Summertime can inspire a lot of us to finally tackle that to-do list we’ve been building all year long. As we’re organizing our attics or fixing things around the house, we might stumble upon an unwanted surprise. In the months of April to July, termites keep themselves busiest, eating away your house from the inside.
Jacksonville pest control specialists know that you might have had these unwanted visitors for longer than you’d care to imagine. Since the Formosan termite is most common in warm southern climates like Florida, you’d better spot them before it’s too late.
Where Formosan Termites Hide
You might luck out and see flying termites around your property, but a lot of the time, these wood-eaters stay hidden. It’s easiest to spot active termites from dusk to 9:30 pm because this is when they eat, but it could be in the hollows of your house’s structure.
Places to look for Formosan termites are:
- Wood constructions
- Places where soil is touching wood
- Behind areas where paint is uneven or bubbling
- Basements
- Attics
- Crawl spaces
- Support beams
- In mud-tubes by your foundation
Formosan termites love moisture, so they build these so-called mud tubes, which are tunnels made of mud. These bugs are subterranean, so they will find your property’s wood if it’s close to soil. These termites also build networks to keep moisture flowing in the hollow galleries they create. If paint is bubbling up, that moisture is a huge signifier of their presence.
Formosan Termites Are Wood Destroyers
Of the 2,000 species of termites, the Formosan termite is the most aggressive. These voracious pests consume paper, cardboard, and wood to find dead cellulose, which is their sustenance.
They can swarm and infest a house incredibly quickly. However, signs of termites aren’t that easy to identify. Their presence can go undetected until major renovations reveal how secretly busy they’ve been. It’s estimated that $5 billion worth of damages is done to US homes each year!
Tapping on wood sections to hear if they sound hollow could help find them. As well, look for areas with moisture like leaking pipes.
The Best Way To Handle Formosan Termites
If you discover these burrowing insects have invaded your home, there are some ways you can fight them. We suggest:
- Treating the soil with a non-repellent termiticide
- Treating infested hollow wood galleries with repellent termiticide
- Baiting termites with traps
- Separating wood sections from the soil by digging 6-inch trenches
- Fumigation if the soil is properly treated
There are various termiticides, but be sure to know which is repellent and which is non-repellent. Repellent will keep them away from your home, but non-repellent is an undetected poison that will kill them in the soil.
Subterranean termite treatment in Jacksonville doesn’t need to be complicated. You can dig a 6-inch trench around your house’s foundation and fill it with a solution of termiticide to kill a lot of them off.
To get into the hollows these pests create, you can also drill into the base of cement fixtures to foam in the termiticide.
Tenting a house for termites in Jacksonville is something our team at Trad’s Pest Control knows might be necessary, but only after we take appropriate measures to ensure the infestation doesn’t return.
Formosan Termite Prevention Tips
Knowing that water and wood are what termites look for will help you secure your home from future infestations. Steps you can take to make sure your wood structures remain safe are:
- Avoid water accumulation.
- Decrease crawl space humidity with proper ventilation.
- Create buffers between soil and wood.
- Repair and prevent leaking pipes.
- Keep lumber and wood waste out of your yard.
- Keep wood mulch far away or avoid it altogether.
- Use baiting systems proactively.
Ultimately, avoiding excess moisture in wood and keeping your home far away from these subterranean nuisances are your best bets. If you want to keep wood mulch on your property, we recommend building a stone perimeter of 18 inches in width next to the foundation, so termites don’t find their way in after feasting on your mulch.
Naturally, some infestations are too big to handle on your own, especially with a species as intensely active as the Formosan termite. At Trad’s Pest Control, Our family-owned company is not only the best pest control company for your Jacksonville home, but we’re also of the exclusive 3% in the country to win the National Pest Management Association’s QualityPro accolade. We have confidence that we can fight any infestation in a timely and friendly manner, so contact us any time.