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 This invention is generally related to apparatus and methods for detecting and monitoring termite activity and for illustrative purposes reference will be made to such application. However, it is to be understood that this invention may be adapted to other colony or infestation insects such as fire ants, black ants, cockroaches or the like based on their natural instincts of colonisation.
 Termites, often called white ants, cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to buildings in Australia alone, let alone with considering the damage cause throughout the world each year. There are a large number of different species of termite in Australia, but only about six subterranean species are serious pests with one of those, “coptotermes ancinaciformis” being responsible for more economic loss than all the other Australian species combined.
 Termites are social insects living together in complex societies where thousands to millions of individuals act together as one entity. The termite society is typically made up of a single queen, who may live up to 50 years, and a shorter lived and replaceable king, soldiers, workers and alates. The workers live for several years and are sterile, blind and work non-stop 24 hour a day. The subterranean species builds galleries or tubes underground and usually travel in the uppermost 40 mm of soil where tunnelling is easier and where food sources are more plentiful. This is because they cannot tolerate light.
 The primary function of the worker is to gather cellulose, which is found in timber, cardboard and paper products. Accordingly, it is the worker that causes the structural damage to buildings whilst looking for a suitable food source to support the termite nest. When a worker locates a food source, they emit pheromones that are detected and enhanced by other workers, thereby attracting large numbers to the located food source. The workers then digest and transport cellulose back to the nest that may be more than 100 metres away from the food source.
 There is known a number of different methods in the art that are currently employed to attempt to control termite infestation. A primary method of preventing termite infestation for many years has been to apply a chemical treatment of the soil under and around buildings to attempt to create a chemical barrier. However, some of the chemicals used in the past have been highly toxic, for example, organochlorins, which are now believed to be carcinogenic and use of which has been banned in Australia since 1995. Other less toxic chemicals, particularly, organophosphates such as those sold under the trade marks “Dursban” (chlorpyrifos) and “Biflex” (synthetic pyrethroid) are now widely used. Although these poisons have a shorter active life than the organochlorins and residual problems are significantly lessened they are still dangerous and environmentally unfriendly. Further, in order to maintain a suitable barrier to termite infestation, re-treatments need to be done every one to three years, depending on soil type, building type, climate, location and other factors. In many cases, the chemical barrier is leached from the soil around buildings by heavy rain with the result that the chemical barrier is interrupted or destroyed altogether thereby leaving the building open to attack by termites.
 Various mechanical barriers are also available. One well known mechanical barrier which has been used in Australia for many years is an “Antcap”. Antcaps are typically constructed of galvanised steel and are placed on top of the underfloor piers and stumps of buildings to form a barrier to paths which termites might take from the ground into the building such as through the stumps. Another mechanical barrier sold under the trade mark “Termi-mesh” is a stainless steel gauze type fabric which is installed beneath concrete slabs and foundations, within wall cavities, between courses of bricks or immediately on top of the damp course layer. Another mechanical barrier sold under the trade mark “Granitgard” provides a layer of crushed rock of uniform particle size and is installed in similar positions to Termi-mesh.
 All of these methods described may provide barriers to termites, but in practice do not significantly contribute to the detection and monitoring of termites around buildings and once these so-called barriers are breached the termites can rapidly infest and destroy the building. The breaches may be made by human error or by the fact that termites have been known to chew through brick, mortar, concrete, plastics, rubber and even some metals in a relentless search for a food source. Though the workers are blind, they constantly are constantly foraging. As such, if there is a minor breach in a mechanical barrier it is likely that a termite with find this breach.
 Other methods of controlling termite infestation rely on baiting the termite with “bait stations” that are hopeful to entice the termites to the bait station in lieu of a building and if enticed the termites are hopefully then eradicated before they can locate the building. Known bait stations in the art generally require the installation of numerous small “station” containers in selected locations around a building with food suitable for termites in the containers. The bait stations are manually checked on a regular basis and when termite-activity is noticed, the food is replaced by new food laced with a toxicant which is then taken to the nest by the worker termites, where it affects the entire colony, through them ingesting the secretions of others, grooming, and eating the dead and dying termites. Such type of toxicant will be referred to hereinafter as a “carrier poison”.
 There are a number of bait stations well known in the art that comprises an outer housing that is implanted into the ground with an inner housing that contains a food source for termites. These bait stations require continuous manual inspection and if termites are detected then the food source is removed and the bait saturated with a termite toxin is then substituted into the inner housing. However,
 Another method of controlling termites relies on worker termites transporting a carrier poison to the nest and involves dusting a number of worker termites with a poison, particularly arsenic trioxide, which they then carry to the nest when they return with food and the same process results in the death of the colony. Various methods of dusting termites are used, for example, dusting existing termite galleries and relying on the termites to pick up sufficient dust as they move through the galleries. The problem with this method is that it requires the ability to accumulate the capture of a sufficient amount of termites to allow efficient dusting that will eventually destroy the queen and the nest.
