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I facetiously recommended a tactical thermonuclear explosive in a comment below, but on a more serious note, this was an issue of national security and surely t

I facetiously recommended a tactical thermonuclear explosive in a comment below, but on a more serious note, this was an issue of national security and surely they should have just used eminent domain to oust these people from their homes and then used some radical scorched earth solution as you suggest to just destroy this menace without prejudice. The British government is normally very judicious with eminent domain and will destroy your home if it is causing an unpleasant wind diversion for some species of rare seagull.

mschuster91 5y ago
Destroying the homes was out of the question as the article states, the danger of spreading even a couple of reproduce-capable termites was too high.
- jacobr1 5y ago
  I didn't understand that part. Sure, a conventional demolition, where debris is carted off to the landfill wouldn't work in this case. But surely onsite burning would do the trick?
  - bell-cot 5y ago
    Termites can dig very deep. The final inspection went 30 meters down. Burning down 30m into the earth would require something far beyond what "onsite burning" usually involves. (Hence the "small subterranean fusion bomb" comment from kingcharles.)
    - at_a_remove 5y ago
      I sometimes have very weird and destructive thoughts, but I have often wondered if it were possible to take thermite and pack it, make it stable and rigid somehow, enough that it could be made into a long rod, like rebar, suitable for pounding into the earth. Then you surround your nest or whatever with a bunch of rods, run one through the middle, set them alight and let them just burn down however many yards. Thirty meters, though ... whew.
      - maxerickson 5y ago
        Drilling and filling would probably work better. I guess by the time you got enough thermite in the ground it wouldn't be very efficient.
      - bell-cot 5y ago
        Outside of sci-fi and some very arid environments, rapid extreme heating of large quantities of soil will produce big steam explosions. Which might spread some relatively unheated, termite-laden clods of earth over a wide area. In a different context (limited quantities of soil with extremely heavy chemical contamination), I have seen serious proposals to drive heavy electrodes deep into the soil, gradually apply very large currents (avoiding steam explosions), and let the heat & electricity destroy the contaminants in-place.
        jhgb 5y ago
        How about microwaves? If the soil is moist, perhaps microwaving the area could sterilize it thermally. Slower rate of heating should prevent explosions.
        jacobr1 5y ago
        What about pressure? Would it be possible to apply either a violent pressure wave, or some sort of compaction technology to basically crush everything 30m down?
        bell-cot 5y ago
        If the termites could be living ~30m down...pressure at that depth, just from the weight of the overlying soil, is already about what you'd experience under a 300m-tall skyscraper. So suitable crushing equipment might be rather large and expensive. A violent-enough pressure wave would require a very large explosion...let's just say that senior political leaders would have to sign off, and those folks would smell too much potential for career-ending scandal and ridicule to do so.
    - maxerickson 5y ago
      Isn't that 30 meters one of the dimensions of the surface area that was inspected? If they actually inspected 30m into the Earth, they'd have plenty of opportunity to kill everything in the way as they did it.
    - jacobr1 5y ago
      It wouldn't remove the termites, but it would remove the surface structure ... which should make it easier to do the subterranean work. Instead they wouldn't let the homeowners modify the house.
  - aidenn0 5y ago
    That would just remove the food-source. Removing the food source for a colony that you would rather have stay-put seems like it would be counterproductive.
gerdesj 5y ago
"The British government is normally very judicious with eminent domain and will destroy your home if it is causing an unpleasant wind diversion for some species of rare seagull." Oh no they won't! Could you provide some more details please.
- causality0 5y ago
  One recalls the recent story where an impostor sold a man's house without his consent and the British government was just "sorry, we signed the papers, it belongs to him now"
  - ajb 5y ago
    That's bad, but nothing to do with eminent domain.
  - gerdesj 5y ago
    The UK govt doesn't generally get involved in house sales. That sounds like a tale of good old fashioned fraud and I think I know the one you are on about - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 The Police response looks a bit shit to start with but nothing to do with the government - Welsh or British. If you are going to have a go at this sort of nonsense then you need to sound credible. You are not going to bring down civilisation as we know it with a comment like that.

mschuster91 5y ago

Destroying the homes was out of the question as the article states, the danger of spreading even a couple of reproduce-capable termites was too high.

jacobr1 5y ago
I didn't understand that part. Sure, a conventional demolition, where debris is carted off to the landfill wouldn't work in this case. But surely onsite burning would do the trick?
- bell-cot 5y ago
  Termites can dig very deep. The final inspection went 30 meters down. Burning down 30m into the earth would require something far beyond what "onsite burning" usually involves. (Hence the "small subterranean fusion bomb" comment from kingcharles.)
  - at_a_remove 5y ago
    I sometimes have very weird and destructive thoughts, but I have often wondered if it were possible to take thermite and pack it, make it stable and rigid somehow, enough that it could be made into a long rod, like rebar, suitable for pounding into the earth. Then you surround your nest or whatever with a bunch of rods, run one through the middle, set them alight and let them just burn down however many yards. Thirty meters, though ... whew.
    - maxerickson 5y ago
      Drilling and filling would probably work better. I guess by the time you got enough thermite in the ground it wouldn't be very efficient.
    - bell-cot 5y ago
      Outside of sci-fi and some very arid environments, rapid extreme heating of large quantities of soil will produce big steam explosions. Which might spread some relatively unheated, termite-laden clods of earth over a wide area. In a different context (limited quantities of soil with extremely heavy chemical contamination), I have seen serious proposals to drive heavy electrodes deep into the soil, gradually apply very large currents (avoiding steam explosions), and let the heat & electricity destroy the contaminants in-place.
      - jhgb 5y ago
        How about microwaves? If the soil is moist, perhaps microwaving the area could sterilize it thermally. Slower rate of heating should prevent explosions.
      - jacobr1 5y ago
        What about pressure? Would it be possible to apply either a violent pressure wave, or some sort of compaction technology to basically crush everything 30m down?
        bell-cot 5y ago
        If the termites could be living ~30m down...pressure at that depth, just from the weight of the overlying soil, is already about what you'd experience under a 300m-tall skyscraper. So suitable crushing equipment might be rather large and expensive. A violent-enough pressure wave would require a very large explosion...let's just say that senior political leaders would have to sign off, and those folks would smell too much potential for career-ending scandal and ridicule to do so.
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    Isn't that 30 meters one of the dimensions of the surface area that was inspected? If they actually inspected 30m into the Earth, they'd have plenty of opportunity to kill everything in the way as they did it.
  - jacobr1 5y ago
    It wouldn't remove the termites, but it would remove the surface structure ... which should make it easier to do the subterranean work. Instead they wouldn't let the homeowners modify the house.
- aidenn0 5y ago
  That would just remove the food-source. Removing the food source for a colony that you would rather have stay-put seems like it would be counterproductive.

gerdesj 5y ago

"The British government is normally very judicious with eminent domain and will destroy your home if it is causing an unpleasant wind diversion for some species of rare seagull." Oh no they won't! Could you provide some more details please.

causality0 5y ago
One recalls the recent story where an impostor sold a man's house without his consent and the British government was just "sorry, we signed the papers, it belongs to him now"
- ajb 5y ago
  That's bad, but nothing to do with eminent domain.
- gerdesj 5y ago
  The UK govt doesn't generally get involved in house sales. That sounds like a tale of good old fashioned fraud and I think I know the one you are on about - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 The Police response looks a bit shit to start with but nothing to do with the government - Welsh or British. If you are going to have a go at this sort of nonsense then you need to sound credible. You are not going to bring down civilisation as we know it with a comment like that.