When it comes to the most dangerous pests in the country, termites come pretty close to the top of the list. They may not sting, bite, or spread disease, but these ravenous insects can eat you out of house and home—literally. That's why termites need to be among your top priorities for pest control in New Haven, CT.
Why You're Not Likely To See Termites Around Your Home
Termite control is one of the most challenging pest control categories because termite infestations are among the toughest pest problems to find and identify. Due to how termites live and eat, termite identification for your home can take months or even years.
These social insects live in huge colonies with a breeding queen, just like ants do. The main difference between termite and ant lifestyles is that ants have to forage, while termites eat the wood they infest. This allows termites to remain inside their colony or hidden within the wood they are feeding on almost 100% of the time. So you'll virtually never see any termites crawling around, even if your house is full of them.
The only time this isn't true is when it's mating season. When a mature termite colony is ready to spread, winged termite adults called alates swarm by the thousands to pair off and found new colonies. If you see a cluster of winged termites on your property, it's a good bet that you have an infestation since alates do not fly very far from their original nest before performing their mating flight.
Factors That Attract Termites To Your Home
Termites need two things to thrive: wood and moisture. Unfortunately, Connecticut homes tend to have a lot of both. The thing that usually touches off a termite infestation is wood-to-ground contact around your home.
This could be firewood piled up along your home's siding. It could be wood rot in your porch's foundation. It could be branches touching your roof. Any wood that touches both the ground and your home can give termites an in. This is why eliminating wood-to-ground contact is so vital for avoiding a termite problem.
How To Remove Termite Attractants Around Your Home
Since wood-to-ground contact is the main way people wind up with active termites in their homes, eliminating this issue is the first step in the termite prevention process. Eliminating wood-to-soil contact around your home isn't as simple as just moving your firewood. You've got to do more than that.
Here are a few steps that can help make your property less appealing to termites:
- Cut back bushes and trees away from your home's exterior.
- Ensure all the wooden components of your house are hard and dry.
- Remove rotting logs and trees from your yard.
- Store all firewood up off the ground and away from the house.
In addition to these tips, make sure you're fixing problems that can cause moisture buildup in soil, like poor drainage or leaky pipes. While some termite species can survive without moisture, most can't. This means addressing moisture sources is another effective way to protect yourself from the majority of termite species.
The Best Way To Protect Your Home From Termites
Termite removal only gets more expensive with time. Time gives the infestation room to establish itself, spread, and cause even more damage. What's even worse is that store-bought termite control products rarely do anything at all.
If you have a termite infestation, the best thing to do is call the experts here at Connecticut Pest Elimination, LLC. Our resident termite experts know how to handle all kinds of termite species endemic to our area and can ensure that your infestation is gone for good. So don't wait until termites have done thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home. Contact us today!