You are terrified by the thought of an unseen predator eating your home down to a skeleton. However, you are equally terrified by the thought of how much it costs to hire a professional exterminator.
Luckily, there are some ways you can identify, prevent and treat termites before they become a huge problem. So, before you call in the professionals, get educated on how to deal with termites on your own.
Identify the Damage
Before you can take any actions, you need to know what type of damage you are dealing with. Identify termite damage by noticing if wood sounds hollow when struck by a heavy object, if paint or wallpaper looks blistered (because there is nothing for it to stick to), if piles of elongated fecal pellets have been left on windowsills or if damaged wood contains soil or mud. All of these are signs that you have a termite infestation. Visit Termite-control.com for more information about identifying termite damage.
Prevent Termites From Entering Your Home
Termites love dark, moist areas around your home, especially areas that lead directly to a feeding ground of wood. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to discourage termites from entering your home. The EPA suggests the following:
- Ensure that the soil around your home’s foundation is kept dry with proper grading and drainage. Inspect and maintain your gutters and downspouts, and fix any leaks immediately.
- Decrease termite access points into your home. Use caulk, grout or cement to fill any cracks in your foundation and around where utilities pass through an exterior wall.
- Keep wood and plants away from your foundation. Clear the area around vents from blockage, and make sure that nothing is growing against an exposed wood surface, such as a porch or siding.
- Maintain landscaping around your home. Rake wood mulch away from your foundation, or replace it with river rock. Remove wood scraps, firewood and debris from your yard and crawlspace. Rake flowerbed soil so that it is lower than the home’s foundation slab.
Make Your Home Unfriendly to Termites
To make the inside of your home as hostile as possible to termites, lift all wood or cardboard items off the floor and store them on metal shelving. If you believe any piece of furniture has been invaded by termites, expose it to sunlight for two or three days. Pest Kill recommends injecting orange oil into small holes drilled into infested wood, which dissolves the pests' exoskeletons and cell membranes.
In general, cedar and redwood are more pest-resistant than other types of wood, so choose these for your furniture whenever possible. When choosing wood material for outside structures, opt for pressure-treated lumber, which has proven to be highly resistant to decay and insects due to a chemical barrier forced deep into the wood's pores, explains Barb Ogg, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Bait and Kill Existing Termite Colonies
If you want a more active solution, try a cardboard bait system to trap (and kill) termites or spray existing wood structures with boric acid. For a more natural solution, spray your lawn and infested rooms with beneficial nematodes. Available at garden supply and hardware stores, these tiny worms look for hosts (like termites) and kill them.
Whichever method you choose, be sure to check your wood structures periodically (every few weeks at first, and then every three months) to determine if termites have returned. For the best results, combine several of the methods suggested above. And, of course, if you already have a severe infestation, it is worth your time and money to call a professional to get rid of the pests as quickly as possible.