No time for lunch as exterminators battle termites
Print Edition
THE annual battle between local homeowners and invading termites is well and truly under way, the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau said yesterday.
People have been reporting evidence of the diminutive pests since February, and these are likely to continue until the end of June, the bureau said.
Zhou Songxin, an exterminator with Shanghai Xufang Greenery Co in Xuhui District, said that the yearly conflict with the tenacious ticks is most definitely on.
“Termites love older homes that feature a lot of wood and brickwork,” he said.
“Xuhui has a lot of buildings like that so the area is a hotbed for termite activity.”
Since the start of the month, Xufang has been receiving about 30 calls a day from worried residents, some of whom are expats, Zhou said.
On its busiest day, the company received 100 calls and its seven exterminators were rushed off their feet, he said.
“Some people even had to skip their lunch breaks just to meet the demand,” he said.
An exterminator surnamed Tu who works for rival firm Zhangzhai Property Management Co in Jing’an District, said he has been getting calls for help since late last month.
“Though the volume of calls is about the same as last year, the number of termites involved in each case is higher than last year,” he said.
The mini-mites thrive in warm and humid conditions, and while they love eating their way through Shanghai’s aging wooden homes, they do not limit themselves to residential property.
An official from the Shanghai Meteorological Observatory in the Xujiahui area of the city said the managers of the 100-year-old building have been waging war on the termites for many years.
Large sections of the mostly wooden structure have had to be treated to stop the antsy ants from nibbling it into oblivion, the person said.
Despite the battle between man and mite, the art of fighting the insatiable insects seems itself to be at risk of dying out.
Exterminators are not well paid and few young people are willing to join the profession, an industry insider said.
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