Re: What is an effective deterrent to termites?

Thank you for your questions



1.) Yes, ants and termites are enemies. Usually the termites serve ants as food 
and the termites try to avoid this. There are ant species specialised in 
termites. Nearly 100% of their protein comes from termites. 
If you just wait and see with your case, the most probable outcome is, that both 
colonies will survive. The termites will try to keep away from the ants (with 
success) and from time to time the ants will get some of the termites.

2.) Termites dont like light, low humidity and cold temperatures. But as a means 
to keep them away from e.g. a building in an area where climate is favouable I 
doubt that you will find alternatives to chemicals. There's always 
mechanical, I suppose.  

3.) Cold is certainly a factor in termite range, but I 
suspect they will survive a Texas winter. But cold is the reason, why you dont 
find termites in northern Europe or Canada.

For more information you should check out the University Extension Service web 
pages in Texas.  
University Extension makes it their business to know how to deal with pesky 
stuff like termites.  Often they charge for assistance by phone (too bad) but on 
the web their information should be accessible and FREE.  Use a standard search 
engine for University Extension or Extension Service and then narrow the search 
with terms like Texas and termites.  I find Infoseek is excellent for such 
boolean searches.  

Good luck.