Protecting Homes against Termite Invasion

The activities of termites cause immense damage to our properties, a worldwide problem that every homeowner is facing since then until this very modern era, termites are destroying modern infrastructures with their primitive ways of destruction. Termites evolve along with time and cope up rapidly to every change on their environment, this instinct virtually made termites indestructible and hard to eliminate.

On the other hand, no insurance covers the damages caused by these pests. So the best thing to do is to engage in preventive activities before infestation takes its toll. One of these methods involves proper maintenance of your building structure with proper knowledge to modify some of its construction to reduce termite incursion. Research and look for some structural modifications and methods of maintenance for reduction of termite attacks. For building modifications, you can prevent the presence of termites in your home by simply integrating either physical or chemical barriers as a protective measure.

Physical Barriers

The lighter way would be the introduction of physical barriers in way that structure withstands every aspect of termite assault. You will noticed that there are many to mention but some of these tangible barriers can be used as one of your home's structural modification, these includes concrete retaining walls, deck support, PVC sheds and plastic film barriers. You can use fence support to separate wood from soil contact, fine sediments or coarse sand barriers and fines steel mesh to avert the foray of termite in your building.

Chemical Barriers

The idea is to make your structure resistant to termites and halt their activities. Before the construction of your home, application of this chemical barrier bears a great help and are very effective. But since the barriers are of chemical composition it is recommended to be expertly done with strong advises from professionals on chemical handling. Since termite colonies are hard to destroy, this method amounts to poisoning the adjacent soil that termites can use to enter your house. This forms a barrier for entry because termites cannot go through the poisoned soil.

But the treatment is expensive, discovering one mud tube will tempt most people to have that area spot treated. This misconception contributes to the cost of treatment. Since the colony is always there, spot treatment may actually be useless because whether the zone is blocked by spot treatment, sooner they will find another way around it entering the house via untreated soil. Spot treatment is advisable and effective only if whole house treatment was made and spot treatment will only serve as active barriers for termites that have found a breach.

Handling from the Experts

With proper maintenance of your structure you can prevent termites in your house. Seek for aid from the experts and let them inspect your home in order to attaint peace of mind that your preventive methods are confidently successful. Have them regularly check your home for traces of invasion because termite detection is often difficult and tricky to determine.

Separately, treated woods are generally the best things for fixes and restructuring. Borate treated woods serves one of the best choice to use. Chemical treatment reduces the attacks of termites to your wooden portions of the building.

Repellant and Non-repellant Termiticides

Termiticides, the exact name of pesticides that are targeted for termite control. The repellant and non-repellant categorizes the termicides applied to wood or soil. To determine the exact way of treatment depends on termite's reaction on a specific area. While repellant termiticides seems to be more environmentally friendly non-repellant termiticides do the opposite. The difference between repellant and non-repellant termiticide is the fact that repellant termiticides make the soil so termite-unfriendly clearing and preventing them from entering the treated areas. Non-repellant chemicals kill the termites upon contact and ingestion while termites are unaware of the said effect thus preventing them from tunneling.

Widely known Termiticides

Cypermethrin, Bifenthrin, Fenitrothion, Permethrin and Fenvalerate are some examples of repellant termiticides categorized as pyrethroids. These synthetic chemicals have a track record proven effective as means of controlling termites and as applied correctly make a very effective barrier. Effectiveness varies from amount used and covering as many potential entry points of termites. Homes with greater potential for large infestation of termites requires extensive drilling into foundation walls, wood structures and structure's slab in order to reach all the necessary areas.

Do it yourself

Termites needs water to survive, constant access to water is a must. If you dry them out, certainly they will die. Looking keenly on their ways, termites build mud tunnels to the ground which they kept wet. Seeing pencil size mud tubes is one of the two common ways to detect termite presence. Dry tubes are considerably inactive but in any case, check it by scrapping segment in the middle of the run, considerably active tunnels will be rebuilt quickly not later than a day. To sustain a colony, an area must be wet.

Termites usually build colonies in wet areas. No doubt that termite requires moisture to survive. To prevent the termites from entering your house you must indeed eliminate moisture from the house. Proper home ventilation reduces moisture content. Defective gutters, sprinklers, pipes, air-conditioning units, water leaks are practical breeding grounds for termites. Check and secure water containers in your house for proper drainage. Keep plants and trees away as possible because plants are a constant source of moisture and food to termites. Surrounding plants in your home attracts termites from entering your house. If you are planning to plant any trees, make sure that they are located at a distance from your home.

In connection, ensure that no branches of trees to touch any wooden part of your house. As your part in your routine and as urgency requires, you should regularly check your wooden parts of the house like walls, fences and other posts from termite infestation. Securely, make sure that wooden structures and objects do not touch the ground for this is considerably attractive for increasing the chances of termites in your house.

Written by By Michael Rozatoru :)