Signs Your Home Needs To Be Treated For Termites
Posted on: 5 December 2016
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Termites are pests you don't want to mess around with. They are so destructive that they can do a lot of costly damage to your home while you're attempting DIY pest control methods. To keep your home safe from termite damage, it's best to hire a pest control company for preventative treatments. Then, you'll want to monitor your home for signs of activity so you can take action before an infestation grows. Here are some of the things you want to watch for.
Droppings And Wings
When you have an active infestation of termites, they leave signs behind. This could be small piles of droppings in areas where they are tunneling in wood, or it could be tiny wings collecting on window sills. You may even find live or dead termites around the house. When termites swarm, they are attracted to light. They fly toward your television or computer monitor at night. If you find wings or bodies around a light source, it could be a sign that termites are swarming. Finding this evidence outside isn't so concerning because the termites may be confined to an old tree stump, but when you find evidence of termites indoors, it's time to take action.
Mud Tunnels
Mud tunnels are a sure giveaway of termite activity. Termites like to stay underground, so if they need to move from the ground to your house, they will build a tunnel made of mud to make it easy to cross a concrete foundation. You should examine the base of your house occasionally, such as when you work on your flowers or mow the grass, so you can keep an eye out for these mud tunnels. One good thing about mud tunnels is they let you know where the termites are getting into your home. However, once they are inside, they travel through the wood, so it is not as easy to tell where they spread out.
Weakened Wood
It is difficult to spot termite damage on the surface. The top layer of wood may look just fine, while underneath, termites are tunneling and eating the wood. This makes the wood hollow and weak. You can test for termite damage by knocking on the wood or by pressing a screwdriver into it. Since you probably don't want to go around your home shoving a screwdriver into your walls, it's best to let a pest control company check for this kind of damage. A professional knows where to look and he or she knows how to test for damage without destroying your walls. Remember, termites like anything made of wood. They can be in your wood furniture too, so look for signs of damage on your furniture as well as the wood structure of your home.
Spotting termites isn't always easy. You can have them eating away at your home for a long time before you realize you have a problem. That is one reason it's a good idea to have regular visits from a professional. Regular treatments greatly reduce the risk of a termite infestation and even more importantly, monitoring of your property by a professional makes it much easier to stop new activity before it gets out of hand. Contact a company like Bisaillon's Rid All Termite & Pest Solutions to learn more.