Special thanks to Arrow Exterminators for partnering with me to make this post possible. All thoughts, opinions, and formerly live termite colonies are my own.
Here’s a fun statistic for all the homeowners out there: termites cause over $5 billion in structural damage every year. This is more than the damage caused by fires and storms combined. Oh, and another fun fact: most termite damage is not covered by homeowner’s insurance.
That’s awesome! And by awesome, I mean TERRIBLE!!!!!
Let me tell you, friends, when we first became homeowners, we made MANY mistakes (for example: becoming homeowners…but I digress…). But one thing we did right from the start was to get an annual termite contract. It is a bill that I honestly don’t mind paying every year because I know my biggest investment (also my worst investment, but again, I digress..) is truly protected from termites. If termites somehow make their way to my home and cause damage, my termite company is liable because of our contract. That’s a huge chunk of relief for me!
When we moved into our home in Chattanooga, we reached out to Arrow almost immediately to get a free inspection and a quote for termite services. We were also waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to totally re-do our yard, as our neighborhood had been declared a superfund site due to unsafe levels of lead in the ground (Yay, urban living!). Can I just tell you how impressed I was with the Arrow Exterminators representative once I shared that information with him? He actually advised me to NOT get a termite contract started just yet, because the ground being treated was about to go away, and fresh, clean, bug-free dirt would be coming in. This man could have made a sale on the spot, but he demonstrated that he was looking out for the customer’s best interest.
I knew it would be Arrow I would work with again when the time was right.
Ok, so fast forward a year and change. We had a beautiful new lawn, and frankly, termites fell off my radar. It was actually thanks to my annual bill coming in for my termite contract on our house in Memphis that my memory was triggered. But our grass and dirt was still only a year old, so I was pretty sure no problems would be found.
Probably nobody is going to be surprised to hear that when we received our free inspection from Arrow, a live colony WAS found. It had really just gotten started and hadn’t yet reached the wood, so no damage was done…YET.
Oh, and just because I thought this was cool…I was shown pictures from under my house (pictures that I could identify as really and truly being under my house) to show me exactly what was discovered. So this wasn’t a situation where I had to just blindly believe that there was an issue. I really liked that about the inspection process. I saw those termites with my own two eyes!
This time around, we opted to get a different type of termite service than the one we originally planned on doing. We decided to have Sentricon stations placed around the perimeter of our home. And just to give you a glimpse at how effective this method is, here’s a fact: The White House is protected by Sentricon stations. BAM!
So here’s what happens when you get this system: a professional from Arrow will come out and drill very small holes in your property (and they will connect with power and gas companies beforehand to ensure safe drilling, FYI). The holes don’t go down very far, but better safe than sorry! The stations will be about 3 feet from your exterior walls, all around your house.
Because our soil was soft, and because our house is small, the drilling and the inserting of each station into the ground took about 15 minutes. That’s it!
I was then told that while the stations are designed to be flush with the ground, should they ever get in any way dislodged, to just contact Arrow, and they would come out and get it placed back in the ground correctly, with no charge. I was glad to hear of this service, and I was also very nervous, thinking, “Oh great! These things are probably going to pop out of the ground every time we mow the grass!”
So, I made the decision to wait a good long while before doing this write up, just to see if my suspicion was correct. It’s been a month since we’ve had these placed, and we haven’t had even the slightest issue. We’ve had our kids walk and run over them, and we’ve mowed over them, and we’ve had pouring rain and scorching heat and all that jazz. They are staying put just fine!
Ok, so how do these stations work, and are they safe around pets and children? The stations have a bait technology inside of them that helps keep your home protected any time, and all the time. It smells and tastes AMAZING to termites, and termites, incidentally, are the only critters that are drawn to it. I thought that was a pretty cool feature. They get inside the station and begin feeding on the bait. The workers carry it back to the colony to be shared with others. And it doesn’t kill them immediately, but it does cause them to be unable to shed their skin. They must shed their skin to grow. And that, my friends, is how they die.
Another feature of your service is that Arrow reps will come out once a year to check the traps and note signs of activity, and once a year for a full inspection. They will be able to let you know if you have headed off a potential termite infestation, and they will refill the traps. They will also check annually for any signs of live termite colonies, though in their experience, the instances of finding live termite colonies in homes with Sentricon systems are almost non-existent. Hooray!!!!
The Sentricon System gets very high marks from the EPA. I’m not really interested in re-polluting the soil that just got cleaned up! I’m also glad to know that the chemicals around my house are toxic, but only if you are termite. There are no concerns for me, my family members, or our pets.
Finally, I just have to say again how very impressed I am with Arrow’s top-notch customer service. I have yet to interact with a professional there who wasn’t highly skilled, highly knowledgeable, and genuinely excited about his work. That says a great deal to me about this company, and it is a chief reason why I will remain one of their customers.
So, if you don’t have a termite contract on your home, or if you are less-than-thrilled with the company you currently have working for you, give Arrow a call. Inspections and evaluations are totally free, and the products they offer are worth every penny! 1-888-462-7769.