Termites pose a real danger to your home. These wood-eating insects can cause thousands of dollars of damage to your home, and that damage goes deeper than just wood. In fact, termites can eat through your drywall, insulation, and other building materials.
Termites may seem like nothing more than harmless wood-chewing insects, but in the event of a termite infestation, they can become quite a nuisance. Termites live in colonies. The queen is the mother of all the termites in the colony. She lays eggs every few weeks, and the queen can live for many years. The termites eat cellulose-based materials, such as wood, insulation, and even paper. They live underground and work their way up through the soil and into the wood of your home.
Must-Know Tips for Termite Control
Termites live underground and are always in search of food. When they find a good food source, it is only a matter of time before they find yours. Termites eat the wood around your home, and once they run out of wood to eat, they will move on to your home’s foundation or walls. Termites often go unnoticed, too. By the time you notice the damage, they may have already eaten away 10 percent of your home’s foundation. This is a huge problem and could lead you to buy a new home since a dwelling with a weak foundation is as good as no house at all. Therefore, it would be a good idea to consider these tips to control the termites before they wreak irreversible damage to your property.
- Inspect Your Foundation Each Season – Termites live underground, eat wood and cellulose, and can cause damage when they swarm in the spring and look for a protected spot to build their colony. Termites build mud tubes along foundation walls and on the soil. It is important to inspect foundation walls for mud tubes, termites, and damaged wood. If the damage caused to the foundation is too large, then you may have to consider services like House Leveling so that your house is raised back to its original height. However, this process may have to be done at least once, whether or not there’s a termite infestation. It is important to keep inspecting the foundation for these critters nonetheless.
- Grab Your Flashlight – Termites are a threat to your home, and as they go through their annual moulting process, they are also looking for food, water, and shelter, so it is important to be vigilant in checking for signs of infestation. One of the best ways to detect termites is with a home flashlight. Not only can a searching light help you identify where termites may be hiding, but it can also help you identify other signs of a termite problem.
- Maintain Proper Ventilation and Sealing – Termites are notoriously difficult to eliminate and, if not treated properly, could result in major structural damage to a home. However, there are some things you can do to help minimize the risk of termites, and the most important is maintaining proper ventilation and sealing. For moisture control, ventilation and sealing are essential. Ventilation systems must be operating effectively to air out your home because termites will be drawn to wet areas and walls. Besides that, you may want to investigate the cause of the wet walls inside your home and have them fixed as quickly as feasible. For instance, moist walls may frequently be the result of a roof fracture or storm damage, whereby water may be flowing through the cracks and causing dampness. In that scenario, it is advised to contact a roof replacement company (or a roof repair firm) to solve the root cause.
- Keep Wood Piles Away from Your House – While termites cause thousands of dollars in damage each year, they can be difficult to detect before they cause serious damage. One of the most important tips to deter them is to keep your woodpiles away from the structure of your home, especially during the warm summer months as the warmth can entice termites.
- Use Repellent Termiticide on Safe Wood Structures – Proper maintenance of your safe wood structure can play a major role in preventing termite damage. One of the ways you can prevent termites is by applying a repellent termiticide to the wood. Using a repellent termiticide is a safe and effective way to protect your wood structure from termites. Repellent termiticides contain active ingredients that deter termites, while non-repellent termiticides are not effective in getting rid of termites.
- Heat Can Also Kill Termites – One of the easiest and most effective ways to kill termites is to make use of termites’ natural aversion to heat. Termites need about 50 degrees Fahrenheit to survive, so if you know you can keep the space they live in above 50 degrees for at least half an hour; the termites there will die. This could be the reason why owners of Listed Buildings often use window glazing– it is known to improve insulation inside the room, thereby preventing the place from becoming a breeding ground for termites.
- Use Plastic for Storage – Termites love wood but also love food, they like to snack on wood, like cardboard boxes and other packing materials. So, if you are planning to store food that does not have a plastic layer already around it, using plastic boxes and containers that cannot destroy your food, but will stop termites, are the best thing you can do.
