Beware of white ants

In the so-called colonial era, I recall that my Dutch teacher used to state that teak wood is the best wood in the world, a house built of teakwood would last forever. The wood is so hard, it easily withstood the ferocity of white ants. However, that was half a century ago and times have changed.

Recently many people have complained of the harassment they suffer from white ants. A customer of my company saw, to his consternation, the roof of his shop cave in without warning; fortunately nobody was under the roof, otherwise they would have been "goners".

Another acquaintance of mine tried to prevent the "small devils" from entering his house by injecting the surrounding ground with a special chemical on the advise of a housing expert. It cost him a couple of million rupiah, but to no avail. The termites kept coming.

The house I live in at present is being repaired because the roof is on the verge of collapse. Although it was built of teakwood before World War Two, believe it or not, even the wall behind my forty year old wedding photo has not been spared by these ferocious termites.

From all that has been said, we can draw the conclusion that present day termites are apparently immune to all preventive methods or chemicals.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta