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🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
https://eliasyoder.com
It is a Tuesday morning in October. You walk down into the cellar of your house, the same cellar your family has walked into for thirty years, and you turn on the light. And there, on the wooden support beam under the kitchen, you see something you have never seen before. A thin line of dried mud running up the foundation wall and onto the wood. Termites. You take a screwdriver and push it gently into the beam, and the wood crumbles like a stale cracker. Hollow. Eaten from the inside out.
You call the exterminator. Eight hundred dollars for the basic bait station installation. Two thousand dollars for full perimeter treatment. Three to five thousand for active colony elimination. And the same exterminator charges three to six hundred dollars per year to come back and check the stations he installed. Forever.
In this video, I walk you through the $0.50 DIY termite monitoring station that does the exact same prevention job as those eight-hundred-dollar professional stations — built from a throwaway plastic water bottle, a single thirty-cent stick of balsa wood, a can of fluorescent orange
https://eliasyoder.com
It is a Tuesday morning in October. You walk down into the cellar of your house, the same cellar your family has walked into for thirty years, and you turn on the light. And there, on the wooden support beam under the kitchen, you see something you have never seen before. A thin line of dried mud running up the foundation wall and onto the wood. Termites. You take a screwdriver and push it gently into the beam, and the wood crumbles like a stale cracker. Hollow. Eaten from the inside out.
You call the exterminator. Eight hundred dollars for the basic bait station installation. Two thousand dollars for full perimeter treatment. Three to five thousand for active colony elimination. And the same exterminator charges three to six hundred dollars per year to come back and check the stations he installed. Forever.
In this video, I walk you through the $0.50 DIY termite monitoring station that does the exact same prevention job as those eight-hundred-dollar professional stations — built from a throwaway plastic water bottle, a single thirty-cent stick of balsa wood, a can of fluorescent orange
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00It is a Tuesday morning in October. You walk down into the cellar of your house,
00:05the same cellar your family has walked into for 30 years, and you turn on the light.
00:10And there, on the wooden support beam under the kitchen, you see something you have never seen before.
00:18A thin line of dried mud running up the foundation wall and onto the wood.
00:24Termites.
00:25You take a screwdriver, and you push it gently into the beam, and the wood crumbles like a stale cracker.
00:33Hollow. Eaten from the inside out.
00:36You call the exterminator.
00:38The man comes out in his white truck with the company logo on the side,
00:42walks around your house with a clipboard, and gives you the number.
00:47$800 for the basic bait station installation.
00:51$2,000 for full perimeter treatment.
00:54$3,000 to $5,000 for active colony elimination if the damage has spread.
01:01And the same exterminator charges $300 to $600 per year to come back and check the stations he installed.
01:09Forever.
01:10Now I want you to sit with this.
01:12There is a small homemade contraption built from a throwaway plastic water bottle,
01:19a single $0.30 stick of balsa wood, a can of fluorescent orange spray paint, and a can of black
01:25paint
01:26that does the exact same monitoring job as those $800 professional stations, for about $0.50 each.
01:34And you can install one every four feet around your entire house, which is twice as close as the professional
01:42stations are placed,
01:43which means the termites cannot possibly miss them.
01:47Total cost to monitor your entire average-size house?
01:51Under $25.
01:53One afternoon of work.
01:56Done.
01:57The chemistry is real.
01:59The biology is real.
02:01The professional pest control companies use the exact same principle in their $1,000 systems.
02:08Cellulose bait inside a station, placed in the ground, checked monthly for termite activity.
02:15The only difference between their station and the one you can build in your garage is the price tag.
02:22My name is Elias Yoder.
02:25I am Amish and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
02:29Termites are not new to American farmhouses.
02:32The old folks watched for them the same way they watched for mice and rats,
02:37by checking the cellar beams, the foundation timbers, the woodshed posts, and the support stakes around the smokehouse.
02:45What I am going to show you today is a modern adaptation of that old vigilance.
02:51A cheap, simple, effective way to know if termites are anywhere near your house
02:57before they ever reach the wood that holds it up.
03:00Real chemistry.
03:02Real biology.
03:03Real math.
03:05Quick word before we go further.
03:07The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
03:13I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
03:18The book is the long version.
03:21If you want it, it is there.
03:23I will not bring it up again.
03:25Now, the water bottle trick, start to finish.
03:29The chemistry of why this works.
03:32Before I walk you through the build, you need to understand why this works,
03:37because the chemistry tells you what to expect from the trick and what not to expect.
03:44Subterranean termites are the most destructive insect in American homes.
03:49Real numbers, plainly.
