What You Should Know About Drywood Termite Control In Orange County

Drywood termites are one of the most dangerous pests you can get on your property because they’re so much more resilient than other termites. While other termite varieties require moisture to thrive, drywood termites can survive without it. That means they can invade your home regardless of the state its wooden components are in.

Drywood termites are tougher to keep out, and they’re tougher to get rid of than dampwood or subterranean varieties. Considering the havoc an untreated infestation can wreak on your home, you need to be extra vigilant in your efforts to combat these pests.

Signs Of Drywood Termites

Like other termites, drywood termites eat wood and spend their lives living in wood. In nature, these social insects tunnel through things like dead trees and rotting logs, which makes them an important part of the natural decay process. The problem arises when they bring that decay-facilitating talent to your home.

As we said above, drywood termites don’t need moisture to invade your home. That means, in addition to getting into water-damaged or aging wood components, drywood termites can also invade healthy wood in your home. Once they do, they can cause a lot of damage while you’re none the wiser. Termites eat where they live, meaning they don’t have much reason to leave their nests. Typically, only reproductive adults will leave an established colony – and only to mate and found satellite nests.

When it’s time to breed, thousands of winged males and females called alates will leave the nest to perform a mating flight and then head off to start brand new colonies near the site of the old one. This behavior or evidence of its occurrence (like piles of shed wings) is often the first sign homeowners see of a termite infestation. This is bad news for homeowners because if you’re seeing a termite swarm, it’s a sign that not only do you have a termite infestation on your property, but you likely have an established and mature colony.

Other signs to look for mostly pertain to the damage termites do to your home and can include:

• Warped walls
• Bucked floors
• Sagging ceilings 
• Windows and doors that don’t fit in their frames
• Visible tunnels in wood components of your home
• Carton/frass – termite sawdust
• Pinholes in drywall

What To Do About Drywood Termites

Since the goal of mature colonies is to propagate themselves through founding satellite nests, drywood termites are tough to get rid of. Even if you destroy the original colony, chances are it’s already reproduced and left several smaller, harder-to-spot nests behind. That means prevention is the best way to deal with these pests.

One great way to keep termites out of your home is to make it impossible for them to enter. Seal off every crack and hole you find in your home’s foundation and siding, and make sure window and door screens fit well and have no damage.

Another solid prevention method is getting rid of all rotten wood either in or around your house. Although drywood termites don’t need moisture to survive, soft and damaged wood is easier to tunnel through and therefore an attraction to virtually every termite species. That means getting rid of decaying wood makes your home less appealing to all termite varieties.

If you wind up with a termite infestation, it’s better not to try to deal with it alone. Here at Pacific Shore Pest Control, we’ve got the latest and greatest termite control techniques to help you not only eliminate existing infestations but clean up the damage and create a plan to make sure new infestations don’t move in to replace the old one. So give us a call or visit our contact page to schedule your appointment today. We also provide quality residential exterminator services and commercial pest management services.