Unlike your typical wage-earning American, the worker termites do not require sleep. They can go about their business all day long. Most of what constitutes their business is chewing up your home and creating a nutrient-laden paste for the other castes to consume. When the infestation is large enough, you can actually hear the value of your home going down as thousands of worker termites continue to destroy it.
How Do Termites Get into a Home?
The termites that do the majority of damage to American homes are subterranean termites. In other words, they attack from below and come through the hollows of your basement up into your house.
Termites are attracted to the moisture and warmth that homes provide. Wood building materials around your home are a wonderful source of cellulose for termites, which is what they like to eat. The warmth of the home further attracts termites in colder months. Even basic things like puddles accumulating around your home from air conditioner run-off provide termites a great place to grow their colony.
Termites then find cracks that are no longer than the skinny side of a credit card and from there, they make their way into your home where the breed and eat. Homes that are infested with subterranean termites leave clues in the form of mud tubes that the termites use to transfer their colony.
A skilled pest control specialist can identify these areas and make recommendations on how they should be managed to prevent future home incursions.
Managing a Termite Infestation
If you have an active infestation, the first thing that Pointe Pest Control will do is attempt to eliminate it to the extent possible. Unfortunately, this is only the first step. Pest control professionals have a variety of methods at our disposal to prevent future infestations as well. These include soil treatments to prevent termites from getting too close to your home and wood treatments to protect support beams and the bones of your home.
These baits are placed into the soil surrounding your home to create a protective border. The baits are capable of destroying an entire colony with brutal efficiency. Not only can they destroy a current infestation, but they can help prevent a future one.
Identifying Termites Activity
By the time you’ve noticed an infestation, you run a significant risk of accruing serious damage to your home if it’s left unchecked. Typically, you will see the termites themselves, which are often confused for white ants. But there are significant differences even though termites and ants share much of the same DNA.
Ants have three segments that are clearly visible. Termites, on the other hand, appear to have only two segments. Termites appear slightly translucent in color while ants do not. If you’re unsure of whether or not you’re dealing with a termite or an ant, you can kill one, stick it to a piece of tape, and then bring it to us. We can help identify it for you.