03:51They cause about 90% of all termite damage in the United States,
03:56and the annual cost of repairs and prevention runs into the billions of dollars per year.
04:02Every house with wood structural elements is a target.
04:08Older farmhouses, modern suburban homes, brick houses with wooden support beams in the cellar,
04:14all of them.
04:16What makes subterranean termites unique is one specific biological fact.
04:22They cannot survive without contact with soil.
04:26They live in colonies in the ground, sometimes thousands of feet deep,
04:31sometimes spreading across half an acre or more.
04:34And to feed, they build narrow mud tubes from the soil up to the wood they want to eat,
04:41climbing up foundation walls, up cinder blocks, up brick,
04:46up anything that gets them from the underground to the wood.
04:49That mud tube is the fingerprint of an active subterranean termite invasion.
04:54And the second biological fact that matters here,
04:58subterranean termites eat only cellulose, not protein, not sugar, not meat.
05:05Only cellulose, the structural material in plant fibers.
05:10Wood, paper, cardboard, dried plant stems.
05:14Cellulose is what they need, and cellulose is the only thing that draws them.
05:19This is exactly what makes wood-based bait so effective and so selective.
05:25No other insect in the soil eats cellulose this way.
05:29When you put a piece of wood in the ground near your house,
05:32the only creature you will attract that eats through it is a subterranean termite.
05:37This is the chemistry the professional bait stations use.
05:41A plastic housing buried in the ground with cellulose-based monitor wood inside.
05:48Termites find it, eat through it, and you know they are there.
05:52Same principle.
05:53Three exact same words.
05:56Cellulose, soil contact, termite vigilance.
06:00The plastic water bottle method is the cheap, homemade version of the exact same system.
06:07Same chemistry.
06:08Same biology.
06:09Same purpose.
06:11One twentieth the cost.
06:13The plain scope.
06:15What this trick does and what it does not do.
06:19I have to be direct with you before you build anything,
06:22because this is where most folks go wrong.
06:25This method is for monitoring and prevention only.
06:28What it does?
06:30Tells you if subterranean termites are anywhere near your house.
06:35Catches them before they reach your foundation.
06:38Gives you weeks or months of warning before they cause structural damage.
06:44Costs almost nothing to set up and maintain.
06:47What it does not do?
06:49It does not kill an active termite colony already in your house.
06:54If you already have termites eating your structural beams,
06:57the colony has found a food source and will not divert to the monitoring station.
07:02That is a different problem with a different solution.
07:05It does not work on dry wood termites.
07:08Dry wood termites fly directly into your house,
07:12infest dry wood without ever touching the ground,
07:15and bypass any soil-based monitoring entirely.
07:19Dry wood termites mostly live in the warmer southern states.
07:23Florida, Texas, southern California, parts of the Gulf Coast.
07:28If you live in those areas, you may also need a different approach.
07:32It does not eliminate the colony when termites are detected.
07:37When the orange indicator drops and you know termites are there,
07:40you upgrade to active bait,
07:42a real product called Trilona,
07:45available online for about $10 per cartridge
07:48that you install in a small bait station right next to your monitoring station.
07:53The termites carry the active bait back to the colony,
07:56share it through what is called trophallaxis,
07:59the way they share food with each other,
08:02and the entire colony dies within four to six weeks.
08:05That is the second half of the system,
08:08and we will cover it at the end.
08:10This trick is the first line of defense,
08:13the early warning system.
08:15The thing you build once, install once,
08:18check once a month,
08:19and know that your house is safe.
08:21The materials list,
08:23what you need to make one station.
08:25Total cost per station, about 50 cents.
08:28Total cost to monitor an entire average size house
08:32with stations every four feet around the perimeter,
08:35under $25.
08:37One clear plastic bottle.
08:39This is the most important specification.
08:42Use a heavy-walled clear plastic bottle
08:45that will not crush easily under the weight of soil.
08:48Good candidates.
08:49Thick-walled water bottles,
08:51the higher-quality brands,
08:53soda bottles,
08:5420-ounce or 16-ounce sizes,
08:57Gatorade bottles,
08:58Powerade bottles,
08:59sports drink bottles.
09:01Avoid flimsy, thin-walled water bottles.
09:04They collapse when you push them into the ground
09:06and crush the bait inside.
09:08The bottle must be clear
09:10so you can see the orange indicator through the side.
09:13The cap must screw on tight.
09:15One six-inch piece of balsa wood.
09:18Half-inch by half-inch cross-section,
09:20six inches long.
09:22This is the cellulose bait.
09:24Balsa is the right choice
09:25because it is soft, low-density,
09:28and termites prefer it over harder woods.
