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According to statistics, termites infest nearly 600,000 homes in the United States, causing over $5 billion in property damage and accounting for $30 billion in infrastructure and crop damage. A homeowner with a termite infestation averagely spends $3,000 in damage repair.
Termites increase repair and renovation costs, damage furniture, and lower your property's value. Termite infestation weakens your home's structure and impacts its aesthetics. They also create a negative market image, mainly when trying to sell your home. Nonetheless, these issues can be prevented. Here's how to protect your home against termites.
Invest in regular termite inspections
Termites may cause severe, lasting destruction to your property. If you suspect that you might have a termite issue, consider getting a termite inspection from a knowledgeable, professional pest control company. This is the best termite preventive measure to implement. Before the termite inspection exercise, ensure the inspector can access critical areas, including the attic, garage, crawl space, and sink.
The inspector will assess your exteriors and interiors, looking for the signs of termite infestation and activity, such as shed wings, wood damage, evidence of swarms, buckling paint, live termites, termite droppings, and mud tubes. This helps ensure your home is safe from termites and discovers termite infestation in its early stages for quick and effective control. Visit this website to learn more.
Restrain wood ground contact
Termite issues often happen when a building's wood components get in direct contact with the ground. This contact gives termites easy access to moisture, food, shelter, and hidden entry to your home. Ensure wooden siding, window, and door frames are several inches above the level ground. Removing soil-to-wood contact might involve pulling or regarding soil, supporting posts or steps on concrete bases, or cutting off-lattice woodwork's bottom.
Use chemical termite barriers
A chemical termite barrier involves infusing the ground around your home with termite control chemicals to keep termites from entering your house via the soil. This saves you from irreversible infestations or severe property damage in the future. Chemical termite barriers minimize the risk of termites creeping up on your house. This solution is increasingly essential for homes under construction and keeps termites from entering the site via the soil. Chemical termite barriers can be repellant or non-repellant, so choose the most effective one for successful termite prevention.
Prevent moisture from accumulating around your foundation
Termites need moisture to survive. And poor drainage around your property could provide a suitable environment for them to thrive. Ensure downspouts divert water far from your house foundation and that AC drip lines and faucets aren't creating water pools around the foundation. Leaf debris gathers moisture and starts to decay. Clogged gutters may cause rainwater to back up. These conditions are perfect for aerial termite infestations, primarily in regions with Formosan termites, so unclog your gutters and collect leaf debris regularly.
Eliminate food sources
Termites feed on the cellulose in wood, leaves, grass, herbivorous animal manure, humus, lumber, firewood, newspapers, cardboard boxes, and other vegetative origin materials that attract termites and offer a source of food. Finding ways to eliminate access to their food sources can make your house less attractive to termite infestations. Start by keeping rotting wood and dead trees away from your property.
Stacking these things against the foundation can provide a direct entry into your home and let termites bypass surrounding ground treated with termite control pesticides. Where possible, remove dead roots and stumps beneath and around your home. Avoid keeping wood-based items in your crawlspace to reduce the risk of termite infestation.
Don’t put garden beds against your house
Avoid putting vegetation or gardens against your house, and don't constantly water that area to ensure moisture doesn't accumulate around your foundation. You can prevent termites by keeping garden beds away from your house walls, planting vegetation or garden beds a few meters from your building, and being conscious of where and how you water.
Use termite baits
Termite baits are an excellent option for chemical termite barriers. With baits, minute amounts of the product, including edible smart missiles, are deployed to knock out termite populations foraging around and in your home. Termite baits have cellulose combined with slow-acting insecticides, which disrupt the normal termite growth process. Several weeks after ingesting the product, termites die trying to molt.
When termites feed on the bait, they share it with fellow nest mates, causing a gradual reduction in their numbers and eventually eliminating them. Comprehensive baiting programs aim at maintaining a termite-free environment in your home via monitoring, ongoing inspections, and rebaiting as required.
Clear wood mulch from your foundation
While wood mulch is an excellent way to improve your home's aesthetics, it can create the temperature and moisture conditions ideal for termite activity when used in excess. Keeping mulch raked away from your foundation and ensuring it never gets in contact with doors or window framing and siding can help prevent termites.
Endnote
Termites are dangerous for your house’s structural health and aesthetics. Use these tips to protect your home against termites.