Termite Protection

Identifying termites is probably one of the most important parts of any termite extermination procedure. If you want to get rid of any kind of pest, you have to know who are you fighting with. There have been many cases when people started their pest control campaign without realizing that those wood eating ants are in fact termites. Opening an encyclopedia and studying the particularities of those insects that are currently causing a lot of unpleasant problems in and around your house was, is and will be something that we salute. Don’t be lazy even if you plan to hire professional termite inspectors that know how to identify termites and how to properly get rid of them. Coming home one day and realizing that you are in the middle of a fulltime termite infestation process is absolutely terrible and we don’t want anyone to pass through something like this. However, life is unpredictable when it comes to insect infestation (well in case you never had the chance to study the local area where you recently bought your home), but there are always reliable solutions for termite identification that can help responsible homeowners to kill them and live without the fear of encountering such a problem once again.

No matter what kind of termite protection campaign you are currently planning, one has to carefully study all the nuances, aspects and other characteristics of those insects that you spotted either in your basement, attic or wooden walls. While everyone knows that ants aren’t those insects that eat wood like termites do, there are still plenty of people that can’t make the different between termites and the above mentioned ants. This is a common issue especially when people are dealing with both flying ants or termites. That’s why we consider that their identification is something that has to be more carefully and attentively analyze, thus providing good and reliable information either for those contractors that you planned to hire and which are going to give you a hand of support in exterminating termites or even if you are doing it yourself. No matter if you apply DIY termite killing methods or pay a termite company you still need to have a proper idea about what is really going on and what kind of insect infestation you should work out.

The identification of different types of termites across most widely attacked states in America is done in several ways. First of all, experienced homeowners and private inspectors know that one of the first things one can spot in case of any pest insect invasion is their droppings, sometimes also referred to or called “debris”. Termite droppings are considered a very important factor in determining the type of pest you are having in your house. By being able to make the different between ant debris and termite debris you are only one step away from selecting the proper eradication method which is going to help you erase all the traces of those problem creating insects around, in or outside the house you live in. No matter how serious the infestation is, there are always proper techniques and strategies to identify the real cause of the attack and infestation and to realize which can be the most adequate method to eliminate the problem.

With that being said, it is important to mention that nowadays, using fumigation against termites has become one of the most widely used methods, especially when dealing with termites at a larger scale. We have plenty of friends that work for serious termite control companies in United States of America and in Australia that claim that sometimes by using fumigation you have the opportunity to solve any termite infestation problem without even wasting time on identifying the type of termites, the reason of their invasion or attack and many other quite important aspects and details that we mentioned since the beginning of this article and will still talk about in the following paragraphs. However, while this looks like a very fast and efficient method we do not recommend it for those who don’t know what fumigation is all about. It is extremely dangerous for beginners.

So here you have another case when even professionals claim that termite identification is not so important and crucial as many of experts (including us) think. Nevertheless, it is basically impossible and still makes no logical sense to use this strategy (fumigation) when you are dealing with a small and tiny termite problem (which can be composed of several dozens of termites that got lost in your kitchen or basement). Usually, for small issues related to any kind of pest insect attack, we recommend using sprays like Termidor because it is easy to perform and it’s not difficult to purchase such a repellent in any of your town or city local hardware store. You can’t use, by default, large scale techniques like fumigation with toxic gases of the whole house when you just have several termites that need to be eradicated.

Yesterday we recieved a message from a quite desparate house wife that asks us if it is necessary to hire someone from a termite extermination company or if we can suggest something that can be applied like a DIY (Do it Yourself) termite control solution. She told us that her husband used a famous termite repellent spray called Termidor and got read of the infested beams in their attic. They studied the infestation and realized that those white winged insects are in fact flying termites that started to regurgitate the moisture wood in their attic. Even if the most well seen infestation dissapeared, that particular family is still quite worried about the future of their house. This is what happens in most of the cases when you deal with that type of termite problem without first properly indentifying the cause of the attack. Now, even if there are no evident signs of termites, people are still worried.

This is the perfect study case to show people that in a similar situation everything that one should do (in case they don’t have a lot of skills, experience and knowledge in indentifying the cause of termite attack on their own) is to request help from professional inspectors. You are obliged to know what is the cause of the infestation – otherwise you won’t be able to locate the most specific method of eradication. It is what it is, you have to invest some time and money if you want a clean from pest house starting with today. There is no type of magic bullet in the terminating termites. It starts with passion, goes on with hard work and studying and ends with a happy end each and every time, no matter if you fail or have success after applying your termite extermination strategy or campaign. When failing you gather experience and knowledge and the same goes in case of success.

