Re-baiting Sentricon stations

I have a house that I bought a little over a year ago. Termite inspection at time of sale last spring found no termite activity or signs of damage. The previous owners had installed a Sentricon system themselves and left it with the house. They showed me an online site where they were getting supplies. They said they had a very localized infestation in a shed about 25 feet from the house in 2009 and raised the shed on solid concrete blocks after that. They also installed the Sentricon system all around the entire house and shed at that time with 32 total stations using wood sticks. As expected, they soon got hits in a few stations near the shed and installed the active bait sticks in all at that time. They said activity stopped within a year and no more live activity was found since. From what I have read, it looks like they did it right. They kept bait current after that by replacing any bait sticks that appeared worn each year. I got around to checking all the stations myself a few weeks ago during this spring and found no live activity in any of them, but most of them had some grooves in them, and one broke in half. Since I was unsure about the actual ages of them, I bought new, sealed Recruit HD bait sticks identical to the ones currently used. My question is, should I replace the old bait sticks that show most wear with the new ones and go on as the previous owner was doing, or should I clean out the stations and go back to the wood sticks until I see live activity? I have seen some discussion about new colonies avoiding old stations that were used by a killed out colony. I paid good money for the new bait sticks and want to make sure that I don’t waste them by just dropping them into the old previously used stations.

 

I haven’t done much termite baiting but I think I would tend to go with pine stakes as monitors first and bait as needed. First I would learn the expiration date of the bait on hand. That could change my mind if the date was relatively close. Make sure you store the unused bait according to label directions.

I wouldn’t “clean” the old stations to any great degree. I wouldn’t want to even remove them unless I had to. Minimize impact on the stations.

I don’t know if new colonies would avoid previously used stations or not. I would also do research on every termite bait manufacturers website to learn more about that though it sounds like you’ve done your homework well.

Hope this helps.