 The various methods of the prior art provide many disadvantages. We have found various desirable methods and apparatus for detecting and monitoring termite activity that may not unnecessarily disturb the termite activity until sufficient numbers of termites have accumulated to enable a more effective application of termite toxicant or carrier poison to captured termites that will hopefully provide the most effective means of destroy a termite nest.
 This invention resides in one aspect resides in termite detection and monitoring apparatus including:
 a container configured to hold a quantity of termite attractive food, the container having at least one access opening to enable termite access to the food;
 a termite interceptor adapted to direct termites into the container, one end of the interceptor communicating with an access opening of the container and the other end of the interceptor extending in a direction away from the container, and
 a termite activity indicator associated with the container adapted to indicate a predetermined level of termite activity in the container.
 The container may include one or more walls defining a chamber having a food input opening and a removable closure adapted to close the opening. The chamber is adapted to contain the food attractive to termites. Preferably, there is a plurality of access openings. The chamber may be partitioned into two or more sectioned levels.
 In preferred embodiments, the interceptor includes a food source located within a gallery in order to entice termites into the container via communication with an access opening. The interceptor may communicate with at least one access opening of the container by any suitable means. Suitably, the interceptor is arranged so that the galleries extend into or communicate with the termite collection containers to allow termite access into the container. Accordingly, the termites travelling in the galleries can enter a termite collection container to obtain food which is placed therein. Suitably, the interceptors are positioned so that a termite is more likely to strike the interceptor than a building or other commercial structure.
 Suitably the termite interceptor may be installed at least part way around a building so that the likelihood that termite infestation is more likely to occur in the interceptor or collection container than the building. The interceptor may be considered an invention in its own right and is defined in more detail below.
 The termite activity indicator may include any device that emits any suitable signal upon infestation of the container so that a suitable monitoring and/or control procedure may be put into action. The emitted signal may include a visual, electrical, infrared, radio, wireless satellite, GPS or any other telemetric signal that can be suitably registered for action.
 There are various number of other indicators that may be used to continually monitor the activity of termite infestation of the container once initial termite activity has been registered. These indicators may include viewers that allow optical viewing of the contents of the container with our disturbing any infesting termites or may include an tube extending therethough the depth of the container, the tuber containing a termite food source such that upon extraction of the tube from the container a viewer can visually inspect the extent of termite activity in the container.
 Once a sufficient amount of termites has been detected in the container, the pests may be controlled as a result of ingesting or otherwise contacting a toxicant. The subject invention has been discovered to be highly effective in controlling even extremely large termite colonies. Advantageously, the control method utilizes very small amounts of toxicant, and this toxicant is applied in a strictly defined and controlled manner to minimize exposure of the environment to toxicants. The use of toxicant is confined in terms of the very limited quantity and coverage of the toxicant, and in terms of the period during which the toxicant is used. Once control is attained, the monitoring step can continue.
 Suitably, the termites that aggregate and are detected in the container may be removed, dusted and then returned to the site of activity. A preferred method which for controlling the termites once sufficient activity is detected in the container relies on worker termites transporting a carrier poison to the nest via dusting of a sufficient number of worker termites with a poison, particularly arsenic trioxide, which they then carry to the nest when they return with food and the same process results in the death of the colony. Whichever strategy is employed, success suitably depends on the aggregated termites taking a slow-acting toxin back to the nest which eventually kills or suppresses the colony.
 Triflumuron may also be a suitably dust applicant depending on the registration requirements of a relevant country. Various biological control may also be employed to control the termite infestation.
 Thought the preferred termite toxicant is arsenic trioxide, a number of chitin-synthesis inhibitors have developed. For example, hexaflumuron and triflumuron and metabolic inhibitors such as hydramethylnon and sulfluramid have been found to have delayed activity against some termites. As a bait toxicant, they can be used to manage foraging populations of subterranean termite colonies, thereby reducing damage potential.
 Thought the preferred embodiment of this invention resides in at least partially installing the above described apparatus in the ground, the invention could just as easily be installed within a building. For example, the container and the termite activity indicator could be installed within a wall cavity and the interceptor could extend further into the wall cavity and behind skirting boards. It is to be understood that a person skilled in the art would be to camouflage termite detection and monitoring apparatus of the invention within the structure of a building using the skills they have already acquired without undue research and/or experimentation.