Indeed, termite identification is very important. First of all, you should know that there are like three or four (maybe five) different types of destruction termites (we like to call them so) only in the United States of America. However, while using strong and toxic repellents can be a good and efficient ways to kill them all, it is not always the case. You should also consider yours and your family’s health, all the possible negative and aftermath (secondary) effects that might occur after applying those toxic substances, so forth and so on. We suggest people from all over the place not to be ignorant when it comes to those special ways of protecting against termites. The approach matters, it matters a lot! It’s not only important to kill termites and to think that you’re done – how you actually do it is what really matters. Are you able to use natural, organic and safe methods to keep them away?

For us, it is really interesting to talk about all the possible termite related issues and problems. Managing to help people out solve their problems is also extremely important. We (both me and my wife) worked for more then twenty years in different termite pest control companies all over Canada and USA. We know a little bit about how it is done and we are also aware of many tricks and secrets that some pest controllers put into practice in order to save time, to do things faster and to impress their clients. However, no termite attacks means no work for those companies and that’s why you’ll have the chance to notice that even though the guaranteed cleansing results are almost the first possible priority in all the cases, there are still situations when you just won’t be able to see a high level of professionalism in termite proofing. Sometimes (!) efficient ways to exterminate termites just don’t make sufficient money.

When talking about how to identify termites in one house or on someone’s property it is important to let our readers know that it’s not always enough to just let the whole work and the proofing procedure on the back of those exterminators and controllers that you hire – it is also important to do it on your own, at least by studying, acknowledging and understanding what is the real and most common cause of the infestation and termite attack that your home is suffering from. Trying to simplify the whole process means that you just waste your opportunity to learn new things about these insects, about the overall identification of termites process and about many other interesting issues that should be know in case you are living in or near one of those states in USA which are simply marked with intense red in the chart of termites (red means extreme danger folks).

The reality however shows something a little bit different. The society that we are currently living in the people that we have to deal with on daily basis are too lazy and ignorant to try and read about termites on their own. They need fast solutions and they always seek to outsource all the time consuming processes, either the identification, inspection or extermination to those that can do it in exchange for a good sum of money. It is not always what you think. These days time is definitely money and all those individuals that know that are simply too far away from using do it yourself termite identification methods. It doesn’t work that way and you have to know that, no matter if you are a simple homeowner or work for a insect pest control company. It’s a win-win situation and both parts might find something to gain from this.

So why do people want to get rid of termites after all? What is so bad about them? Everyone is wondering how to stop termite damage. People don’t want to lose their houses and properties just because of some insects that are breeding extremely fast and want to take over your place in simply no time. It becomes really frustrating when your million dollar investment becomes nothing just because you were to far away from your every day home improvement issues and could not afford even some time to call and hire exterminators to solve your problem. This is it and there is nothing you can do now except selling your house for an extremely low price. It’s the most common thing that happens to those people don’t don’t take action in time and experience the consequences afterward. Everyone is aware of the fact that termites only (as pest insects that destroy mostly wood) cause approximately millions of dollars worth damage each year at a nationwide scale. If there is something you can do to prevent that please take a decision and do it now because tomorrow it might be late.

There aren’t a lot of secrets behind being able to sort various types of termites that you are handling and being able to make a basic difference between them. The termite identification key is to open that encyclopedia and read something about each of them. You can also look at various pictures in order to know how do they look like. It has been proven that most of the people react in a much more efficient way to visual messages (pictures, video) than to those that are presented into written form. By knowing how do those termites look like in real life you’ll be able to sort and solve things out much easier. All termite species look in a different way and you have to know that. When spotting a kind of termite that you have never seen before don’t panic, it might be either Formosan or Drywood termite or an ordinary subterranean one.

If you find enough time you can actually make up your own termite identification chart in order to be able to make it easier for you in the long run. Of course, we are not talking about the fact that you’ll need to protect against termites for your whole entire life but there are still some things that must be attentively watched in case you live in those regions that are highly populated by termites. Any kind of insect (read termite) attack can be postponed if you know what to do, how to react and which are the best, safest and fastest ways to exterminate them (in case they already go in) or to prevent them from penetrating your property (in case they are on their way towards your house). Well, basically there are thousands of interesting and pretty effective strategies that we can talk about on this blog. Stay tuned, more are coming this way.

