sean the exterminator from ultra safe pest showed up around 4:00. he told us the reason why they didn't come back and check the wooden stake traps was because those are additional appointments not included in the cost of the original termidor treatment. however, he said they did make a mistake by not putting down poisonous baits on the southern side of the house that didn't receive the termidor treatment (the side where we have our raised bed gardens). he called his supervisor to confirm then started putting down the baited traps.

sean was pretty jovial, feeding us anecdotes from his job. winter time is the slowest period, and many people get laid off or they go take pest management classes to beef up on their extermination game. when sean was a young man he worked at weylu's in saugus, and picked up some cantonese while working at that garish chinese-polynesian restaurant. when i pulled up one of the old wooden stakes crawling with termites, he got all excited and took out his phone to get some photos, his first termites of the season. he put down traps¹ that can use either wooden monitoring pucks or poisonous baits; since there was already termites, he used the baited pucks instead.

¹ the traps he was using were from the advance termite bait control system. i think he said each future appointments to come out and service the traps and add new bait is $80/visit, but the bait cartridges are available for purchase online. the active chemical is diflubenzuron, your typical chitin-inhibiting insecticide. it doesn't pose a high risk to mammals, but does to insects and aquatic life.