Termites are not only gross insects to look at, they can, unfortunately, cause damage to your home. These tiny bugs can cause serious harm to the home, especially the foundation. Since termites love eating wood, they chew on it, and can possibly make the house weaker. If you have an infestation to deal with, it’s time for you to learn how to prevent termites and how to get rid of them.
In this article, we talk about the steps you should take to remove termites from your home, and useful prevention tips. Unfortunately, these bugs are extremely hard to fight, so you should focus a lot of attention on the prevention part to avoid a nightmare.
Steps To Getting Rid Of Termites In Your Home
Annually, termites damage around 600,000 homes in the United States. To prevent you from being on that list, you should educate yourself on the matter.
If you have a termite problem, it’s time to start looking for a solution. Most people aren’t even aware of what causes termites to get to their house and inhabit it, so we’re here to help you understand things. Let’s start with all the steps you should take to forget about these nasty insects once and for all.
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Learn If Your House Is Infested
Before you find out how to avoid termites or get rid of them, you should know how to recognize the signs of infestation. If termites have inhabited your home you’ll see holes in your wood, soft walls, termite droppings, damaged floors, etc. If you want to catch them in the act, you can use termite treatments that will lure the bugs.
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Find Out Which Type Of Mites
These destructive insects aren’t all the same. Actually, there are over 3,100 termite species, and the two most common ones to target your home are drywood termites and subterranean termites. After you figure out that your house is infested, you should differentiate the termite type.
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Get Termite Control Products And Termite Baits
If you’re struggling with a termite colony or colonies at home, it’s time to invest in pest control products. These can be baits, products, literally anything that you can think of.
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Call Pest Control
Many people think they can deal with termites themselves, but they end up calling a pest control company anyway. Unfortunately, termites are stubborn, and you’ll probably need professional help to get rid of them. You should also consider talking to the control crew and schedule regular termite inspections.
How To Prevent Termites From Damaging Your Home?
If you want to learn more about termite prevention and stopping them from getting to your home’s foundation, walls, or anywhere near your house, you have to opt for certain measures.
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Use A Pest Repeller
A great preventative measure that won’t allow termites to enter your home is buying an ultrasonic pest repeller. This simple, affordable device will protect your home from a range of bugs and rodents, including termites, cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, and much more. The devices release ultrasonic waves that are harmful to bugs, so the only thing they can do is run away. So instead of having to call termite control, you can invest in a pest repeller.
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No Food Sources
Termites love eating, and that might be one of the reasons why they came to your house. If you want to prevent termite infestations, you have to remove their possible food source. In this case, the source is a wide variety of things, including rotten woods, wood mulch, wood-based products, cellulose products, boxes, mulch, and more.
Termites are obsessed with anything wood and cellulose, and if they have direct access to these sources, you can expect them to build mud tubes with termite colonies. They also love mulch, that’s why some people recommend using cellulose-free; however, any type of mulch can become their food.
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No Access
If termites don’t have access to your home, the risk of termite infestation becomes much lower. That’s why you should consider closing all access points and targeting problematic areas. As we mentioned, termites love food, moisture, and dirt. You can already imagine how many entry points there are that allow these bugs easy access.
Seal all the cracks, holes, and gaps that are on your home because it’s really easy for termites to reach anywhere. Don’t turn on your yard lights because they can attract these insects. Also, check the pipes and gas lines to see whether they are all closed and haven’t suffered any damage.
Termites get to wood through the ground, so you should always avoid wood-to-ground contact. Once the termites get on the wood, you can take it home, and that’s a serious problem.
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Take Care Of Plants, Trees, Bushes
If there are tree limbs right next to your house, it’s time to trim them. If you want to avoid infestation, you should pay attention to your yard because that’s mainly where the termites come from. Unfortunately, messy plants, trees, bushes can get in touch with the house and transfer termites. What’s even worse, they can increase the moisture levels if they are located very close to the house and facilitate the infestation.
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No Moisture
Since termites love moisture, your goal is to reduce the moisture and water around and in your home. Get rid of all the sources of standing water, clean the drain regularly, fix water leaks, and keep the yard and house dry.
Check your drainage, and ensure that it’s always clean. When there is no proper drainage, there can be water retention in your home that attracts even more termites. If you can, check the water lines to see if they have any damage. Your pool, fountain, and other water sources can be dangerous if not clean and covered when you don’t use them.
Conclusion
How to avoid termites? Termites are boring and destructive creatures that shouldn’t get to your home. The steps of getting rid of them include recognizing the problem and type of termites, getting products, and calling a professional.
Before you have to treat an infestation, we recommend that you focus on prevention. It includes removing all the possible food choices, sealing the access points, using a pest repeller, taking care of the plants, and no moisture.