Let’s try and sort things out. In most of the cases that we had the chance to deal with in the last several years, all the termite indentification stuff that has been related earlier in this post is mostly for those people that are interested in getting rid of termites on their own. It’s clear that even if you hire someone to do all the job you still want to know what are they doing on our property or inside your house. You don’t want just to sit there are wait for them to finish their job. However, when you plan to do everything by yourself without any direct help from exterior you want to know all these things that seem rather unimportant at the first sight but which play a very significant role when playing with any kind of extermination. To make things clear – if you have enough time to afford implementing do it yourself methods of termite control then you should do a little reading in the first place.

Nowadays we have a lot of old friends that run pest eradication businesses. Max, one of our closest friends (from Arizona) claims that he tries to organize, at least one or two times per month) different interesting seminars for his co-workers and employees about termite identification, different ways to reveal the true cause of any termite attack, signs and evidence of termite infestation and many other issues related to the current termite adaptation to the surrounding world. Even if termites will still look the same as today for a very long period of time there still exists the probability that these insects are constantly changing because of the adaptations and accommodations that occur to their organisms because of the environment they live in. It has been scientifically proved that termites already got used to plenty of so called “efficient” chemicals and toxic repellents that are being very intensively promoted either on TV or in different other media portals all over the place.

It may sound a little bit odd, but it’s the truth. Termites won’t simply die when you spray those strong repellents around. How can something like this be explained? Is there any solution to combat their extremely evolved potential of adaptation? Well, fortunately there is – always trying to seek new solutions and ways to keep termites away and to eradicate them. The key to success in this field of activity is also experimentation, because by constantly trying out and testing new things you have the unique chance to see what works and what doesn’t, what do termites have immunity from and what really makes them go extinct. As for those different ways to identify termites – closely study their appearance, their breeding process and their feeding options and you’ll easily manage to find out what kind of termites you are dealing with and what are the best methods to get rid of them.

Do not worry, if you know how to properly and correctly identify termites you’ll manage to solve any infestation caused by termites – fast and without wasting a lot of monies. Different types of infestation require a different approach. Nevertheless, knowing the real cause of the damage, attack or infestation is the main problem that people are facing these days. Many homeowners and citizens simply don’t know what to do and where to start from and sometimes feel this action blockage due to the lack of ideas that doesn’t come to their mind. It is a common problem that we are going to try and discuss in our future articles on this blog. However, today we would like to show people that no matter how difficult the infestation/invasion might seem at the first sighn you should never give up and always fight back and continue to struggle until you have success and reach that goal that you have been trying to hunt down for a very long time.

Being able to indentify termites easily offers you a lot of unwritten priorities. If you can say what kind of species does that termite from a neighbor’s house belongs to then you automatically have in your mind a series of things prepared and ready for action. You know where you can buy that repellent that might be necessary to keep them from invading the other part of your house or property. It is certain that you can think about the avarage cost of the damage those termites migh bring your house to in case no action will be taken. You can also for sure calculate the necessary time frame for getting rid of those insects. All these aspects can immediately appear in your mind if you simply know how to perform a basic termite identification. Nothing complicated here, just a little bit of hard work and determination at the beginning.

The termite treatment cost also differs when dealing with various types of termites. Most companies will charge a bigger and more considerable sum of money for eliminating Drywood termites then for simply poisoning a few hundred flying termites. So now you basically realize that the ammount you are about to spend also depends on the species and certain kind of pest that invaded your house. When reading all the stuff that we try and struggle to explain here, it might seem easy (that’s because we want everyone to be able to understand it). However, when trying to do things in real life and put everything that you have learned into practice – only then the real problems appear. One should realize that it’s not a good method to study and read everything possible and only after that beginning practicing and using it realistically. Little by little, methods should be tested step by step, together with the actual learning process. There is no use in doing things separately. It is nothing more than just a waste of time and termites don’t care about that – they’ll continue to take over your house till you can figure out what is going on.

Time is the most precious thing that we have in this world. Everything else comes next or is in close relation with time. Starting to manage any termite related issues and problems (especiall in their final form of infestation) is not as easy as someone might tell you because time is working against you. You have to find ways to exterminate termites that are not only efficient, but also natural, safe and can bring decent results in a short period of time. Just let it happen naturally and don’t force things unless you are sure about your main goals. We recommend all our readers to carefully study more about termite identification and also begin, little by little and step by step to put it into practice. You might also help the people around you (those who are struggling to fight a certain type of termite attack). Help yourself (in your practice) by helping others (those around you). This is called shooting two rabbits with one shot and works great if you can determine your priorities. We urge everyone to learn more about how to identify termites.