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The Case Of Flying Royalty
By Jesse Nugent | November 7, 2007
Table of contents for The Pest Detective
It was the first warm day of spring. There had been a shower earlier and now the humidity was just about 70%, the sun was heating the soil outside and I knew what was about to happen. The ring-a-ling of the phone was like a punch in the gut, dragging me back to reality.
It was the business administrator from the Church in the Woods. He was almost hysterical, screaming, “They’re everywhere, thousands, no millions of them, they’re flying into my secretary’s hair, into the senior minister’s coffee, they’re even in my …I cut him off with, “Just the facts, sir, start from the beginning and tell me everything.” His story was one I had heard before. Suddenly, unexpectedly, from nowhere and everywhere at once they came. One minute everything was fine and dandy, the next swarms of small black insects with long white wings were crawling and fluttering over everything in the church office. No warning, no noise, like the birds in that Hitchcock movie they just appeared and seemed to be taking over. I felt sorry for the Business Administrator. First time was always scary.
Even though I am familiar, the first sight always leaves me awe struck. Seeing this as a Pest Detective, I told him, “Relax pal, its just royalty out for a stroll.” The sheer insanity of the statement seemed to calm him down. “What did you say?” What you are seeing are known as alates, or more commonly, Termite kings and queens. Every year in the spring when conditions are just right they mass at an opening to the outside and all swarm out at once to fly into the air, mate and pair off to start new colonies. The fact that they swarmed in your offices means that there is a colony of termites feeding on the wood in your building.
In Houston, its not a matter of if you will get termites but when will you get them. In the case of Church in the Woods I’d say this was long overdue. I reminded the BA of the conversations we had in the past about the flowerbeds that were piled high against the wood siding of his office, the gutter leaks which kept this wood wet most of the time, the wood stacked up next to the building. These were all invitations to termites to infest his building. He started to rationalize, “but they’re so small, they can’t do much damage can they?” Every year Termites cause over $750,000,000 in damage, more than all fires and storms combined. A mature colony can eat a pound of wood a day, or a 2×4 about four inches long. Imagine what happens when the first four inches of all the 2×4’s in a wall are gone?
He started to get hysterical again, “What can we do, can you help us?” His voice sounded like a rope stretched to just before breaking. “Relax, at Hunter Pest Control, We Aim to Please and Shoot to Kill. Within a few days we can solve your problem and make your building termite proof, even from royalty.” Another successful caper for Jesse Nugent, Pest Detective.
Topics: Pest Control |