The best Broken Arrow pest control company can take care of termites that may be attacking your home or business. Termites are wood destroying insect that do millions of dollars in damage across the country every year. These insects feed up on the wood that we build our homes and businesses out of. Because your home is likely to be your largest investment, it’s important to protect that investment as best as you can. So in this article, let us take a good hard look at termites, their life cycle and what are you and your Broken Arrow pest control company can do to protect your home from these insects.

TERMITE COLONIES AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL

Termites are eusocial insects. They live in a colony, and it separates their labor by workload. These castes are definite and often set from birth. The top of the hierarchy are the reproductive. The queen is tasked with laying all the eggs of the colony. a mature termite colony can maintain a population in the millions so her job is quite busy. The reproductives also contains swarmers. These are insects that are tasked with reproducing the colony as a whole. They will become new queens starting their own unique colony.

Soldier termites or the next caste. These termites have larger heads and large mandibles. They lie dormant for most of the time, but when danger arises, they come to life and come straight into the fray. They will attack incoming predators head-on, as workers will fill in the tunnel behind them. Because of this, they will fight to the death, and sacrifice themselves for the protection of the colony. 

The workers are the final caste. These females are tasked with doing all the menial jobs of the colony. They can do everything from foraging for food, bringing it back, building mud tubes, feeding the young, taking out the trash, and a million other things. They are the most numerous of all the castes. Many of them are actually nymphs or smaller adolescent versions of an adult termite. In some cases, these nymphs will start as workers but then later be re-purposed for reproductive work. If you have an issue with termites, then its time to call your Broken Arrow pest-control company for help.

COLONY REPRODUCTION AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL

As stated before, the swarmers are the part of the reproductive caste that will make a new colony elsewhere. These termites are different than most of the others, in the fact that they are much hardier, and have a set of wings. The average termite requires a high level of humidity to survive. The swarmers are tougher and don’t need to stay in such a high humidity environment. Because of this requirement, most termites have to stay underground where the humid air is, or they must build mud tubes up above, carrying the humid air up. But Swarmers can survive in the open air.

Every spring in April and May, these swarmers will exit the colony in search of a swarm of other swarmers from the same species. In this large cloud of flying insects, males and females will pair up and search for a place to start a colony. But unfortunately, this cloud of insects is an easy target for many different predators, including birds, bats and things. Only about 2% of the swarmers actually make it to creating a colony. Once the pair find a suitable place for the colony, they land, lose their wings, and then mate. Then they’ll dig a royal chamber inside the ground. Once that’s done, the female will start laying eggs and the king becomes a worker until the first eggs hatch. These first hatched eggs will become the workers for the new colony. Contact your Broken Arrow pest control company for help when dealing with termites.

TERMITE SIGNS AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL

If you’re having an issue with termites, then you need to find out if it’s true or not. So you will need to know what the signs are. First of all these mud tubes are one of the number one ways that you can tell if there’s a problem with termites. Remember these insects require high humidity air. So they have to bring that air above ground by building mud tubes in order to forage for food above ground. If you see these coming up on the side of your home then you have a problem. Sometimes these tubes can come up inside a wall. In this case they’ll eat away at the drywall until they make the drywall very thin. If you’re seeing soft spots in your drywall, then this is another symptom of a problem with termites.

Swarmers can be another tip off to a termite issue. If you have a colony that’s been feeding on your house for a while, they may release their swarmers inside your home. These swarmers will go directly to the window to try to get outside. Of course they can’t and end up dying in the window and falling to the windowsill. If you see wing termites in your windowsill, then you know you have a problem.

TERMITES VERSUS ANTS

Often people see winged insects in the window and assume that they are termites. But there are many ant species that use swarmers as well. It’s important to understand how to differentiate between an ant and a termite. Ants have three distinct body parts with a narrow waist between each one. Termites have a body the same width its entire length. The length of the termite wings are longer than the body of the termite. The length of the ant’s wing is about the same size as its body.

If you’re having an issue with termites or any other pest control problems, then its time to call a Broken Arrow pest control company that can help. Here at TermMax pest control, we are the best in the business when it comes to dealing with termites or any other insects. We service the greater Tulsa area, including Broken Arrow, Coweta, Claremoore, Tulsa, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Prattville, Bixby, Jenks, Owasso, Turley, and so much more. Call today for a free estimate. We’re here to help!

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