How to Get Rid of Termites at Home
This article is posted under Home safetyIf your home is mainly made of wood, termites are among your serious problems. Termites can destroy your furniture and the structure of your home which is made of wood. The worse thing is, termites create damage gradually that you won’t really notice it until it’s too late. Because of this, you need to regularly check your home for signs of termites infestation.
Steps to get rid of termites at home
Step #1: Locate the termites
The first step in getting rid of the termites is to find their locations. You should check the ground floor of your house and other wooden structures. You should pay extra attention to areas where the foundation meets the wall.
Step #2: Eliminate moist soil near your home
Termites thrive in moist soil. Because of this, you really have to eliminate the moist soil near the foundation of your house. You should also get rid of the standing water in and around your home.
Step #3: Use polyethylene films
You should place 6mm polyethylene films on the crawl spaces under the foundations. The films will serve as moisture barrier between the sub-floor framing and the soil.
Step #4: Elevate wood structures
You also have to elevate wood structures that come in contact with soil. This could prevent the growth of the termites population.
Step #5: Spray termite treatment liquid to areas that are infected by termites
You should buy an effective termite treatment and spray the liquid on the areas infected with termites. You can ask a professional termite exterminator on what treatment to use.
Tips when dealing with a termite infestation
Prevention is always better than cure. This is why as much as possible, you should ensure that your house is termite-free by using borate termite treatment on the wooden structures. However, if termites are already infesting your home, you should use termite treatment products to get rid of the pests.
Related questions:
1. What are the necessary tools in destroying termites?
2. What termite treatment should you use?
3. How to locate termites?
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Our house had a termite infestation when it was new. Almost each and every month, a small portion of our house would get torn or have a hole, as if someone punched right through it. One thing that I learned from the local carpenters around the neighborhood is that it is always better to use wood that is commonly labeled as “termite resistant”, most common examples are redwood, cedar and juniper, as they are hard and are less favorable to termites. And also, use sand that have large granules and place it around the wooden parts. This make it tough for the termites to chew through it as they are large and heavy for the termites to carry.
The best way to deal with termite problems is still prevention. Look around your house. Do you see any pieces of wood piled in your backyard? It is termites’ favorite spot. Termites love moist places. It is advisable to check your drainage and piping all through out your house so as not to invite termites in. Do a periodic inspection of your walls. When you suspect any slight cracks, call a professional exterminator right away to check it out. Another tip is knowledge on termites. Research on their behavior. Do not hesitate to ask your neighbors about any known problems in your area.
Infestation of termites can be a sign that you may need to spruce up your house. It could possibly be an alert that some of your old furnitures are in need of replacement (depending on the extent of damage) or maybe you need to reconstruct a part of your house.
More importantly, however, it would be more logical to eliminate the root cause of all the symptoms of infestation- the queen of termites! as it can lay thousands of eggs in one day.
For this, you can use boric acid that can be purchased from your local hardware. You can use that as an insecticide bait. One example is to get a fair amount of cotton with absorbed boric acid and place it around the infested area, the termites will then feed on this assuming it is their food and the “worker termites” will carry the insecticide until it reaches their queen- surefire way to eliminate them!
If you think professional help is needed, though, it is best to hire exterminators as they are the ones who have the right training and equipments in totally eliminating these destructive termites.
Personally, I would prefer hiring a professional pest control to do the job because getting rid of termites would mean exposing yourself to chemicals that may be very harmful or hazardous to our health.
I’ve heard about electronic pest control gadgets in the market that claims to repel not only termites but rats and roaches as well. For me I think this is a good alternative in getting rid of termites because it is not harmful to humans, it is safe for the environment and does not use a lot of electricity. However, one must be cautious when buying this type of gadget as there were reports that some of them are less effective in getting rid of termites while some does not work at all.