09:30You can buy balsa wood sticks
09:32at any craft store,
09:34hobby store,
09:34or hardware store.
09:36A package of 12-inch sticks
09:38runs about $19 for 24 sticks.
09:41Cut each 12-inch stick
09:43into two 6-inch pieces.
09:45That is 48 stations from one package,
09:48about $0.38 of bait per station.
09:50One small can of fluorescent orange spray paint.
09:54Krylon or Rust-Oleum bright orange
09:57in a small can works perfectly.
09:59$4 to $6 at any hardware store.
10:02Used to paint the top inch
10:04of each balsa stick as the indicator.
10:06A single can paints 50 or more stations easily.
10:10One small can of flat black paint.
10:14Krylon ColorMax Indoor-Outdoor Acrylic Latex Flat Black
10:18or any flat black exterior paint.
10:21$5 to $7.
10:23Used to paint the bottom of the bottle
10:25so it blends into the soil
10:27and is not visible from the lawn.
10:29Cardboard scraps and a utility knife.
10:32For making the spacer that holds the stick
10:35centered in the bottleneck.
10:36A drill with a 1.5-inch garden auger bit
10:39for the installation.
10:41About $15 to $25 at any hardware store.
10:44This is the only specialty tool you need
10:47and it works for many other gardening jobs
10:50once you have it.
10:51That is the entire materials list.
10:54Total investment to set up your house?
10:56About $25 including the auger bit
10:59then $0.50 per station thereafter.
11:02The build, step by step.
11:05Step 1.
11:06Cut the balsa stick to the right length.
11:09Take your 6-inch balsa stick.
11:11Hold it up against the outside of the bottle
11:13with the bottom of the stick
11:15lined up with the bottom inside of the bottle.
11:17Mark the stick about 3-16ths of an inch
11:20above the top of the bottle opening.
11:23That is roughly the thickness of two stacked nickels.
11:26The stick needs to be just slightly longer
11:29than the inside of the bottle
11:30so it pushes up against the cap
11:32when you screw it on.
11:33This pressure fit is critical to the trick.
11:37When termites eat through the stick later
11:39the pressure releases
11:40and the stick drops down inside the bottle
11:43taking the orange indicator with it.
11:46That visible disappearance of the orange indicator
11:49is your alert.
11:51Use a sharp utility knife to cut the balsa.
11:54Balsa cuts easily
11:56almost like cutting through soft cheese.
11:58Score it on all four sides first
12:01then snap or finish cut through.
12:04Smoother cut, safer hands.
12:07Step 2.
12:08Make the cardboard spacer.
12:11Cut a narrow strip of corrugated cardboard
12:13about half an inch wide.
12:15Wrap it around the top of the balsa stick
12:18just at the point where the stick will sit
12:20inside the bottleneck.
12:21Wrap enough turns of cardboard around the stick
12:25that the wrapped section fits snugly inside the bottle opening.
12:29This spacer does two things.
12:31It centers the stick in the middle of the bottle
12:34so it stands straight up.
12:36And it holds the stick under tension against the cap
12:39so it cannot wobble.
12:40If the spacer is too loose after the first wrap
12:43add a couple of turns of duct tape around it
12:46until it fits snugly.
12:48You want the stick held firmly
12:50not jammed in so tight
12:52you cannot remove it later for inspection.
12:55Step 3.
12:56Paint the top inch of the stick fluorescent orange.
13:00Spray the top inch of the balsa stick
13:02the end with the cardboard spacer
13:04bright fluorescent orange.
13:06Hold the stick a few inches above the cap end
13:09and spray a single even coat.
13:11Let it dry for 5 to 10 minutes.
13:14Apply a second coat if the color is patchy.
13:17This orange section is your indicator.
13:20When the bait is intact
13:21you see the orange through the cap of the bottle.
13:24When termites eat through the stick
13:26the orange disappears.
13:29Step 4.
13:30Insert the stick into the bottle and cap it.
13:33Lower the stick into the bottle
13:35fluorescent orange and up.
13:37Push it down until the bottom of the stick
13:39touches the bottom of the bottle inside.
13:42The cardboard spacer at the top
13:44should sit just inside the bottleneck.
13:47Screw the cap on firmly.
13:49The cap should compress slightly
13:51against the top of the stick
13:52putting it under gentle tension.
13:55Check that the orange section
13:56is visible through the clear plastic.
13:58If you cannot see the orange clearly
14:00from outside the bottle
14:02the orange is too far down.
14:04Pull the stick out, trim a small amount
14:07from the bottom, and reinsert.
14:10Step 5.
14:11Cut access holes in the bottle.
14:14Use your utility knife to cut 4 equally spaced openings
14:18around the top of the bottle just below the cap.
