The reproductive caste is most active in the spring during swarming season. They are responsible for venturing forth and founding new colonies. When you see discarded wings on your property, you then know that you have a serious problem because the colony in your home has been so successful that it’s founding new ones.
The warrior caste handles any known threats to the termite colony. These include other insects, especially ants, with whom they compete for territory and resources.
But the building block of any society is its workers and this is true of termites as well. The workers are quite a team. They never sleep, so they can work 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Their “work” entails chewing up your property, extracting the cellulose from plant-based building materials, and then returning to the colony to feed the other castes.
How Do Termites Get into Your Home?
The majority of termites that do the majority of damage here in the U.S. are subterranean termites. As their name suggests, they live primarily in soil. This is important because it provides a vital clue as to how they will enter your home. They will attack from below exploiting tiny cracks in your foundation that are no larger than the skinny side of a credit card.
Any legitimate attempt to handle a termite infestation must involve some effort to either shore up those defenses or involve a second solution that keeps the termite population down in the area surrounding your home.
The second solution involves monthly soil treatments that are effective at making your home a bad target for termites. The soil treatments contain pesticides that destroys termite colonies before they can gain a foothold on your property.
It’s Termite Season All Year Long
When people think about termite season, they’re actually talking about swarming seasons, which is when the termites begin founding new colonies and finding new properties to devalue. Swarming happens mostly in the spring, but can also happen in the fall depending on the species of termites. By midsummer, you should know if any termites have had a successful swarming season on your property.
Termites, like ants and other insects, have a natural instinct when it comes to weather. They know when the temperature begins to drop that they’ll need to burrow further into the earth. However, termites that have set up shop on climate-controlled properties never get the message. In other words, they won’t hibernate in the winter, they’ll just continue to destroy your property all year long.
Dealing with an Active Infestation
Once a colony has been eradicated, you will need to have some plan in place to prevent it from happening again. Many homeowners choose to put the money into shoring up the foundation of their home and resealing their basement.
Other properties are vulnerable even beyond those two access points. These properties require monthly soil treatments that will reduce the termite population within a radius of their home and prevent future infestations that way.
