Every year, over 600,000 homes are infested with termites, adding up to over 5 billion dollars in repair bills for American homeowners. Termites are small insects, usually less than 1 inch in size, with cream-colored to black bodies and a 24/7 appetite for chewing through wood. They feed on cellulose, tunneling through dead or diseased trees in their natural habitats, but if they make their way into your home, termites have no compunction about making the lumber of your house an always welcome snack.
A single termite on its lonesome is not much of a threat, but give it 2 to 3 years, and a single termite can become a colony of hundreds of thousands of insects, gnawing through your home and resulting in sizable repair bills.
Let's take a closer look at signs of termite infestation to watch for, what you can do to prevent an infestation, effective methods of ridding your home of them, and where to find reliable pest control in Chesapeake if prevention doesn't do the trick.
What Are Signs Of A Termite Infestation?
There are over 2000 types of termites worldwide, all of them gluttons for cellulose. Thankfully, in Virginia, we're only likely to run into two types-eastern subterranean termites and Formosan termites. Both species leave similar signs of evidence of termite presence around your property:
- Mud tubes: Termites use these tubes to move from the ground to the wood in your house without getting dehydrated.
- Shed swarmer wings: Termite reproductive leave behind wings after starting a new colony.
- Hollow-sounding wood and bubbling paint: These are signs of termite tunnels close to the wood surface.
- Holes in the wood: You may see tiny piles of sawdust, also known as " termite frass," outside them.
Both species of termites common to our area can be extremely voracious, inflicting serious damage to your home given enough time and numbers.
The Termite Fumigation Process
A single termite egg left behind can be a start of a colony numbering in millions making the effectiveness and thoroughness of the termite removal treatment you use on your house extremely important.
Termite fumigation is a time-proven, all-in-one treatment to clear every last member of the colony out of your house. It involves the use of specially prepared chemicals released into a tent-covered home. The process is very efficient and usually takes less than three days. A side benefit of a fumigation process is clearing out any other insects that infest your Virginia home besides termites.
Effective Quality Prevention Is Key To Successful Termite Control
For a homeowner, prevention is the most efficient termite control strategy that does not take much time or effort to apply:
- Keep water away from the foundation of the house.
- Make sure basements and crawl spaces are well-ventilated.
- Store wood away from house walls.
- Ensure to properly treat wood coming into contact with the ground.
- Take care of plumbing leaks immediately.
It is not easy to spot the signs of termite infestation without regularly inspecting the areas they use to make their way into your home. For many of us, it's worth considering the benefits of annual termite inspection as an additional layer of insurance to protect yourself from costly termite control in Virginia and house repair bills.
Contact The Professionals For The Best Termite Protection
An annual termite inspection usually takes less than an hour. Our Service Professionals will thoroughly inspect the outside and inside of your home for signs of termite presence and advise you on what you can do to lessen the chances of future infestation. Termite infestations are an unfortunate reality for many Virginia homeowners. To ensure your home stays safe from termite damage- give us a call to schedule an inspection and to learn more about our residential and commercial pest control services in Virginia.