14:22Each opening should be about 1 1⁄2 inches long
14:25by 1⁄2 an inch wide.
14:27Then cut 4 more openings around the bottom of the bottle,
14:32about an inch from the base,
14:34offset from the top openings by 45 degrees
14:37so they alternate.
14:39These openings are how the termites get in.
14:42The soil presses up against the bottle
14:45through the openings,
14:46and the termites travel from the soil
14:48into the bottle in search of the cellulose bait inside.
14:53Before I walk through the installation,
14:55let me pause for a moment.
14:57Every home has leaks.
15:00Food, heat, water, electricity, laundry, repairs, and waste.
15:07Inside our Amish home savings system and community,
15:11Esther and I help you find those leaks
15:13and start fixing them one by one.
15:16The link is in the description.
15:18Now, the installation plainly.
15:22Step 6.
15:24Paint the bottom of the bottle flat black.
15:27Spray paint the entire lower half of the bottle flat black,
15:31from the bottom up to about 1⁄3 the way up the side.
15:36Avoid getting paint on the orange indicator at the top.
15:40If you accidentally cover the orange,
15:42wipe it off immediately with a paper towel
15:45before the paint dries.
15:47This black paint serves one purpose.
15:50It makes the station nearly invisible once it is installed in the ground.
15:55You do not want your neighbors asking why you have rows of bottles sticking out of your lawn.
16:01The black bottom blends into the soil and any small section showing above the surface looks like dark mulch.
16:08Step 7.
16:10Install the stations around your house.
16:13Walk the perimeter of your home and mark stations every 4 feet around the entire foundation.
16:21Closer is fine in high risk areas.
16:248 feet is the professional standard, but at the cheap, homemade cost,
16:294 feet means termites cannot possibly slip through the gaps.
16:34For each marked location, drill a hole in the ground with your garden auger bit deep enough that almost the
16:41entire bottle fits below the surface.
16:43The hole should be just slightly wider than the bottle, snug enough that the soil presses against the openings you
16:51cut.
16:52Push the bottle straight down into the hole.
16:55The cap should sit no more than a quarter inch above ground level so the lawn mower can pass right
17:01over it.
17:02Press soil firmly around the buried portion of the bottle so that soil contacts the openings.
17:09Critical Placement Rules
17:12Locate stations 3 to 4 feet out from your foundation, not directly against the house.
17:18You want the termites to find the bait station before they ever reach your foundation wall.
17:24Place stations on both sides of your driveway.
17:27Driveways are high risk because they have no roof overhang to keep the soil dry, and termites travel along driveway
17:36edges.
17:37Keep stations clear of roof drip edges, where rainwater pours off the roof, unless you have gutters.
17:44The wet soil right under a drip edge can cause your bait wood to mold and false alarm.
17:51Avoid areas immediately adjacent to mulch beds, wood piles, or compost piles.
17:58These already attract termites, and the station will be flooded with activity that does not reflect your house's actual risk.
18:06For an average size house with a perimeter of about 150 to 200 linear feet, you will install 35 to
18:1450 stations.
18:15Total cost, well under $25.
18:20Step 8. The Monthly Check
18:23Once a month, walk the perimeter of your house and look at each station.
18:28Open each one. Unscrew the cap and check the top of the stick.
18:33If the orange is intact, no termite activity.
18:37Replace the cap. Move to the next station.
18:41Total inspection time per station, about 10 seconds.
18:45If the orange has disappeared down inside the bottle, you have a termite hit.
18:51The wood has been eaten through, and the stick has dropped down inside the bottle, taking the orange indicator with
18:57it.
18:58This is your alert. Mark the station with a small flag and prepare to upgrade it to Active Bait.
19:05The whole house inspection takes about 15 to 20 minutes per month, less time than a single trip to the
19:13grocery store for protection that the pest control company would charge you $600 per year to provide.
19:20Step 9. When termites are detected, upgrade to Active Bait.
19:26If your monitoring station catches termites, here is what you do.
19:31Go to any hardware store or DIY pest control retailer and buy one Trelona bait cartridge, about $10 to $15
19:40per cartridge.
19:41Trelona is a BASF product containing an insect growth regulator called Novoluron, which disrupts termite molting and kills the colony
19:52slowly through trophallaxis.
19:54The termites carry the bait back to the nest, share it with thousands of their colony mates, including the queen,
20:02and the entire colony collapses within 4 to 6 weeks.
20:06Install the Trelona cartridge in a small plastic bait station, available with the cartridge for about $20 combined, placed directly
20:15next to your activated monitoring station.
