Glorious summer days are for enjoying your garden. However, there is still work to do in and around your garden to maintain its health and defenses against pests. For those who live in moist regions— take extra precaution with harvester termites. Get ready to tackle these pests using this guide for both prevention and treatment against harvester termite pest control.
Don’t let pests be a hack
By working actively on harvester termite pest control, you are ensuring the health and safety of your garden. To take the first step towards pest control, check for signs of damage and identify your pests with our problem solver. From there, you will be able to gauge the damage, the pest, and refer to our suggested solutions for each scenario. And be sure to never confuse harvester termites (also known as white ants) with ants.
Understanding Harvester termite pest control and garden damage
When grappling with Harvester termite pest control and garden protection, make sure you identify your problem and pest correctly.
Harvester termites
These pests, commonly called ‘white ants’, are attracted to their primary food source: grass.
Harvester termites attack gardens, unlike subterranean termites which feed on timber and wood. Look out for harvester termites activity like:
- Noticeable small holes coming out of the soil (mud tubes — a sign of harvester termites burrowing and routes to nests).
- Fading green to yellow lawns in summer (a possible result of burrowing harvester termites underneath).
- Termite activity around midday, typically starting at 11am.
- Signs of cut pieces of your grass (harvester termites taking grass off cuts into their nests).
A special note — harvester termites don’t eat wood from a tree. If you do happen to find harvester termites in or on a live tree, there is another pest causing the pith or cambium layer of the tree to die. (In this case, inspect the plant thoroughly and seek advice using our Ask an Expert portal.) It is typically subterranean termites that then invade and eat the dead cellulose.
Within the termite colony, there are three main harvester termite varieties determined by their roles and appearances:
- Worker termites — tiny whitish, creamy soft-bodied creatures, giving the name ‘white ants’.
- Soldier termites — have larger armoured heads, with protruding jaws that look like pincers (which can be orange, brown, yellow or red) which crush intruders.
- Swarmer termites — winged termites that usually swarm during daylight. Their wings are brownish grey, and their front wings are larger than their hind wings.
The adult worker harvester termites feed the whole colony, (soldiers, larvae, young termites, kings, and queens) by regurgitating food decomposed in their gut.
Stop harvester termites in their tracks
Treatment: stopping harvester termites in their tracks
Combating a termite invasion comes in two parts — protection and treatment. Giving your garden the necessary defence is essential, especially in regions prone to these pests.
In addition to preventative maintenance measures, use Efekto Kamikaze to treat harvester termites around the home garden, as well as lucerne fields or pastures. This ready-to-use bait is designed for the control of the harvester termite and can be applied with a fertiliser spreader for larger areas. It is best to use Efekto Kamikaze on a day when harvester termites are intensely foraging, usually while they are active from 11:00 until sundown.
Apply the bait by scattering evenly over the infested areas and around active termite nest entrances. One application will normally suffice to control the harvester termites (1 gram of bait covers 1m²). Only scatter as much bait as the harvester termites can carry to their nests on the day of treatment.
Efekto Kamikaze works by allowing the harvester termite time to take the bait to the nest, where it is distributed throughout the colony. Colony reproduction halts once the bait-carrying worker harvester termites and queens are eliminated, stopping termite populations and ultimately saving your home and garden from further destruction.
Don’t let harvester termites takeover
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