As property owners, there are many things we must do to keep our properties up and running. Whether it is your home, storage unit, or business, pest control in Dallas is essential to keeping your place safe for you, your family, your employees, and your patrons. However, one pest that is often forgotten about is the termite, and forgetting about termites can be extremely costly to you.
Signs Of Subterranean Termites On Your Dallas Property
There are several different kinds of termites, but subterranean termites are one of the types of termites that will quietly terrorize your Dallas property. However, a termite problem is not always easy to spot and can go unnoticed if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Below are some signs of termites:
- Discarded wings: Wherever the termites gain access to the wood tunnels they create, there will be discarded wings, which strongly indicates you have a termite infestation.
- Hollow wood sounds: Tap on the wood of your property; floorboards, ceiling beams, and wood siding alike. If the wood sounds hollow or papery, this could indicate signs of termites.
- Mud tubes: Subterranean termites need the air to be at a certain temperature for them to thrive. That is why they build thin, pencil-sized mud tubes to crawl through, as it keeps the air at an ambient temperature. These mud tubes will be present outside your home, with one end attached to the property and the other attached to a food source, such as a tree or bush.
Why It Is So Hard To Get Rid Of Subterranean Termites
It is incredibly difficult to get rid of subterranean termites. One of the reasons is because they crave total darkness, causing them to bore into wood in order to find this — it is the reason you have termites in the walls of your home. That alone makes them much harder to find than other pests, and on top of that, they are extremely quiet. Additionally, even if you manage to kill a few termites on your own, don’t feel victorious — termite colonies are massive, and there will always be more termites available to the place of the ones you kill. Even if you manage to kill the queen, termites are capable of restarting their colony without them, meaning they will continue to reproduce and establish their colony once again.
How Do Subterranean Termites Get Into Homes?
The best way to stop a termite problem from happening is to keep them from getting into your property or home at all. Below are some of the ways subterranean termites can get into your home or other properties:
- Foundation cracks: Subterranean termites live underground and will get into your home from underground or just above it if there is a conduit that allows them to get in. These areas include cracks in your foundation, leading them to the wooden baseboards of the home.
- Deck posts: If there are termites outside in your yard, they can get into your home by first going through your porch or deck posts.
- Mud tubes: Because subterranean termites die if exposed to the air, the mud tubes they build help bridge the gap from a nest to a food source. Termites can make it into your home by creating one of these mud tubes from the ground and attaching the other end to the wood of your deck, porch, or foundation, allowing them to get into your home.
Who To Call About Subterranean Termites
A termite infestation in your home is serious business. If left untouched, subterranean termites can single-handedly cost you thousands of dollars in damages. If left to their devices for too long, they can completely compromise the structural integrity of your home, making it unsafe to live in. Here at Texas Star Pest & Termite, we have over three generations worth of experience identifying termite infestations and exterminating them in their entirety. Our technicians are armed with the skills and tools required to take out entire infestations, stopping them from causing any more damage to your home. Don’t let subterranean termites damage your property -- call us today!