Termite Damage – What Are the Warning Signs For Home Owners?

Termite Damage – What Are the Warning Signs For Home Owners?

Owning a home comes with a lot of stresses: mortgages, insurance, paying the bills. One thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is termite damage. What are the warning signs for homeowners?

Well, they’re numerous, so I’m going to go over them for you. Even if you don’t think you have a termite problem, it pays to learn what the warning signs are. Termites cost homeowners more than one BILLION dollars a year in the US alone, and they are a very real threat to your home.

Before you get to looking for damage, you should start looking for signs of the termites, so you can preempt their attempts to turn your house into a nice meal. You need to look in places where there is a lot of wood, not surprisingly, and also where there is moisture. Anyplace with bad drainage is a prime location.

The most obvious thing you can look for is a termite swarm. They typically take place after rainfall, but can happen almost any time in the spring through fall. What you’re looking for a swarm of winged insects, about a quarter to half an inch long.

Don’t confuse them with flying ants, which look similar but are harmless. Flying ants have wings that are about the same length as their bodies, where termites have much longer wings, around twice their total length.

Swarms are particularly bad news because they are composed only of reproducing termites. In any colony there is one king termite and one queen termite that produce all the other termites, which can number into the millions. So having a whole bunch of these pairings in your area is not going to end well for you.

These wings drop off after the termites have found a new home, so it’s important to be on the lookout for the wings. You’ll often find them group around windows, doors and other access points, and if you find the wings, then you know that they’re trying to set up a new colony in your home.

Another thing to look for is the distinctive mud tubes they use to get into and through homes. Most termites that people have problems with live in subterranean tunnels, but sometimes when pursuing a new food source they will build new tunnels above ground out of dirt and their own waste.

The actual damage they cause can be pretty easy to spot, which is good for us and bad for them. What you need to do is get a flathead screwdriver and a flash light and start creeping around in your basement or crawlspace. Basically, anywhere with exposed wood.

First, do a visual inspection and look for wood that appears rotted, woods with holes in it that it shouldn’t have, both sure signs your house is being eaten from underneath you. You can also look for what looks like saw dust. You shouldn’t be seeing any of these things unless you have termites.

If you don’t find those obvious signs, use the screwdriver to poke the wood, hard. The screwdriver should barely penetrate wood that’s uninfested, but it will cause infested wood to break and fall loose.

If you do have the misfortune to find evidence of termites, don’t wait to do something about. Find somebody knowledgeable or do additional research to find out, and make sure you take steps to treat the problem. You need to quick and vigilant about containing termite damage. What are the warning signs for homeowners? Now you know.