Termite Protection, Prevention, and Treatment

by Matt Goering

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    No household pest causes more damage or warrant more calls to pest control companies than termites. They cause billions of dollars of structural damage to homes and businesses each year, and often go about their business for years before they are noticed. There are steps you can take towards termite protection, but more often than not you won't know you've got a problem until termites are already well established. In these cases, a comprehensive termite treatment strategy, instituted by a pest control professional, is the only sure way to protect your home.

    Termite Protection
    With any pest control problem, the best defense is a good offense. When it comes to termite protection the rules aren't any different. Here are a number of precautions you can take to ensure termites don't get a foothold.

  • Schedule regular termite inspections. This is far and away your best bet when it comes to preventing termite problems and addressing them before they cause major damage. By bringing in a termite control specialist on an annual basis to inspect your home for signs of termite infestation, you'll be a step up on any colonies that have been established during the previous year.

  • Keep all wood products away from your home. Piles of firewood, wood mulch, stacks of lumber, and any other wood products are magnets for termites. Once the termites have established their colony there, they will branch out, and if your home happens to be within their reach, the rest is history.

  • Trim trees and shrubs adjacent to your home. If it's wood and it's dead, termites will find it. That includes your trees and shrubs. Making sure your bushes and trees are trimmed and healthy makes for good termite protection. Also, be sure to dig out and dispose of any dead and rotting stumps close to your home, since they are favorites of termites looking to establish a colony.

  • Prevent the accumulation of water at all costs. Termites thrive in damp soil and wood, so the more you can do to prevent that the better. Make sure water on your property drains away from the foundation, and be sure to fix all leaky gutters, faucets and pipes as soon as possible.

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  • Seal all holes and cracks in your foundation. Termites are subterranean creatures. If they don't have an access point through your foundation, they more than likely won't find their way into the rest of your home.

    Termite Treatment
    Even by taking the preventative measures mentioned above as termite protection, termite infestations can still happen. Once they do, the next step is termite treatment. There are three common ways to rid yourself of the problem. The first is spraying. Two types of sprays are popular. The first is a repellant which drives the termites away, the second is an actual pesticide that kills the termites in their tracks. Both are effective forms of termite treatment, so it's best to take the advice of your pest control professional when deciding your course of action. The third popular termite treatment is baiting. With this method, poisonous baits are laid out around the infested area that the termites take back to the colony and distribute, killing off the population at its source.

    Call in a Professional
    Regardless of which method you choose to go with, keep in mind that a termite infestation is nothing to scoff at. These pests can literally destroy your home from the inside out, and few "do-it-yourself" treatments are effective. In order to really rid yourself of these nasty bugs, you're going to need to call in a pest control professional to terminate the termites.

    Matt Goering, formerly a carpenter and house painter, is a freelance writer for the home improvement industry who has published over 600 articles.
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