Electro Gun Termite Zapper Build

I had one of these tested on me at a trade show.

the leads were already deployed and placed across my frame.

So it can be done.. If I were a termite I think I would have died.

Termites can't survive without moisture, the first thing to find is where they are entering the house....usually this is a rotting piece of wood that is in contact with the ground and leads into the house...usually there is a water leak in the area...A favorite entrance place is beneath bathtubs and other holes in the slab where drains exit and wood exists, under tubs there are usually a stack of wood that was used to level the tub during installation....Once you find the entrance there should be a nest established in that area, clear out the wood and nest by what ever means....Then have the house tented....before it collapses....

https://www.termite.com/termites/formosan-subterranean-termite.html

This brings to mind a problem I had with carpenter ants several years ago, which also caused me to reflect on the intelligence of insects. The ants were tunneling through the foam exterior foundation insulation to gain access to the wood frame of the house. I dusted around the entire perimeter of the foundation with the recommended poison, but the ants munched on. I discovered that after the dusting the ants had changed their tactics. They were now climbing up a tree some thirty feet away, then, single file, marching along the clothes line that was stretched from the house to the tree. I dusted around the base of the tree, and that stopped the invasion. Had the ants consulted among themselves and come up with this alternative access strategy? It seems like a complex piece of problem solving. Was there some kind of group mind phenomenon? It was baffling.

When I lived in the Carribean, I once found a dead beetle in the bathtub with a bunch of ants around it. I was going to clean it up, but I got to watching the ants move it around. They carried it up the wall and tried to get it through a gap in the screen.

After they turned it this way and that, a miracle (to them) occurred when I pried back the screen to make a bigger gap and they could carry it out.

It was amazing to watch them work together, with no one in charge.

I'm going to assume a lucky escapee or arrant tree ant popularized the new route. But wow..

I sprinkle borax and table sugar.. for ants

I wonder if borax and sawdust would entice a termite?

Ant behavior is pretty interesting... make no mistake, they know they're invading someone else's nest. First they send those tiny scout ants which double duty as chaperones to the queen if they can escort her in. The scouts don't take bait of any kind, they move fast and cover lots of ground, taking it all in. The picnic size ants are the regular workers and first to take bait. As soon as hostilities have commenced, they will start posting sentries. I don't know if they have some kind of messaging telepathy or what, but the sentries just stay absolutely motionless - until you squat em. They always send workers to bring home their dead, so I like to lace the ones I crush with a drip of sweetened borax.

I have had so many ants here I had to enlist a special kind of ant to deal with the others. They are small but feisty red and black ones, which treat me with some deference because I build compost piles in the garden - effectively building them each year a deluxe nest with pantry, construction materials etc. duly gathered and arranged. They come into my house or greenhouse politely and carry off the other ants held over their heads, in a display of loyalty and affection to me I reckon. These ants bite like crazy if you happened to wander into their nest in the wild, but I've never had so much as a pinch from one when they are visiting my nest, performing these duties.

Ant civilization precedes our own by millions of years,and over time has developed a form of government that lasts longer than any of mankind's forms.

They will still be here long after human civilization is nothing but a sediment layer.

They have a group intelligence that far exceeds their individual intelligence and they really act like synapses in a large external invisible brain.

What if their antennae have more functions than we realize?

Perhaps to transmit information in some heretofore unknown electromagnetic or ultrasonic method used for immediate information transfer,with chemical trails left only as trail markers.

Their ability to find food is amazing.You could hang a sugar cube on a high voltage wire,hundreds of feet off the ground,and sooner or later, it will be covered in ants.

How do they do it?They cannot have scouts covering everything..or could they.

I saw a documentary, probably on National Geographic about army ants.

The people had learned to live with them in harmony.

They left their buildings open and vacated the premises when the ants moved through,and they thoroughly cleaned the building of all vermin,food scraps,etc.

I can't seem to find the link right now,but I bet SE can find it.He is a Google guru;best I've ever seen.

