Bertram33 User Forum

As my 77 -33 cockpit is down to the bare glass repalcing the fuel tank I decided to rebuild the last of anything made of raw wood. In pulling of the side access panels that were made of light wood covered with some fabric I found flying ants, small ants and indications of tunnels which look like termite tracks in the panel and the backing strip that the mounting screws. I am having a exterminator come and take a look but my mechanics just viewed a 28 last week as well that has termites in the stateroom wood and other open rough wood areas. Anyone of you Florida owners have any experience with this issue? I realy dont want to tent the whole boat but it could be a disaster it not properly taken care of.

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I'm hearing these stories more & more. One guy had a teak & holly plywood floor down for only a few years. He recently found out it was getting destroyed by termites. Everything I have read says the only answer is to tent the boat. Al

My boat had termites at one point in time before I owed it. They were in the cabinets on the Stb. side. I had it checked twice, and the Termite guy did a local treatment. But....when I repowered and took out the cabinets and the Stb. aft bulkhead there was major damage, and they were still at it. I think it cost me about $700 to tent the boat using a Company that was familiar doing boats. It was on the hard, so it got sealed up pretty well. They can do them in the water too. I was going to replace the bulkhead and the inside of the cabinets anyway. If anyone in So. Fl. needs the name of the company, I have it here somewhere. Gene Dugan Boca Raton, Fl. "Nauti Marie" 1989 33 FBC 2007 8.1 Crusaders

My last boat had a run in with termites also. I used Tomasello pest control base in West Palm Beach to take care of it. They tented the boat while it was still in the water. It ended up not being too big a deal. Chuck, the owner of Tomasello explained that termites in boats is not to uncommon in Florida, especially with boats that visit the Bahamas. If you have them, getting them cleared up right away is the right thing to do. Good luck, R.

Termites, that is part of Florida. Remember that drywood termites have no waist, ants do have a waist, so if the body is the same width all the way down, you may very well have termites. If you see tiny golden brown droppings that look like cofee grounds, it might be termites. You can spot treat them, but the best bet is to tent the boat on land to kill them all.

Happy to report it was some type of nat that even the exterminators had not seen that is in my Palm trees along my dock. They gave me some killer stuff to spray in all the bare wood type areas. About $350 a gallon but dries on the surface and kills anything for months.