of things what I need is a decent colony of regular ants, according to the pest control guy we have here right now they hunt termites.

And by the sounds of things I've dodged the bullet, nothing found in the house. Just the far corner of the yard affected. Now comes the pain part of how to treat them and how much it will cost me!

One advantage of the UK it's too cold for them, but if the climate warms who knows?

Dave, with Gulfstream stopping and Polar Ice increasing during SUMMER (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -year.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) we may actually face a contrary effect...

Dave we have had termites in England before http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... Devon.html they now seem to be eradicated.

We get many insects imported from time to time. Most are usually killed off by our winters. I believe there is a colony of scorpions somewhere too. Though as the climate gets warmer many are now able to survive unless eradicated.

However we do still get a harsh winter once every decade or so which might have killed them off anyway. However with termites inhabiting the woodwork of centrally heated houses that may of not been the case.

But luckily most citizens in the UK have never needed to worry about termites so far.

I see almost every day what kind of damage termites do to structures. Living in a somewhat warm locale, they don't really go totally dormant here even in the winter. I also see a lot of damage from powder post beetles, old house borers, carpenter ants, carpenter bees, and damage from wood decay fungus. Not all ants eat termites, depends on the species of ant. Fire ants will readily attack termite colonies, but just because you have fire ants doesn't mean all the termites will be gone, the termite colony may be diminished but may continue on foraging for cellulose material or if the colony dies off, a new one may start in the area later on. Most people assume that all the termites in their yard are from one colony, but most lots can and do have multiple colonies. They forage out from their main nest in an area of about 50 to 75 feet in diameter(eastern subterranean).