Where Is Termite Damage In Houston Homes Most Likely To Occur?
If termites were easy to see, we’d have no problem getting rid of them. We’d discover where they were and take action against them. Unfortunately, this could not be farther from the way termites operate. It is incredibly difficult to know if termites are around because they stay well-hidden for most, if not all, of their lives. Termite damage in Houston homes is most likely to occur entirely in the areas of your home you can’t see, but that doesn’t mean you’re hopeless to protect your house against them.
How Termites Get Inside
Termites live underground. They need moisture to survive and they dislike sunlight, so it is incredibly rare for them to come above ground. There are only two instances when they will come out of the dirt.
The first is when swarmer termites come out of the ground to mate. They will fly out in a swarm, find a mate, shed their wings, then return underground to begin their own colony somewhere nearby. If you see a termite swarm or their left-behind wings, you can be sure that a large, well-established termite colony is nearby. If you see the evidence on your property, it means termites are on your property and potentially beginning new colonies inside your house. If you see the evidence in your home, it means the colony is already in your home.
The only other way that termites will come out of the ground is by building mud tubes. These pencil-width tubes protect termites from drying out if they have to be above ground. The most likely place to find them is along your foundation or basement walls. If you see these tubes on or in your house, it is a sure sign that termites are in your home or have been in the past.
If you have a crawl space or a basement with a dirt floor, termites will get into the wooden structures in your home directly from the ground, making it next to impossible to identify them before they have infested your home. If you have access to your crawlspace, you may be able to see signs of termite damage there. It’s typically damp enough and dark enough, and the soil often has direct contact with the wood. If you see grooves in the sides of the wood, they were likely caused by termites.
Why Professional Treatment Is Essential
Most people don’t make a habit of crawling around underneath their house looking for signs of termite damage. Furthermore, much of the damage done by termites is within your walls where you wouldn’t be able to see it unless you tore up part of your house looking for it.
The other way homeowners often become aware of termites in their home is when the damage becomes so extensive that their walls begin to bulge and their ceilings and floors begin to sag. At this point, the termites have potentially caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home and have possibly even made it an unsafe place in which to live if the structural integrity has been compromised.
When it comes to termites, the best way to prevent termite damage is not to wait until termites have entered your home.
You can keep termites out of your home through the installation of a termite control system, like the Sentricon® System with Always Active. Sentricon® is trusted all over the nation and is only available to trained and certified pest control specialists. This ensures the proper installation and management of the system to ensure that your home is 100% protected from the threat of termites.
Modern Pest Control is certified to install and maintain the Sentricon® System to homes in our service area. We place bait stations around the perimeter of your home with bait that is proven to be more attractive to termites than wood. They then bring the bait back to their colony, eventually eliminating the entire colony. Whether you currently have termites in your home or want to avoid ever having them get inside, Sentricon® does the trick.
Don’t leave your home open to the threat of a termite invasion. Call Modern Pest Control and rest easy in the knowledge that your home is being protected year-round.