THE ANSWER

Yes Yes I know that the picture was too small. That's what happens when we try to get smart and edit it! Congrats to Joy S. who was the closest to the answer. Your dollar is on the way! Really. This is a kudzu guard for power lines. We had never seen this before and thought it was pretty ingenious. Stay tuned for the next "What is it".

STRANGE SIGHTINGS

Tell me what this is and win a dollar. (picture above)

We saw this truck on the way home from Martha's grandma's house. I have seen some unusual vehicles in my time but this one is pretty strange. The funny thing is, he has used screws to attach the plates to his truck. He has also put them on the sides of the truck as well. Most of these plates kind of go together, NASCAR, John Deere, Confederate Flags times 2, the Duke plate just somehow doesn't belong. You have to admire his creativity.

Termites 101

This is just something I saw when I was in school. Termites work in the dark, so how do they know where they are going? There are pheremones emitted by termites that enable them to travel in the shelter tubes that they build and in the wood that they are working in without losing their way.

No, you just can't "get something from Lowe's"

Termite damage in a baseboard.

Our 100 gallon spray rig.

Drilling holes through a concrete slab to reach the termites in the soil.

Wall and slab after treatment.

When I find termites at peoples homes I always get asked "can't I just get something from Lowe's to take care of this?" I wish that I could say yes, but termite treatments require a little more than a spray can. The first picture is a pretty mild termite infestation, the termites went through the wall and wound up eating through a bookshelf and into some books. We injected chemical into the holes that we drilled in the slab as well as the cinder block wall. The idea is to break the termites contact with the soil so that it kills the termites while providing a protective chemical barrier for your home. Termites must have a source of moisture to live, most of the time this source is the soil. In some rare cases leaky roofs and pipes provide this source making them very hard to detect. Again, this is a rare situation and I have only seen it a few times over the past 10 years. Termite treatments aren't by any stretch rocket science, but like anything else you need to know what you are doing. Some of the hazards faced in this particular treatment were underground utilities and electrical wires in the wall. You just have to be careful, and think before drill and inject chemical. To end, I would just say that your home is the largest investment that most people make, it pays to have your home inspected at least once a year. Sure treatments are expensive, but repair cost are often much higher and you would still need to have the home treated after the repairs.