The electric zapping of termites also recalls for me the electric worm "digger" I built when I was about twelve. It consisted of two earth probes (coat hanger wire) connected to 120V from the house, with taped, insulated handgrips. There was an in-line switch and light bulb to prevent a dead short if the probes were touched together. The probes were pushed into the soil 10-15 feet apart, and after a few minutes all the earthworms would come to the surface to escape the discomfort of the current trickle flowing through the earth. Astonishing that I got the instructions from some DIY boy's magazine. Lucky I didn't get fried!

You should see them hop out of the ground when you use a 500 volt DC megger. Works really slick.

We had one of those in the early '50s, except that ours was purchased (I have no idea where), and it had only a single probe (obviously the hot side).

Clearly, that was before OSHA!

I remember seeing this in boys life and popular science. Apparently people weren't as susceptible to high voltage then, as they are now.

Susceptibility to voltage hasn't changed significantly; but the number of lawyers has!

I don't know what you are actually trying to do but I would guess that you want a very large number of electric shocks. Since Tasers are used in dangerous situations I suspect they are very reliable but I doubt that they are designed to work nonstop for hours.

The part of the Taser that you are probably interested in is the large turns ratio step-up transformer and the electronics to drive it. A 555 "oscillator", a pass transistor and something like a xenon flash tube transformer might do it. I don't know what you want to do and I don't want to be responsible for someone being shocked or burning the house down. If you get a better definition of what you want to do it will probably be a rather simple project for an electrical hobbyist.

By the way, I have no doubt that if you set a termite on your workbench and zap him that you can kill him. But, do you really have faith that this zapper thing will work on a house infested with termites? My guess is that this is like putting batteries in the oven to make them new again and putting water in your gas tank to give you better mileage. There is always someone who is a "genius" with a simple solution that no one else has ever thought of. Or maybe no one else considers the thought to be "genius". A lot of people get these mixed up.

get with the times

just wait the sun to go down especially after a rain.. will get as many as you want... if your fast that is. they keep their butt in the hole so touching them or even shining the light directly on them causes them to zip back in the hole in a millisecond.

I learned that as a kid. A local bait shop would pay for earthworms. A friend and I would ride our bikes to a nearby golf course after dark, after a rain, and with shaded flashlights to see, scoop up earthworms by the dozens. I am surprised that others here know about using electricity to bring earthworms to the surface. I have never met anyone else who used a similar device to the one I described.

My granddaddy showed us the electric trick in Mississippi. I'm sure it was nothing more than coat hangers and lamp cord.

Best catfish ever on that property.

Of course he used the worms for other fish as he was a noodler.

Since I laid the groundwork for this method to work, I deserve a portion of the worms collected...my lawyer will be in touch...

I do not think the Zapper will work Dry wood is not conductive,and if it is wet enough to conduct,it is wet enough to possibly start a fire.

Check out this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoT-ZZ2hqXo

When I was very young,(55+years ago)I had a summer job working with an exterminator company.

To termite proof a house,we had to dig a trench around the house foundation, all of the pillars under the house,and drill the bloc foundation and any dirt filled porches had to be drilled and rodded.The trenches were filled with liquid Aldrin(outlawed by EPA now). We had to rake the entire foundation to remove any wood scraps from construction.When Aldrin decomposed,it formed Dieldrin,which is still a potent insecticide.The result was a treatment that lasted for many years.

The purpose of the trenches was to cut off the termites route into the soil,and into the wood.Any already in the wood died due to direct contact or dehydration.

Farmers also used Aldrin to kill nematodes,and some of it got into the food chain,hence the EPA ban on it.

I think it should still have been allowed for under-house treatments,but the EPA paints with a broad brush.

The current pesticide of choice for exterminating companies is Bifen,but I cannot recommend it except to have a professional licensed person apply it.The Bifen does not repel the insects,they do not even know it is there.They carry it back to the nest,and because they are social animals and communicate by touch and chemicals,the entire colony will eventually die.

There are dry wood termites that do not need to return to the soil,and they are much harder to get rid of.

Exterminating companies can use infrared viewers to look for the tunnels and nests,and can spot-treat them,but the only sure way is to tent the whole building,which is treated with a very poisonous gas that will penetrate even through drywall and wood beams and studs.A 24 hour guard must be placed around the building to prevent anyone from entering.As you can imagine,a tent job is very expensive.

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Termites

I understand one of the better methods is termite traps, attract them to something better tasting than you house that will kill them!