Nashville Property Owners' Ultimate Termite Control Guide
Termites cause billions of dollars a year in damage. They eat wood, paper, books, insulation, and other things containing cellulose. While beneficial when eating fallen logs and dead trees outside, so they can return the nutrients to the forest, termites are a problem when they enter your house.
What Termites Look Like
Termites have three castes in their nests, and each caste looks different.
- Swarmers are the reproductive females and males that mate and then establish new colonies. These dark-bodied insects have two sets of wings that are roughly the same in length and size. They have straight antennas and do not have a waist, unlike ants.
- Soldiers are the security team. They are pale yellow or straw-colored. Their front mandibles are enlarged into darker pincers. Soldiers protect the workers and the nest.
- Workers are pale yellow and actually care for the larvae, the queen, forage for food, build new parts of the nest, and do everything else the nest needs. They are the ones chewing up your wood.
Termite Lifecycle
Swarmers are the kings and queens of the termite nest. After their mating flight, both sexes land and pick a good area to start a colony. They twist off their wings and start digging the first part of the nest. The queen lays eggs and both termites tend to them, and the subsequent larvae. After the larvae molts, it becomes either a worker, a soldier, or a swarmer. These termites take over from the king and queen and care for the nest. For the rest of her life, the queen just lays eggs. Most colonies only produce swarmers when mature. The queen can live up to 25 years and produces thousands of eggs a year. A mature colony can have millions of termites, depending on the species.
Signs Your House Has Termites
Termites can be hard to detect, which is why you need an annual termite inspection. However, if you see any of the following signs, you need to get your house inspected immediately.
- Swarmers in your house
- Swarmer wings on windowsills
- A hollow sound when you tap what should be solid wood
- Mud tubes up the foundation of your house
- A break into the wood that shows termites inside
Not A DIY Situation
If you have termites, you may be tempted to attempt their eradication by yourself. This is rarely a good idea. Termites are inside wood tunnels. It is difficult to get pesticides to penetrate the wood enough to kill the termites. You can also use baits, but unless you know where to place them to get the termites to eat them, you are probably wasting your time. Many pesticides that control termites are very toxic. Mistakes in following the label directions can be harmful to you, your family, and your pets. You need to contact a professional for help.
Getting Professional Help
Urbanex can eliminate your termites and make sure they do not return. When you contact us, we will schedule an appointment for you. Our technician will come out and do a preliminary inspection and come up with a treatment plan. Once you have agreed to the treatment plan, we do a full inspection, checking the hard-to-reach places such as crawl spaces and attics.
To treat termites, or to prevent them from infesting your home, we place bait stations every ten feet around your house. These bait stations contain The Sentricon® System with Always Active™ technology. Termites take the bait back to their nest and feed it to the other termites in the nest where it kills the whole colony. Sixty days after we install the bait, we will come back and inspect the house to see if the termites are gone. After that, we will come back yearly to refill the baits.
If you have a problem with termites in Nashville or want to make sure you don’t get an infestation, contact Urbanex today to take care of that pest for good.
Tags: termite control | home pest control | nashville termites |
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