 In a further aspect, the invention may reside a method of detecting and/or monitoring termite infestation of a building including:
 providing a termite interceptor as previously described within the vicinity of a building to be protected;
 providing a termite collection container and providing communication between the termite interceptor and the container to termite access openings to enable of travel termites from the interceptor into collection container, and providing a termite activity indicator associated with the container to detect a predetermined level of termite activity in the container,
 wherein upon detection a predetermined level of termite activity within the contain treatment steps are undertaken to treat the termites collected in the collection container with a carrier poison.
 In a still further aspect, this inventions resides in a termite interceptor adapted to be installed in the ground, the interceptor having one or more walls defining an elongate gallery extending over substantially the full length of the interceptor and being adapted to contain therein a quantity of food attractive to termites, a plurality of termite access openings in at least one of said one or more walls adapted to provide access for termites to said gallery from the adjacent ground, and a food input opening in one of said one or more walls adapted to allow placement of food for termites in said gallery.
 The gallery may have a food input opening or openings along substantially its full length adapted to receive therethrough the food attractive to termites. Suitably, the food input opening or openings are adapted to close by a removable closure or closures. The termite attractive food may be a piece of timber that is adapted to be arranged in the gallery to engage at least one wall containing the termite access opening.
 In further aspect the invention resides in a termite collection container including:
 one or more walls defining a chamber having a food input opening, said chamber being adapted to contain food attractive to termites and a removable closure adapted to close said food input opening;
 a termite access opening in at least one of said one or more walls to provide access for termites to said chamber;
 a termite activity indicator operatively connected to said chamber and adapted to indicate a predetermined level of termite activity in said chamber, and actuating means for actuating said termite activity indicator.
 In a preferred form said actuation means includes a food article which is particularly attractive to termites which when eaten by termites in the chamber allows the termite activity indicator to move from a non-activity indicating position to an activity indicating position. Suitably movement to a termite activity indicating position may enable the emission of a visual, electrical, infrared, radio, wireless satellite, GPS or any other telemetric signal to enable a householder, a professional or other monitoring station to register the termite activity to enable action to control and/or exterminate the termite activity.
 In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention wherein:
 The termite interceptor
 A substantially U-shaped gallery
 A lower wall portion
 It can be seen that the closure
 A plurality of slots
 As can be seen in
 The termite interceptor
 The gallery
 As can be seen in
 As can be seen in
 An activity indicator assembly is installed in the termite collection container as indicated generally at
 At the time of installation the indicator rod
 As second embodiment of an activity indicator assembly is illustrated in FIGS.
 As such, the indicator flag
 If termites have managed to gain entry into the container
 An advantage of this second type of activity indicator assembly is that the indicator
 In other embodiments of the activity indicator assembly, the movement of the indicator rod
 When the householder notices that the indicator rod
 The container
 In use, the galleries
 The bait
 When it is determined that there are sufficient termites in the container
 The dusted or otherwise treated termites are placed back into the lower and middle chambers of the container
 After a suitable amount of time has passed since release of the captured termites, the container
 One of the advantages of the apparatus and methods for termite detecting and monitoring termite activity is that the system allows for the collection of a sufficient amount of termites to provide
 The present invention also encompasses a remote monitoring system for monitoring of termite activity within a designated area. In preferred embodiments, the remote monitoring system utilises the apparatus and methods used to detect and monitor termite activity described in Example 1. The only requirement to enable remote monitoring is that upon registering termite activity in the container
 The emitted data signal may be electrical, infrared, radio, wireless, satellite, GPS or any other suitable telemetric signal. It is to be understood that the technology to emit and register such data signals is well known technology. Accordingly, it would not be an undue burden for a person skilled in the art to adapt the known technology or any other technology that may become available in the future to the present invention of remote termite monitoring systems.
 The emitted signal may be registered by any appropriate means. For example, the signal may be registered by a computer that generates a suitable response to enable action such as by telephone call, an email or any other suitable alert mechanism. Suitably, the data signal also includes address information so that the registrant can determine where the termite activity is located and thereby they can act immediately in order to control the termites.
 Suitably the remote monitoring system of the invention is hard wired such that if the means that enables the data signal to be emitted is disabled or if the means to register the signal at the base station is disabled, then a suitable message can be transmitted either to the householder and/or to the monitoring station in order that they may rectify the disablement.
 An advantage of the remote monitoring system is that the need for regulated on-site manual inspections may be reduced or avoided all together. Essentially the remote monitoring system of the invention can be regulated similarly to an intruder or fire alarm system. Upon registering an emitted data signal that indicates termite activity, a professional can then conduct an on-site inspection to determine the extent of the termite activity and to place implement suitably procedures to control and hopefully exterminate the originating termite colony/
 It will of course be realised that while the foregoing has been given by way of illustrative example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is herein set forth.