Lisa from Long Island Bahamas writes
I have an infestation in custom kitchen cabinets that are only 2 years old. There are no signs of entry from outside the house. I believe they were in the cabinets when they arrived from the manufacturer. I contacted my insurance company and although not listed under exclusions, insects are not covered. My boyfriend is a custom home builder who can take the face boards off those that are still intact. I was away from my home for months returning to find thousands of dollars of destruction and I am at a loss on what to do. I read your reviews on the Termidor foam and saw one review saying it is not for use in kitchen cabinets. Please let me know if there are any options you can recommend?
The Termidor Foam is definitely an amazing product and does well to transfer. That being said, you would have to drill holes into the cabinets to inject it into the galleries the termites have created for it to expand through their tunnels and reach them. Honestly, we have many customers in the Bahamas that use our products (they have them shipped through freight forwarders) and its very common for you to have a variety of termites in your area that could have flown in from the outside and infested the cabinets. The only downside to the cabinets themselves is if they weren't pretreated before being assembled/stained from the people you purchased them from. If there were termites in them when they came from the manufacturer, the likely hood of them being in there this whole time with no signs of damage or kick out holes and dust until 2 years out is extremely slim. Cabinets aren't that thick compared to beams and supports of the structures of homes which can cause finding termite damage and activity signs to be less noticeable for longer. Normally activity would show up not long after you received the cabinets if they came infested. Now, if it's powder post beetles they could have been in the raw wood without you or even the cabinet company knowing they were there. Powder post beetle larvae can stay dormant up to 20 years sometimes in the wood and then emerge. If that is what you have, your best mode of action would be to have your home tented/fumigated to kill them all at once. Termidor Foam won't work for you in that case and the products we have that would work would require you sand your custom cabinets down to raw wood and then apply them. This is a tough situation for you but fumigation is almost your only option.
Answer last updated on: 02/24/2015
