Recently Channel 7 ran an article about the plague of termites that are affecting millions of homeownes in Australia, brought on with the wet conditions and soddy treatments installed by other companies. As Conquer Termites is regarded as one of the leading termite companies operating in the South-East corner of Queensland, we were approached to add comment about this situation.

Channel 7’s $1 Billion Termite Plague story by journist Adam Marshall, 26 July 2013

Australia’s leading experts on termites are calling a crisis meeting for a redraft of the Australian standard in termite treatments. It is estimated that Australians spend over a quarter of a billion dollars on termite management systems every year, but many are finding that the systems don’t work.

Entomologist Dr. Don Ewart, who is in charge of rewriting the standards for Australian termite management, hopes the redraft will be able to save homes and millions of dollars in damages caused by termites. He admits there are systems on the market right now that just don’t work.

“There are some options that I regard as not particularly advisable,” Dr. Ewart said. “Just because your house hasn’t been attacked yet doesn’t mean it won’t be at risk.” It’s estimated that one in five Australian homes are damaged by termites, with the bill reaching $780 million a year.

The cost to fix termite damage is rarely covered by insurance.

Home owners Steve and Pat Sandord have tried four times to stop termites from destroying their New South Wales home. They’ve spent $4000 on the supposed termite solutions, but the damage is now so severe their home will have to be demolished. “It’s very disheartening, (the house) that we’ve been working for will have to be knocked down,” Mr Sandford said. “In three years you think they would have fixed the problem by now.”