No, the Advance Termite Bait Cartridge II should not be used before the Inspection Cartridges. When using the Advance Termite Bait System you would place all stations with the wood base and monitoring and inspection cartridge in the ground from the start. Once you start to see activity in a station during your quarterly checks, you will look to see how many of the discs in the inspection cartridge have been eaten. You should be able to see what looks like 3 discs through the clear sides of the inspection cartridge, and you should only take that cartridge out and replace it with the bait cartridge in when at least 1.5 to 2 discs have been eaten. This is to ensure that the termites are fully hitting those stations as their primary food source. Once they have eaten those discs, you will remove the inspection cartridge, replace it with the bait cartridge, and leave it alone until the termite colony has been eliminated, which can take roughly 90 days. You will ONLY put the bait cartridge in the stations that have activity, not in stations that have no activity or very little. If after 90 days there is still activity in the stations or the cartridge is empty, then you can put another bait cartridge in that station. Once the colony is eliminated you will replace them with a new inspection cartridge.
If you already have activity, it is recommended that you use a liquid, such as Termidor SC, around the perimeter of your home.
We do also now have the Trelona Direct Baiting Kit available, which is installed with bait in each station.
The diameter of the Advance Termite Bait cartridge is 2.70". You should note that manufacturer intends for you to use the wood base and the inspection cartridge first to lure the termites in. In can take many, many months (even years) to get termite activity in a station, and if you deploy the poison bait cartridge first, the cartridge could degrade and need to be changed before you ever see acticity in the stations. We would recommend purchasing our Advance Termite Bait System Kit for the best installation.
Once the Advance Termite Bait Cartridge has been placed in the bait station, you cannot remove it and store it for future use. You must dispose of the bait cartridge after removing from the station when no more activity is present. Once it is placed in the station it is exposed to moisture which would be hard to get completely out. Then placing it in a plastic bag provided the perfect environment for mold and wood rot to set in. This is why the station turned black.
Advance Termite Bait Cartridge II is no longer available and has been replaced with the Trelona Compressed Termite Bait. If termite activity is detected in your termite bait stations, the Inspection Cartridge is replaced with the Trelona bait. The termites will consume the bait and take some back to the queen to eliminate the colony. This could take up to three months or more depending on the size of the colony. Most termite bait active ingredients do work by disrupting the molting process.