Homeowners have one very important tip: keep their home in good working order. One of the major pests that works against this is the termite. These insects feed upon wood and therefore can damage the structural integrity of your home. Keeping them away from your home is very important.
Not only can you treat to eliminate termites that have already entered your home, you can also do preventative maintenance to protect your home as well. In order to do this, a Broken Arrow exterminator will be effective at helping you with this. So in this article, let’s take a good hard look at what termites are and how they work.
In Oklahoma, we have the eastern subterranean termite. This is a termite that lives underground and requires a moist environment. The air underground is more humid than the air above ground. Because of this, if these insects find their way above ground and don’t have any protection, they will dry out and die very quickly.
Therefore, when they do come above ground to forage for food, they need to have that humid air. They use mud tubes to carry the humid air from underground above and be able to function above ground.
In addition, these insects feed on wood. They have special microorganisms in their gut that help break down the cellulose within wood. Wood contains lignin and cellulose. There are other materials that have cellulose in them as well.
In order for their young to have the gut biome necessary to break down the cellulose, they’ll use a process known as trophallaxis. A young nymph can receive gut microorganisms from other termites through this process. After molting, termites may need to reacquire these microorganisms.
An important step in protecting your home from these insects is to know what the signs are. As we stated before, these insects use mud tubes to forage for food above ground. The presence of mud tubes on the foundation of your home or any other area can denote that you have a problem with termites.
Another problem that can happen is these insects can come up from below your foundation and come through cracks in the foundation. When they do, sometimes they come inside a wall. They’ll feed upon cellulose-containing materials associated with drywall until areas can become thin. If you feel thin spots in your drywall or you see where they’ve broken through and filled the holes with mud, this can be a sign that you’ve got termites inside your wall.
The silent killer is hard to detect until they finally break through, but if you see this, it’s important that you contact your Broken Arrow exterminator to help you get these insects under control.
We have two major ways of dealing with these insects. We use liquid treatments and we use bait station systems. A liquid treatment is where we dig a trench around your house and apply a liquid treatment to that trench. That liquid treatment will move down through the soil and create a pesticide-treated zone around your home. This barrier helps protect your house from termites.
The other option is bait stations. These are stations of bait that are placed all the way around your home at regular intervals. The insects will find these bait stations and take the bait back to their colony. Over time, the bait can affect the colony and help eliminate it.
If you think you’ve got a problem with termites, it’s important to have an inspection by a certified Broken Arrow exterminator. TermMax Pest Control can help you with this. If you think you’re dealing with this, contact us today for more information.
