On average, termites do an estimated $5 billion worth of damage to American homes. Even as our building standards have improved to create homes that are termite-resistant, they still account for more damage than all other pests combined. To understand how this is possible, you need to know some things about the termite species.
Termites have a queen who controls the colony and are divided into three castes: The workers, the warriors, and the reproducers. The warriors are responsible for defending the colony while the reproductive caste is responsible for creating new colonies. The bulk of termite society is made up of workers. The workers can work twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. The majority of their work is simply chewing up your home into an edible pulp that they provide to the rest of the colony. They extract the moisture and cellulose from organic building materials and that is how the damage is done to your home. Since they’re working all day long, this damage can be considerable if left unchecked.
Termites Attack from Below
The State of Washington has mostly subterranean termites. These termites spend most of their time in the soil where food is plentiful. They lay waste to the surrounding area and then move on. Eventually, they’ll run into the foundation of somebody’s home. They can enter the home through cracks in the foundation and that’s when you’ll end up with termites in your walls.
