What Happens When You Spray a Termite Nest with Fly Spray

Here is an announcement that you may not have expected to see on this website: household fly spray, at just a few dollars per can, will kill termites.

HOWEVER (and it’s a BIG ‘however’)… it will ONLY kill the termites the spray hits.

The remaining termites will flee, alert the rest of the colony, and spread to other areas of your house. The colony will find safer areas to attack, exacerbating the damage already caused.

Doing this will leave you in a much worse (and more costly) position when it comes to getting a full, professional treatment which will actually save your property.

So repeat after us… DO NOT USE FLY SPRAY ON TERMITES.

A few hundred termites might be killed by prolonged spraying with fly spray, but with a termite queen laying up to 4,000 eggs per day, it will take just a few hours to replace those termites the fly spray has eradicated.

The problem with using fly spray is that you will only ever kill those termites you can see. The main nest could be metres away, underground, in a nearby tree, and contain hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of termites all ready to replace those you’ve managed to kill.

The first action taken by termites when faced with a bunch of their friends killed on the spot is to seal the tunnel leading to the site of slaughter. Then they dig a new tunnel to a new location. You’ll think you have solved your termite problem, while the termites are busy attacking a new part of your home.

The advantage of termite baiting

Termite baiting works in a completely different way to fly spray.

When termites locate a food source, they take food back and feed other termites in the colony, including soldiers and the queen. Baiting doesn’t kill the termites immediately, but works by causing the workers eating the poison to die slowly. The tunnels leading to the food supply are not sealed off, but with the workers dying the colony is slowly starved of food. Eventually, without food being returned to the nest, the colony starves to death.

Termite baiting is a proven system for the long-term control of termite infestation. It’s safe, targeted and eco-friendly, as well as easy to use.

If you’d like to know more about termite detection and termite baiting, why not ask one of our experts? We’re only an email or phone call away.