My new house has a built in Taexx system, and I have no idea if this is a legitimate pest control system, or a marketing tool for homebuilders.

Anybody have any experience with these systems, and how well they actually work to control bugs a home when used. Particularly spiders.

Never heard of it until now, but here's a video I found just googling Taexx system...interesting

We have the system in our house. I saw the lines that they installed in the wall during build and confirmed they had a nozzle by each penetration into the foundation.

Been in the house over a year now and no pest problems at all. They come every three months and use that to spray inside then they also spray around the outside of the home. I have them come into the house once per year (late spring) to actually spray inside and dust the attic, but they said that's likely overkill.

Wouldn't the insulation absorb the spray?

That's good info thanks. I didn't find the house and start poking around the construction site until the drywall was already up last year, so I have no idea what the system looks like inside my walls. Guess I'll have to cross my fingers and hope it was installed correctly. But hearing that tou have no pest problems in a new build is definitely reassuring.

Who do you use to do the actual spraying? I'm in north DFW suburbs.

texan12 said:

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Wouldn't the insulation absorb the spray?

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It's typically not inside exterior walls, since there are very rarely drains, etc. there. In ours, the two exterior nozzles were shielded from insulation and installed very close to the floor.

John Francis Donaghy said:

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That's good info thanks. I didn't find the house and start poking around the construction site until the drywall was already up last year, so I have no idea what the system looks like inside my walls. Guess I'll have to cross my fingers and hope it was installed correctly. But hearing that tou have no pest problems in a new build is definitely reassuring.

Who do you use to do the actual spraying? I'm in north DFW suburbs.

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We're in San Marcos and HomeTeam does ours. Pretty sure they're a franchise model.

They've been professional and provide a detailed breakdown of any chemicals they used, as well as safety sheet. Pretty standard stuff with the big chains.

There's not much to the installation. Just a tube that runs through your walls. Difficult to mess up, but I understand the hesitation. Neighbors just started using them as well after having some issues and said their pest problems seem to be going away.

- Overall these are an add-on from the builder to
1. increase sell-ability of their product.
and
2. give the Bug Guy ( Home Team Defense) a residual contract forever due to this system.


If you buy a house with this system and don't sign up for pest control - there's like a 1000% chance the installer of the tubes will come by and knock on your door to sell you pest control.


Do they work? In theory , not really.

Can they benefit? Better than not having them I suppose.


What happens to the fine amount of chemical being spraying into the insulation in which a spider is unlikely to be? not alot .

Will the Tubes last many years? Tubes are installed during construction.. a rip, a tear, or a kink to a very thin tube deems them useless inside your wall.

Will it stop bugs ( Spiders/ Scorpions) from coming inside your weeps holes, and up into the attic? No, the tubes are usually 100% surrounded by the insulation and there's a barrier and piece of ply wood in-between.

- IMO just make sure your getting 100% expected pest control service as normal, not a tech just spraying a tiny amount into these tubes. Bugs live on your entire property

EcoZapp.Makes.Crisp.Air said:

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- Overall these are an add-on from the builder to
1. increase sell-ability of their product.
and
2. give the Bug Guy ( Home Team Defense) a residual contract forever due to this system.


If you buy a house with this system and don't sign up for pest control - there's like a 1000% chance the installer of the tubes will come by and knock on your door to sell you pest control.


Do they work? In theory , not really.

Can they benefit? Better than not having them I suppose.


What happens to the fine amount of chemical being spraying into the insulation in which a spider is unlikely to be? not alot .

Will the Tubes last many years? Tubes are installed during construction.. a rip, a tear, or a kink to a very thin tube deems them useless inside your wall.

Will it stop bugs ( Spiders/ Scorpions) from coming inside your weeps holes, and up into the attic? No, the tubes are usually 100% surrounded by the insulation and there's a barrier and piece of ply wood in-between.

- IMO just make sure your getting 100% expected pest control service as normal, not a tech just spraying a tiny amount into these tubes. Bugs live on your entire property

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Your first two points are correct. Of course it's meant to increase marketability as well as provide a residual contract. That's business. Doesn't mean anything one way or the other on the product working.

As I said before, it doesn't spray it into insulation. And isn't surrounded by insulation, either. Thankfully I was able to inspect mine during construction for any issues. Also, it doesn't claim to do half the other stuff you mentioned.

