How Can I prevent A Termite Infestation?
How can I prevent a Termite Infestation? There comes a point in every structure in Southern California when it will be affected by either drywood or subterranean termites. It is not possible to make termites go extinct, or stop them from swarming.
There is no forcefield that will make it so termites are unable to enter the airspace around your home, and that’s really only because Elon Musk won’t return my calls. However, there are some preventative measures that can help deter, slow, or altogether stop termites from having access into your home.
How can I prevent a Termite Infestation? There comes a point in every structure in Southern California when it will be affected by either drywood or subterranean termites. It is not possible to make termites go extinct, or stop them from swarming.
There is no forcefield that will make it so termites are unable to enter the airspace around your home, and that’s really only because Elon Musk won’t return my calls. However, there are some preventative measures that can help deter, slow, or altogether stop termites from having access into your home.
1. Inspect and treat annually
Termites can swarm up to two times per year. In California, they do not move too quickly or aggressively so a new termite infestation in your home may not show any signs or symptoms right away.
If you have a thorough annual termite inspection performed in your home, you should be able to catch infestations early enough to treat them by way of local termite treatment methods.
See here for different treatment types and keep a very minor termite issue from becoming a huge termite problem and expense. Click to schedule an inspection.
2. Wood repairs and painting
As your home ages, wood gets damaged either because of exposure to the elements or external forces, such as termites and wood-rot. Click here for tips on how to identify termite and wood rot damage.
Wood that is already damaged is easier for a passing swarm to access. Damaged and wet wood could potentially be easier to eat through, making them a hotbed for termites and increasing the severity of wood damage exponentially.
Keeping your home up-to-date in repairs will make it harder for termites to make a new colony in your home’s structure.
Drywood termites will not eat through paint to get to wood. Having quality primer and paint on wood provides an additional protective barrier that deters swarming termites from infesting your wood.
3. Borates
Applying products based on the natural element Boron known as borates also helps to prevent termites from making a new colony in your wood members. What borates do is create an environment so rich in sodium that it is uninhabitable.
Termites may be able to find the borate treated wood, but they will not be able to live in it.
It would be like me trying to live off seawater. Nothing can stop me from finding the ocean but drinking seawater would not be sustainable for my survival.
Just like in this analogy, termites would either find different wood to infest or dehydrate due to the high sodium levels in the wood they are consuming.
It is important to note that borates are absorbed only on bare wood, and bare wood members will only absorb up to ⅜ of an inch into the wood.
This means that the boron rich environment is only at a superficial level and would not be a suitable treatment for a wood member that already has a termite infestation at a deeper level.
We recommend applying borates in bare wood in garages, attics, and on wood members being used for repairs before they are primed, painted, and installed in your home.
We continue to be Southern California’s preferred termite and pest control service, provider. We pride ourselves in being the number one provider of dependable and convenient termite inspection and services for escrow.
