All-Safe Pest & Termite is excited to get another season underway. We're ready to meet and exceed your needs in pest control just like we've been doing for the last 30 years. This year, let's be on the lookout for termites. It's important to exercise necessary measures to keep your home safe from another termite swarming season. Here's what that means for your Dallas home.
Let's Stop Termites Before It's Too Late
The best thing you can do is stop termites before they become a problem, but to do that, you have to be able to identify common termite attractants. Particularly, termites are attracted to wood, so exercise the following precautions:
- Locate structural wood that's in contact with the soil. Try to elevate it or remove it if possible.
- Inspect the wood outside of your home. This includes fencing. If the wood shows signs of decay or rot, replace it.
- Identify tree stumps on your property. If possible, remove them.
- Keep stored firewood away from the foundation of your home.
Termites can do huge damage to your house in a short period of time, especially once they've established a successful colony. If left unchecked, termites can do enough damage to condemn a Dallas home. They quietly consume the wood behind the walls and under the floors until your house's frame is nothing but a riddled skeleton hosting a thriving colony of wood-eating insects.
If You See A Swarm, You Already Have Termites
Once a colony is well-established, reproductive termites or alates will leave the colony, swarm, and begin to establish a new one. After mating, they will leave behind their iridescent wings. If you notice swarmers inside or outside your Dallas home or find their discarded wings, contact the professionals at All-Safe.
Common Termite Behavior
It can be almost impossible to detect a termite infestation before it gets out of hand. Termites behave a lot like ants, bees and other colony insects, but the fact is that termites are more closely related to cockroaches than ants. However, people often establish the connection between termites and ants because termites have queens and colonies and the swarm just like ants do.
During certain seasons, termite queens and winged males depart from wherever they were hatched and fly off looking for a new house to destroy. For the first couple of years after invading a house, they are hard to detect.
It often takes an experienced professional to check for termites because for the first couple of years termites lay low while crawling around in your walls making an infrastructure to support a colony that soon will explode. They wait quietly until you least expect it.
After they find your house, they bore into the wood. From there, the queen and the king termite will never emerge again--your home is now their home. Then, the queen begins to lay eggs. Typically, she lays between five to fifteen eggs at a time.
Over time, termite activity will become easier to detect. You may see the following signs:
- Buckling walls and floorboards
- Piles of frass or termite droppings that resemble salt and pepper on your window sills and near your baseboards
- Mud tubes around the foundation of your home or in your basement created to connect the colony to the nest
- Drumming sounds in your walls made by soldier termites when the nest is threatened.
- Discarded wings from a termite swarm
- Excessive dirt on your carpets when you vacuum
If You See A Swarm, Contact The Professionals
In the end, swarms serve as an obvious and foolproof sign of termite activity. Though swarms of termites can travel pretty far, they often emerge from a colony in your own home. Regardless, if you see a swarm, your best bet is to call the professionals at All-Safe Pest & Termite. We have 30 years of experience stopping termites before they become a larger infestation. Get started with a professional termite control plan today!