I know I'm late to the discussion. Fipronil trench is a perfect solution to preventing termites from getting into your walls. It is a very labor intensive job, and a homeowner can accomplish this if dedicated to the job. In conjunction to this, exercise the bait stations in and around the perimeter of your house. You can also create your own termite killing bait stations. Get some pine garden stakes, a 5 gallon bucket. Mix a super concentrated solution of fipronil in some water, soak the garden stakes in the solution for several weeks, occasionally stir the solution with the stakes about every 2-3 days. Hammer stakes in the ground around your house. Termites cannot detect the fipronil, will eat on the stakes, bring the poison back to the colony and destroy the hive. Use the old solution of fipronil around dark damp areas surrounding your home to amend your barrier. Agee with other post; the chemical deterrent barriers simply don't work and the termites will find the area that is deficient in treatment, whereas the undetectable barrier is the Trojan horse. You can find this stuff on domyownpestcontrol.com or Amazon Love that website. BTW, I use Taurus SC as opposed the more expensive Termidor SC. Now, back to the question. How do I keep the termites out of my garden, and to stop eating away at the planter box. Here is my intentions. On the bottom of the planter, spread a grip load of diatomaceous earth down nice and even with special attention around the wood areas, lay a weed block barrier down. Apply a plastic barrier between the planter box and the garden dirt (stapled). Wet the planter box boards and rub diatomaceous earth (DE) on the boards (use rubber gloves), and as you work your way to the top of keep pouring DE between the plastic sheet and boards. Cover the top of the boards with the plastic sheet to the other side and down about an inch. The diatomaceous earth (if ingested by any bug, will rip their intestines apart and keep grub and termites from coming from the bottom of your planter). Not sure if this is going to work, but it is plausible in my mind. In one growing season, the termites have eaten about halfway through my pine 2x10's! Nasty critters.

Thank you for the follow ups. I actually only see regular ants outdoors crawling up the gutters. I have not seen the large carpenter ants. Thus, I went with OrkinÂs diagnosis that it was regular ants, and their claim that such ants can cause the little piles of fine sawdust (with tiny any remants) IÂve seen on my back porch extension. ItÂs impossible to know whom to believe. I have a termite policy with Orkin and they insist the problem is not termites and they tell me the dust is too dry for there to be a moisture problem in the walls. I get conflicting opinions from all the companies  leading me to wonder if they are either dishonest or, at best, incompetent. Even within the same company I get disagreement. Two representatives from one company told me carpenter ants and termites canÂt coexist. Another rep. from their company told me the 2 can coexist. He also told me that termites never leave piles of dust, which is what I see.

You will not need to repair the damage if the wee buggers do not get into the wood in the first place, but once they are there then you need to repair the damage done and both need to be done together, get rid of the termites and repair the damage. Repairing the damage without getting rid of the problem makes no sense and getting rid of the cause without repairing the, mostly, structural damage would not be a good thing to do, either.

You said that your building contractor made this deal? I sure don't like the sound of that. Ken....why is it that you don't have to worry about termites? MSU states: "Termites are an important wood-destroying pest in Michigan." What's the deal? Maybe the problem isn't as pervasive as it can be in other locations. Subterranean termites are sneaky critters. I think that there is a misconception that they are found only (or mostly) in warmer locations.