Termite Prevention

Some tips to help with termite prevention and protection.

Insect prevention including termite prevention has been an issue for many years in the USA. While many home pests attack humans – wasps, tickles, bedbugs; termites, being cellulose-eating insects, assault the building itself. People have learned how to protect well against the species that attack them, after all, no one wants to be bit, scratch and have all kinds of rashes. At the same time, many house owners are far from taking good care of their houses what concerns termite protection. If left without termite treatment and protection for just 70-80 years, all houses in the USA would be completely obliterated by termites. Some exceptions would be residences in Alaskan cold climate areas, and concrete and metal carcasses of skyscrapers.

Identifying weak points in your termite protection can save you thousands of dollars later on and usually does not require more than several hundred dollars in protection investment. Best of all is, of course, to have termite protection in mind BEFORE you start building a house, or buy one in an infested area. Some of the extensive termite control principles will be easier to implement at the construction stage.

The truth is that no less than 50% of US counties are infested with termites to an extent that you might have problems right after moving to the neighborhood. So, it would be prudent to inquire of the neighbors, and search the internet for the statistics and termite situation in the area.

Termites are silent and slow but relentless. Living in the soil, termites will make a quiet entry into your house, and will not leave it until they are done or until you make them leave it. It is much simpler to prevent a colony of termites from entering the place than to exterminate them. Termite extermination could take as long as 5-6 months and still will not be guaranteed 100% with follow-up inspections succeeding every 2-3 months.

You will need to take a holistic and professional approach to termite protection, and not rely on chemicals only. To do so I recommend making up a strategy with a checklist of things to do and improve. Here are the most frequent weak points in termite protection:

  1. Bad gutting and plumbing. Termites are vulnerable insects and you could easily kill them all in a number of ways if only they ALL crawled out. Unfortunately, they don’t do it but prefer hiding in remote and dark places that provide water, shelter and food. Having these three basic needs for a termite colony means success and further proliferation for the colony. For you it means nothing but headache and costly repairs. Contrary to some opinions, water is a more important factor for termites than food. Termites can forage on a number of cellulose-rich materials like dead wood, plants, paper, cardboard etc. but cannot live without a constant source of water. If you want to protect your house against an invasion fix all leaking plumbing and gutting;
  2. Wet foundation can be another source of water for the termite colony and is caused by rainwater accumulating next to the house. Some of the solutions to this problem would be sloping the soil away from the foundation or leading rain water away through a system of gutters;
  3. Construction wood touching the soil, stacked next to the house firewood, plants leaning against the house, flowerbeds close to the walls etc. all provide a wonderful and unidentifiable access to food and entry into the building. If termites can’t find such an access they will bridge the gap with mud-like tubes that are easily observed. However, if construction wood does go into soil, termites have a natural path into your house. They don’t really see the difference between it and a tree in your yard;
  4. Poor ventilation of basement, attic, subfloors and other crawling spaces provides the moisture needed for termites;

However, termite protection does not end with ensuring proper building construction principles that should be there in the first place. Even houses that are built to the highest of these standards can be infested by termites due to the invasive nature and acute survival instincts of these insects. To exclude any possibility for infestation of your property, you will need to employ chemical and biological protective measures, plus ensure regular once-half-a-year inspection of your property by a certified termite inspector. It is widely acknowledged that prevention and identification is the best protection in termite business.

You can create a sure barrier through chemical treatment of specific areas of your property. This method is devised to install a kind of chemical barrier in the soil so that termites cannot cross to your house. Termites usually eat the soil through which they dig, and treating the soil with termicides will prevent them from doing so. Besides you can always put a natural physical (sand) barrier in the soil that will make it impossible for termites to go through. 7 inches wide and 10-12 inches deep, it will stop any termites from getting close to your house.

Another termite protective measure is planting termicidal or termite resistant trees and bushes like Acacia Polyacantha, Borassus Aethiopum, Capparis Aphylla etc that will stay strong against termite infestation and will even kill termites.

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