How to find Termites as Quickly as Possible

Termites can eat away your home once they are inside. They love damp wood and make their life’s job to be eating away at your home. Preventing termites from attacking and licking away all of your precious life’s worth is the best way to deal with termites. Keep them out for as long as possible – hopefully forever.

However in this fight between man and pest a day may come when the termites might win and gain entry to your house. When that happens it is important to figure out this forced entry at the earliest possible moment and then to take corrective measures. Once settled in they start spreading very fast and it is extremely difficult to oust them.

The first step in effective prevention of an infestation is detection. How do you figure out where they are?One of the first signs of an impending termite infestation is the sight of termites flying around near your house.

Termites are of two types, reproductive and soldier. The reproductive termites grow wings and are responsible for the growth of a colony. Once these reproductive termites hatch from their eggs and start growing they will grow wings. These then proceed to go forth and setup their own colonies of soldier and sometimes even worker termites.

A distinguishing feature to help you differentiate between winged termites and winged ants is that termites have straight antennae while ants have antennae which are slightly curved. Also, the wings of termites are roughly the same size while ants have different size wings. So once you have spotted a termite flying around the logical thing is to follow it and find the nest.

Termites are also attracted by light.  Look out for flying termites near light sources. While it may not be very alarming if a termite is taking flight from nearby trees, it becomes even more of a concern if the same were to fly out from under your foundation walls.

Another indicative sign is the presence of dirt tubes. These are for travelling in and out of your house. Dirt tubes, if detected, will yield the bodies of dead termites and dirt. Even if you do not see anything inside, be aware that following the trail to the nest will definitely yield results.

Termites eat wood and leave behind a residue. Tapping on hollowed wood will sprinkle some light-coloured residue. This is a sign that the woodwork has been infested. The best bet is to get a screwdriver and stick it in on pieces of suspected wood. If the screw driver goes in easily and comes out with a whitish residue, then you definitely have an infestation. Time to replace! Termites will hollow out a piece of wood and leave the surface alone. So sometimes it is pretty difficult even for the trained eye to locate them.

Prevention of termite infestation is very important.  If left unchecked termites can move in and eat up your house, and sometimes everything in it as well.