Iolani Palace, shown here in a January 1996 commemoration ceremony, will undergo termite treatment using a new method.
Photo by Terry Luke, Star-Bulletin

About 150 to 200 Sentricon bait stations will be placed around the palace, the bandstand, the state archives building and the old barracks building now used for a gift shop.

Seven Hawaii pest control companies will do the work at no charge, said Steve Fleming, the Sentricon specialist in Hawaii for Dow Elanco, the company that manufactures Sentricon.

Iolani Palace has been battling termites for many years, and using conventional tenting and chemical treatments. But, the chemical treatments require holes to be drilled and this is destructive to the building, Fleming said.

Iolani Palace bandstand sits amidst banyan trees with termite infestations.
Photo by Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

The Sentricon system involves putting bait stations in the ground around structures; first attracting the termites with wood in the ground, and then substituting the bait tubes. The tubes contain a poison that termites take back to the colony, according to Dow Elanco.

Coreen Chun, assistant curator at Iolani Palace, said there hasn't been a lot of damage at the palace but there are signs of the termites coming back.

Fleming said that the bandstand was hit hard in 1914, and fell apart after termite damage. "The banyan trees are crawling with termites," he added.

Final details still have not been settled, but Fleming said he expects the work to be done in mid-November. There have been 1,850 Sentricon installations in Hawaii since the product was introduced for testing here in 1994, he said.

Fleming said the companies volunteering to do the work are: Hauoli Pest Control Inc.; Diversified Exterminators; Hawaii Insect Control Corp.; Environ Control Inc.; Gima Termite Co.; Accu-Pest on Maui and Hilo Termite on the Big Island.