Are Termites Silently Destroying Your Christiansburg Home?

As a homeowner, you do a lot to maintain the value of your home and property. You keep your lawn mowed and hedges trimmed. You fix problems as they arise such as leaks and damage caused by weather. If something threatens the well-being of your family or your investments, you work quickly to solve the problem. But what if we were to tell you that one problem that threatens many homes across Christiansburg is a silent, unseen one, a threat that most people don’t become aware of until years after it has begun destroying their home. Would this threat worry you? It should.

What Are Termites?

At this point, you already know that the threat we are referring to are elusive wood-destroying pests called termites. These pests exist in colonies comprised of caste systems, usually beneath the ground outside. Within these caste systems are:

Workers
Workers look like white ants and are tasked with gathering food to feed their colony.

Soldiers
Soldiers are darker than workers, tasked with the defense of the colony.

Swarmers
Swarmers are often mistaken for flying ants, tasked with exploring and finding new areas to build colonies.

Reproductives
Reproductives are king and queen termites which are bigger in size with long wings, tasked with laying eggs and determining caste placements.

Tunneling underground, termite workers destroy structures of wood, eating them from the inside out. If your home has presented itself as a tasty snack, termites could be munching away as you are reading this. It only takes a termite colony 5-8 years to sufficiently destroy the structural integrity of a home.

How To Know If You Have Termites

Now that we have established the threat termites can be to your home, let’s talk about some ways you can know they are there. The reason termite infestations go unnoticed for so long has to do with the way termites invade. You see, termites do not fare well in sunlight and open-air, they require constant moisture provided by underground tunnels to survive. For this reason, they remain hidden underground as they dig tunnels up to your home. Once they have reached your home, they do two things: check to see if any of your home’s wood has been softened by water damage or rot and find the easiest way in.

If your home’s structural wood is directly touching the soil outside, you are in trouble. If this is the case, termites can go straight from the ground into the wood of your home. This helps them remain undetected. If the wood of your home is on a foundation, however, termites will construct mud tubes to climb up through. These mud tubes are the number one way to identify termites early.

If termites have been eating away at your home for months or even years, their presence may start to become more obvious. You might start noticing things like your floors dipping or squeaking, or perhaps bubbling behind your wallpaper and paint. Some other signs include hollow-sounding wood, soft clicking sounds behind walls, and frass, a byproduct termites leave behind on walls around entry and exit holes.

Regardless of how the damage presents itself, the simple truth is, you don’t want to discover termites after they have destroyed your home. To spot termites early, our best recommendation is to let us do a thorough inspection here at All Pest. Our professionals have the tools and experience to spot termites early.

How To Keep Termites Away

When it comes to keeping your home safe against termites, there are a few things you can do. Some great places to start are:

• Make sure no exterior soil is directly touching your home’s structural wood.

• Fix leaks.

• Repair broken gutters.

• Replace water-damaged, rotten, or moist wood.

• Keep any wood-based debris away from the walls of your home.

If you would like to be sure your home remains termite-free year-round, we have answers for you here at AllPest Control & Solutions. Our expert pest technicians have the tools and termite control treatments needed to properly defend your home against wood-destroying termites. For more information on how we handle termites or to schedule an inspection for your Christiansburg home, reach out to us today!