Thank you. I am conflicted. We do not want to lose the plants/trees we have nurtured for years. We will SOAK the ground and Cover the plants with tarps, but I still worry. Thanks for this info.

We watered the foundation plants and only saw a few burned leaves. What does the tenting company advise?

-Babja

Babka, we are waiting for the actual quote. First guy found termites in too many places, so he advised tenting. He said there are some nobody can see. If it was HIS house.... So then they came and measured. Kinda hard cuz we are on a hill. There is a lower driveway with a deck at the end of it that attaches by steps to a deck next to the house. My favorite fig tree and several roses are between the house and decks. They have to encase the Fig and roses to get both wooden decks.

The measuring dude did say watering helps, but not in all cases. When the final quote guy comes, I'll make sure to ask all the questions you suggest.

We have been tented 3 times over 40 years. We had dry wood ones up in the eaves and attic. Get a couple more estimates and see what those people say. We were surprised at the difference in quotes here. Roses can be replaced, but not a big fig tree. It might turn out that it would only become temporarily defoliated. Keep asking those questions. Perhaps they could disconnect a step between the two decks?

-Babka

Another option might be to tent the house and use one of the non-tent methods for the decks. Depending upon the configuration and design style of the decks, of course, most decks tend to have better access and fewer places for the termites to hide when compared to a house.

I'm passing all this info on to DH. Thanks to all of you!

I'm thinking that you might have just the right tree that could take damage and recover.

I have a big fig tree in the wrong spot in my backyard and I've never worked so hard trying to kill anything. It can't be ripped out since it is on top of a retaining wall so I'm trying to kill it and take out pieces. It is huge, with the base almost 4' wide and it is 2' deep against a hill above the retaining wall. I cut as much off as I could with a chainsaw. I've drilled a hundred holes in it and poured Round Up Concentrate in the holes. Many of those holes are 20" deep into the base. I've been killing the new growth with RoundUp for more than a year. It now has 20 new sprouts, again - must be round 30 or so on new growth. I'm considering soaking a gallon of lighter fluid into it and setting it on fire. I was hoping to only do that with the underground roots but it is seriously pissing me off.

Well gregbradley, my tree is only about 5 years old. It's pretty big and has multi trunks, but only about 5" in diameter. It's LOADED with these gorgeous green figs with strawberry flavored centers, and I don't want to lose it.

I understand how hard it is to kill a tree that just won't die. We tried to kill a Liquidamber over and over and over. Finally we got all the suckers, but it took a while. I wish I could have some of your sprouts. Your tree sounds determined, and we love Figs. We have about 25 varieties here, but none are as big and old as yours. Good luck getting rid of it.

Greg, try using a brush killer type product that contains Triclopyr instead of Round Up. Works much better against woody plants. We use it to kill acacias, oaks and poison oak.

Barb,

The Triclopyr was the solution - THANKS!

We took advice above and got more estimates. We found a company who's focus is on Eco friendly solutions. They will not be tenting. They will be using a heat method in the attic for the many found there. The decks and other areas will be treated in other ways. They will be injecting a virus into the walls. Any termites brushing it will infect any termites they touch and the whole bunch of them will die. We don't have the estimate yet, mainly because hubs is fishing out of state this week, but should have it early next week. Doesn't matter much what it costs. It's safer all around. Food will not be contaminated. My figs and tomatoes will not be affected. YAY!!

Not having to do termite control on a house for a while, I hadn't heard about the virus method. That is interesting. It doesn't sound as though you would need to vacate the house using the non-tent methods, other than be out of the worker's way. Is that the case?

Tenting is such a pain, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving food in the house, even though it was sealed. Then there is the threat of theft. In some areas, thieves target tented houses. Some people resort to hiring security.

The virus thing is new to me too, but evidently it works. I'll know more when they come to present the quote. I will be asking lots of questions! :-) Heating the attic to over 200 degrees is intriguing too. I'll be in the pool when that happens! LOL!

Sad world we live in. I have read instances where robbers were found dead inside tented homes. Is it really worth your life?

Today is the day! The guys are here. Company name is Ecola.

They have treated our attic with extreme heat. They said the upstairs rooms will be like a really hot day, and had us move our oil paintings downstairs to protect them.

They have started drilling into studs that show signs of infestation and they are injecting those with that virus. He explained the virus is now in the wood, and once the termites touch it and touch each other, the entire colony will be killed.

Hubby negotiated with them for a better price and saved about $500. This treatment cost us $1800, and our house and decks are pretty big! This includes a warranty.

They just left for lunch and will be back to finish later. They will probably inject all the wood decks surrounding this house. Happy they didn't have to tent!

Hope you will let us know down the road if these techniques turn out to be effective. Sure would beat tenting, both by process and chemicals. That seems like a good price you negotiated. Do you mind divulging how much the quote for tenting was as a comparison? I was under the impression tenting cost started at a few thousand dollars for an average sized house, but we haven't actually had to pay for it whenever we went through the process, so I am not basing that on facts.

Why do I have the urge to say Ecola's name the way Ricola does in their commercials? lol At least it makes it memorable.

For sure I'll update this thread in a year or so, but as far as a tenting quote, we were disappointed in the first company for NEVER giving us a quote! We got so tired of them avoiding calls, etc., we decided to look elsewhere. We never got a tenting quote. I'm sorry I

We had planned to get more quotes anyway and since we were so anti-tenting, and we found Ecola, we just stuck with them.

Hi Suzi,

I think instead of shifting the trees for termite tenting, it is better that you hire a pest control service that will allow you to kill all the termites and pest without harming your fruits and nature. A friend has suggested me exterminator Roseville service who takes care of the plants and the environment while the spraying. They can help you too, you should contact them for a try.

Suzi, now that's its been almost 2 years since you had this method of termite treatment, I'm wondering if you have any additional thoughts, and whether you've had tests since then to see if the termites re-infested? I'm considering that same company, and I made a quick call to them to ask if they do the repair work to the termite-damaged wood and they said no, so I'm leaning towards company that tents AND repairs the wood. Except for the concern over my plants, it'd have been done by now.

Also wondering if you have an update, Suzi. We are scheduled to tent our house but it's such a pain I'd love to know if the alternative worked out for you.