Trelona ATBS Cost in 2026

A Trelona ATBS install carries the same two structural costs as any professional bait system: hardware and service. A standard install on an 1,800 to 2,200 sq ft home places roughly 12 to 20 in-ground stations at even spacing around the foundation perimeter, each in an augered hole flush with grade. The stations are durable plastic housings with locking caps and replaceable Trelona Compressed Termite Bait cartridges. The station count, the perimeter length, and the operator's regional rate are what move the install figure inside the estimated range above.

Service is the recurring cost, and it is where Trelona's label matters. The Trelona ATBS Annual Bait Stations label permits inspection as infrequently as once a year. A quarterly-serviced system implies four visits a year; a system an operator can service annually implies one required visit. Fewer mandatory visits can lower the labor an operator has to price into your annual monitoring contract, which is the mechanical reason Trelona is often quoted at or slightly below a quarterly-monitored competitor. In practice many operators still visit active accounts more than once a year, and your contract defines what you actually pay for, not the label minimum.

There is an ownership difference worth understanding because it changes the long-run economics. With Trelona ATBS the in-ground stations are treated as an asset that stays with the property; the homeowner (or the operator, on a professional account) keeps them, and refill cartridges are bought as needed. That contrasts with the market leader's service model, where stations are typically removed if the monitoring contract is cancelled. Neither is universally better: the asset model rewards a long-term resident, while the service model bundles hardware and labor into one recurring price.

The chemistry is the other piece. Novaluron is a chitin synthesis inhibitor in the benzoylphenyl urea class. A termite worker that has consumed novaluron cannot build new exoskeleton and dies when it next molts. Because workers molt continuously and because the colony depends on a living worker population to feed its reproductives and nymphs, the colony collapses over a period of months once enough workers have been exposed. It is the same mechanism of action, in a different molecule, as the noviflumuron used by Sentricon; the two products are close cousins rather than rival technologies.

Install day for a residential Trelona ATBS job is a few hours of on-site work. The technician walks the foundation perimeter, identifies station locations that avoid irrigation lines, utility runs, and the dense root zone under mature trees, and flags each spot. Stations go into augered holes roughly 8 to 10 inches deep, spaced evenly around the structure with extra concentration near corners, downspouts, hose bibs, and any tree within about 25 feet of the foundation, since trees are common foraging anchors.

Because this is the Annual line, each station is preloaded with active Trelona Compressed Termite Bait at install rather than holding a wood monitor first. The technician fits the locking cap with the station ID visible at grade, firms the soil back against the housing, and logs the install. Stations sit flush with the lawn so mowing and landscaping operate normally around them.

The follow-up schedule is the part that differs from a quarterly system. The label allows the next inspection to fall as much as a year out, though operators exercise judgment: an account showing active feeding is usually revisited sooner to replace consumed cartridges and concentrate bait where the foraging is heaviest. At each inspection the technician lifts every cap, checks each cartridge for consumption, replaces what has been eaten, and records the result for the homeowner.

The monitoring contract that pays for those visits is the recurring lever. It typically runs an estimated $275 to $450 a year for native subterranean coverage and more in Formosan zones. As with any bait bond, ask what the contract covers, how the rate escalates, and whether it transfers at home sale before you sign; the warranty is only worth what the contract terms say it is.