20:17Drill a hole next to the original station, drop the Trelona bait station in, and let the termites find it.
20:26One Trelona station handles one termite colony.
20:30Even if your house perimeter shows hits at multiple monitoring stations, most home termite issues are caused by a single
20:37colony.
20:37Once you eliminate it, the other stations go quiet.
20:42For a homeowner who finds termites with their homemade monitoring system and treats with one Trelona station, total termite treatment
20:50cost, about $30 to $40.
20:53Compared to the $800 to $2,000 the exterminator would have charged, the math is plain.
20:59Now I want to take a moment, because here is where it all comes together.
21:05Look at what we have walked through.
21:07The chemistry. Subterranean termites need soil contact and eat only cellulose.
21:13The plain scope. Monitoring and prevention, not treatment of active infestations, not dry wood termites.
21:21The build. Plastic bottle, balsa wood, fluorescent orange paint, black paint, cardboard spacer.
21:29The installation. Every four feet around the house, three to four feet out from the foundation, with a garden auger
21:37bit.
21:37The monthly check. Look for missing orange.
21:41The upgrade path. Trelona bait station next to any active monitoring station.
21:47Every step verified by real pest control science.
21:51Real, licensed pest control professionals, including the source who teaches this method,
21:57use this exact chemistry in their $1,000 professional systems.
22:01The only difference is the housing material and the price.
22:05The plastic water bottle and the $18 professional plastic station do the same job.
22:11Attract the same termites with the same biology.
22:14The math is plain.
22:17Average professional termite bait system installation, $800 to $2,000.
22:23Annual professional monitoring, $300 to $600.
22:27Five years of professional service, $2,300 to $5,000.
22:33The same five year protection with the homemade system, about $30 total, including occasional bottle
22:40replacements, and a Trelona station if termites are ever detected.
22:44A savings of about $4,000 to $5,000 over five years for the same actual protection.
22:51And the actual coverage is better. Stations every four feet instead of every eight to ten,
22:57which means termites have a much harder time slipping between stations to your foundation.
23:02There is no money in the pest control industry in teaching homeowners that a 50-cent plastic bottle
23:08does the same monitoring job as their $800 professional installation.
23:13There is a great deal of money in selling families' annual monitoring contracts
23:17at $600 per year, every year, forever.
23:21So the simple old method sits quiet in the lawns of careful folks who never bought into the contract.
23:27And most American homeowners pay for 30 years of pest control monitoring,
23:33when one afternoon and $25 in materials would have done the same job.
23:38You can be the one who never paid.
23:41So here is what I want you to do.
23:44This week, start saving the plastic water bottles, soda bottles,
23:49and sports drink bottles your household throws away.
23:52Pick the thick walled ones.
23:55Set them aside in a corner of the garage or shed.
23:58Drink your water and your soda the way you already do.
24:02Just stop throwing the bottles into the recycling for a couple of weeks.
24:07This weekend, drive to the hardware store or craft store and pick up one package of balsa wood sticks,
24:14$19, one can of fluorescent orange spray paint, $5, one can of flat black exterior paint, $6,
24:24and a garden auger drill bit, $20.
24:28Total trip cost, about $50.
24:32That setup makes 48 stations and lasts for years.
24:36Set aside one Saturday afternoon to build 20 to 30 stations and install them around your house.
24:44Three to four hours of work.
24:47By Sunday evening, your house is protected by a perimeter of termite monitoring better than what
24:53most professional pest control companies install.
24:57Once a month, 10 minutes, walk the perimeter and check the orange indicators.
25:03That is the entire ongoing maintenance.
25:07Tell me in the comments below, have you ever found termites in your home?
25:11And if so, what did the exterminator charge you?
25:15And if you live in the south where dry wood termites are also a concern,
25:20share what region you are in.
25:22The more of you who share your experience, the more all of us learn about where the methods do
25:27and do not work.
25:29I read every single one.
25:31Next time, since today we covered termite prevention with monitoring stations,
25:37I am going to walk you through the old way our family protects against carpenter ants
25:42and powder post beetles, the other two wood-destroying insects that most homeowners do not think about
25:49until the damage is done.
25:51Same principle, different bait, same low-cost prevention.
25:57Subscribe so you do not miss it.
25:59Until then, save the bottles, cut the balsa, paint the orange, bury the stations, check them monthly,
26:08and remember that the cheapest pest control in the world is sometimes the one already sitting in your recycling bin.
26:16That is how the careful old folks watched for trouble.
26:20That is how it is still done in any home that remembers.
26:24I know you are not going to do with the no-first time,
26:24I am not going to get a major idea to get the money I am going to do this.
26:25I'm going to try and give you a little bit,
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