Odom said a half-dozen southern states are looking to Louisiana as the pilot state before moving to initiate treatment programs and building code regulations of their own. Unlike native subterranean termites, the Formosan termite multiplies much faster, has a voracious appetite for wood, attacks living timber, is attracted, not repelled, by light, and does not have to return to the ground for its moisture. Of the one million trees in Orleans and surrounding parishes, task force termite experts estimate as many as half may be infested. The plan is to drill all trees and those found with cavities containing termites will be injected with a chemical foam. The expanding foam will cause the chemical to completely fill the cavity and adhere to the cavity walls.
Tests show the newly-developed method to be extremely effective.
The technical experts also expect that the termites, which forage up to 300 feet from their nests, will move from houses to trees and back to houses and, in their grooming process, take the chemical with them. However, extensive environmental and effectiveness monitoring will take place to assess results. Odom said one factor which led him to opt for tree treatment versus residential baiting is that funding available would have been sufficient to treat only selected residential areas. We have the money to cover a lot more area by going with a trees-only program. He emphasized that the Formosan program is not a short-term project.