They spray all exterior entry points and your yard as part of the service and also provide interior service if you want it for the same price.

They do this plus the ports at the same price as several of my other quotes (and with the same chemicals). Just one anecdotal new build here that hasn't had any pest issues since they started coming.

I have it in my Trendmaker Home (which My wife and I watched carefully during the build process) and I think it's 95% gimmick and 5% useful.

I followed around the Home Team guys on a number of occasions and the first thing I noticed was that they only occasionally accessed the injection ports. So I asked em why. The answer was that to do the job properly you still had to do x, y, and z. The in wall stuff was the cherry on the cake so to speak.

Anyways, I fired Home Team and tried a pest control company run by a friend of mine. 2/3 the cost but with no ability to access the in wall stuff. Result: no difference. Live and learn........right?

- what I'm getting at is that the tubes are drilled thru mainly the exterior 2x6's, similar to electrical lines.

After tubes and electrical lines are ran, insulation is stuffed over everything. Homebuilders that install tubes usually do a better job of envelope sealing than most ( they want to sell a better house - hence the upgrades)

The tubes in theory become located in a spot where no bugs really 'could' go. Pests coming from the outside into a home don't really have the ability to cross the barrier where the tubes lay.

I'd be curious what kind of PSI is inputed through the injection port and how many holes per foot of tube. I can't imagine evenly distributed spray throughout the tubing.

Those tubes are a joke and will never kill a single bug.


*Full disclosure- My family owns a pest control company and we've been in business for over 70 years

Our last home had taexx. Service was higher than competitors. It is also proprietary and competitors can't use their lines.

We dropped it after a year and went cheaper. No issues with lower cost service.

This was years ago, I don't recall the costs.

How much are y'all's cheaper pest services? Ours is pretty cheap with home team already, but willing to shop around.

Buck Compton said:

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How much are y'all's cheaper pest services? Ours is pretty cheap with home team already, but willing to shop around.

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- Our General Pest Services in Houston / Austin ( and everywhere in between) start this year for ~$400 / per year and is a bit different than most/ includes some extra perks

(. there's likely pretty decent discounts for TexAgs members )

$12 pack of Demon from Tractor supply covers my whole house for a year. Makes 4 gallons of spray per pack and I can cover my house exterior and all window seals with 1 gallon in my sprayer. If i do inside, its $12 per 6 months. No company comes close to this and the chemical is top of the line killer.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/demon-wp-insecticide-in-water-soluble-packets

This plus bifen applications to my yard every quarter, i never have bug problems and this got rid of the chiggers I had my first year (Hate those *******s)

We have the system in our new house. My understanding and what I observed during construction is the tubes are only run to wet areas of the house and anywhere you have penetrations through the slab. The holes in the tubing are only located in the parts of the tubes that run about 12 inches up from the bottom of the walls. Each wet area and penetrations through the slab had a primary and secondary set of tubes ran to the area, then they all terminate at the port located on an exterior wall. I was able to look at the tubing before the dry wall went up. They run two set of tubes in case one gets cut or damaged during the build process.

I talked with the pest control guy and watched him spray the stuff at the port a couple of times. They basically spray the chemical in the line, then use compressed CO2 to push the material through the line until it empties out of the tubes. When I asked how he knows it went out, he said you can feel a pressure difference. They also spray the yard, treat all the weep holes, spray entry ways and windows, then come inside and spray the base boards. If you notice any bugs they will come back out for free and spray again. The service cost us $99 a quarter, which was comparable to the other quotes we received from other companies. Does it work, who knows, but we have not had an issue with bugs or spiders yet.

As an owner/operator, we wish it was our system simply based on how many new homes they're installed in.

However, it's not all it's cracked up to be effectiveness wise.

Remodeled our bathroom last year and the tubing was simply just run behind all the insulation. Kinked in several spots as well.

Again, wish we were in on this money train though

I just moved into a new home with this pest defense system. I am working on a project (creating a dog den underneath the staircase which was closed in). In doing that, I had to cut through the wall to put a dog door in. I ended up cutting through one stud which had two runs of the pest defense tubing, but now need to re-route the tubes through the new frame I put in.

Even though I have no plans to use the system, I don't want to just cut the tubes (in case I ever end up selling the house), so wondering if anyone knows where I may be able to find some extra tubing, and some extenders?

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al8pjwzstsSSgZ8hsrAxXu3BbvJIow?e=ieGx8S