Termite Deterrents

Every home-owner has to look after their asset. This requires maintenance, regular and methodical maintenance. There are many threats to a structure, especially if there is a considerable amount of timber in it. Most properties have a lot of wooden areas. The rafters in the roof, the joists underneath the floors and the casing behind the plasterboard walls are all subject to attack by mould and insects.

The kinds of dangers your that house faces depends on the climate where you live. Wet rot and dry rot are pretty widespread, as is attack by wasps, but the worst and fastest-acting danger is from termites and they only live in warmer climates.

If you live in a termite sector, then you really ought to look out for these insects. If you want to delay your inspections, you can use termite deterrents and poisons to make your maintenance regimen a little easier.

This will involve spreading chemicals in most cases as they are more powerful and longer-lasting. These chemicals should be laid down or sprayed wherever termites are likely to commence an attack on the structure of your home.

This basically means everywhere that there is untreated timber. There are three basic types of termites, the damp wood termites, the dry wood termites and the subterranean termites. The first two types may fly into your attic and establish a nest like a wasps’ nest; the subterranean termites will come up into the basement via underground tunnels. Subterranean termites are by far the worst termites to have and they are usually the most difficult to discover.

If you live in a termite region, then you really ought to make quarterly inspections of your attic and basement and one of those inspections should be towards the end of Spring, when termites, together with other insects spread their wings, quite literally, and try to set up new colonies.

A nest of termites can consist of between several hundred and several million termites, so it is best not to delay. If you are loathe to do these checks yourself or if you need written guarantees on your buildings because you buy and sell them often, it is better to get a professional pest controller in to do this for you.

There are two chief termite deterrents. There is the soil barrier to counteract the subterranean termites and contact insecticides to poison any swarming reproductive termites that may fly into your loft in order to establish a new colony.

If you are one of the new age thinkers, who tries hard not to use chemicals unless absolutely necessary, you will probably be disappointed in your quest to deter termites. Unfortunately, there are no known effective natural termite deterrents, although there are plenty of chemical ones.

Another alternative, which is a half-way house, is to put termite bait at strategic spots around the foundations of your house. You can buy these bait boxes quite cheaply or have a firm install them for you.

You have to check these termite bait boxes regularly. Once you see termite damage in the bait box, you put poison in there, which the worker termites will take back to their nest and poison it with.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with how to get rid of termites. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for further details.