When it comes to protecting their homes against termites,
consumers want to know if they get the protection they pay
for.

One way to help ease consumers’ concerns is to teach pest
control operators, and the people who regulate them, the latest
and most effective, environmentally friendly ways to protect
houses.

“One, two, three, go get ’em,” said Dan Suiter as he took a
picture of one of the University of Georgia’s quarterly classes
of termite killers.

Final Exam

Suiter, a UGA Extension Service entomologist and an expert on
controlling termites, directed the class to an odd-looking house
foundation nearby for their final assignment.

It sounded easy enough: Treat the walls of a typical house for
termites, something Curley Chase has done day in and day out for
32 years. “It’s easy until you’ve got the boss looking over your
shoulder,” Chase said.

The “boss” is Meredith Harr, one of the Georgia Department of
Agriculture’s 22 termite inspectors. She and the other inspectors
follow up on 1,900 consumer complaints each year.

“This is the kind of stuff we’ve got to check behind these guys
on,” Harr said.

Versatile Training Center

The training is especially effective because the Georgia
Structural Pest Control Training Center includes a home
foundation built from every type of material used to build
Georgia homes.

From stucco to block to brick to poured foundation, they’re all
available at the training center on the Griffin, Ga., campus of
the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“It allows that technician to get out here and envision what is
behind that wall, what might be behind that brick facade,” Suiter
said.

Lively Discussion

This training’s final exam sparked some lively debate between
operators and inspectors.

“We’re not through yet,” said one inspector.

“I feel like we’re playing survivor here,” said a pest control
technician.

“We are,” the inspector replied.

“It’s kind of a marriage,” Chase said, “of (operators and
inspectors) who at times can be at odds.”

Improving Termite Control

“I think it allows them to better treat the typical Georgian’s
home,” said Suiter, who fielded the questions that emerged from
the class’s final assignment.

The Department of Agriculture, UGA CAES and U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency sponsor the training facility. More than 300
pest control operators and inspectors have trained at the unique
center since it opened in July 1998. They, in turn, train their
co-workers back home.

“I’ll take the time out now to look at a fireplace a lot
differently every time I go up to one,” said Chase at the end of
the session.