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Protecting your home from termites should be a priority for every homeowner. This destructive insect can severely damage the investments made in a property and the structure itself. However, if Termites enter a house or building, they will usually eat any wood, tapestry, clothes, or paper they may find. Here’s how to treat termites in the wood floor!
What Are Termites?
Termites are small organisms under the ground. These underlying organisms build small structures that retain sufficient moisture to survive. Termites are often harmless in soil and do not affect your home. When they enter your home, however, the problems start.
Termites usually have a lighter color than a typical house ant. However, they share many similarities. Both the ants and termites have wings, but the wings of termites are shaped as the ants? S wings are more prominent and different shapes. Both ants and termites have distinct intermediate sections, although they are larger. As for their antennas, the antennas are bent like an elbow, while the terminals of the termite are curved or straight.
Termites are usually not seen when they infest your home, but after rain, you could see swarms of them out of your home. This is a sign of a large infestation. If you notice this type of swarm, immediately call a pest control provider. If not, look outside your home at your windows, and other ledges for wings shed when the termites came into your home.
Signs Of Termites In Your Wood Floor
The terminal damage signs aren’t always visible, but you don’t want to ignore certain red flags on your hardwood floors. Termites are known as the quiet destroyer feed on dead wood mostly from the inside and make their presence very discreet in a home. Termites are weakening the internal wood structure, causing an abnormal sound and damage to floorboards.
Sign #1
Various types of termites are known in multiple ways. Subterranean termites that live underground in damp soil can cause damage similar to the damage caused by water. This can be perceived in the way that a leak in a bathroom pipe or rain damage can be seen — by hopping or warping wood, swollen ceilings and floors, and a mildew smell, which the termites themselves exude.
Sign #2
Drywood termites can cause wood cracks when their colony becomes sufficiently established. You may notice it in furniture infested with dry wood termites, and when these cracks occur, you may see their tunnels in your walls.
Sign #3
Cavities created by termites create hollow sounds, and you can listen to them with a screwdriver on the floor when you think you may have a termite infestation. Termites weakened hardwoods may also crash or crack because of movement between loose planks or because the floor and supports are affected.
Sign #4
Floors with loose boards, small holes, or collapsible wood also indicate possible damage to the terminal. Termite infestation can become very harmful if the destruction causes the floor or other parts of the house to collapse. When you determine that you have termites, it is essential to call a pesticide specialist as soon as you can.
How To Treat Termites In Wood Floor
Do you suspect that you may have a termite infestation that eats away on your hardwood floor? Termites typically prefer to target structures that support softwood floors such as floor joists and stories, and are also known to harm hardwood sections of house- hardwood floors.
These pests rely insatiably on wood and any wood structure that stands against the foundation of the house, whether on walls or floor, is susceptible to a termite infestation. In this guideline, we take you through the terminal damage signs you need to look for, how to treat termites in the wood floor, and how you can repair damaged hardwoods.
How To Treat Termites In Wood Floor: Do They Eat Hardwood?
Yes, termites are well-known hardwood-boring plagues, though it takes time for their damage to hardwood floors. If left uncontrolled for a few years, colonies of termites may eat off on your hardwood floor, to the extent that it becomes more and more apparent in the infested places.
How To Treat Termites In Wood Floor: Common Termite Damage Areas
Damage to the outside as well as inside the house may occur. In building homes, infestations are mostly found on foundation beams and floor joists. However, modern homes are typically less likely to be infested.
This is because they are built with fighting in mind. Think of fewer points of entry and wood less exposed. Indoors damage to door and window frames, baseboards, windowsills, beams, wood paneling, and integrated cabinets can occur. Check these places for signs of infestation regularly.
How To Treat Termites In Wood Floor: Do It Yourself
Professional control of termite is costly; that’s no doubt. After seeing how expensive, it is natural to wonder how you can kill termites yourself and whether they are valid. The good news is that if the infestation is detected early enough, you will have a good chance of dealing with it.
A combination of methods can also be used to improve the effect, given that some methods are only for outdoors. Here’s how to treat termites in the wood floor!
Liquid Termite Barrier
This method will kill termites in your house, but it is also a good preventive method. The idea behind a liquid termite barrier is to surround your home in a pesticide barrier, which, after contact, will poison termites. Although used around the whole foundation of the house, it can also be used around specific wooden structures, wooden piles, or tree stumps.
Poisoned Bait
Though undeniably effective, the liquid barrier treatment is a bit too radical for some people. You may not consider your termite problem too serious or may not find it comfortable to spray gallons of pesticides around your home.
We recommend using poisoned bait for such people. You don’t have to spray pesticides around your home; the bait attracts fodder and spreads the poison to your colony.
The bait stakes can be easily installed around your house in the ground. When the bait is consumed, the stakes appear, which also acts as a termite detection system. The poisoned bait will also be returned to the termite colony so that the poison can spread.
Direct Chemical Treatment
Although a liquid barrier or poisoned bait is very effective outside of your home, it can’t be used in your home. Don’t get us wrong; fluid barrier and poisoned bait treatments can kill termites at home by the effect of the poison transfer. We just say you can’t use the products in your home directly.
Boric Acid
Boric acid is considered the best “intermediate” solution in the debate on pesticides vs. natural solutions on pesticides. It works with most insects, including termites, whose impact on their digestive and metabolic systems is theorized.
It would take 3 to 7 days for an exposed termite to die after contact. And while it is not exactly a natural remedy, it is significantly lower in toxicity than the stronger insecticides used in previous methods.
Boric acid is widely available, also known as Borax, which is usually sold in powder form. You can probably pick it up in your local hardware store.
Nematodes
We are now fully engaged in ‘natural’ methods of removing termites. However, no nauseous chemicals are required, but they must be warned that chemicals and pesticides are used for a reason. That being said, these natural methods are a good option with zero health risks if your termites’ issue is on the minor side or looking for prevention rather than cure.
Nematodes beneficial are microscopic roundworms that feed on hazardous insects, such as termites. We just want to clarify before going any further than beneficial nematodes are 100 % safe and have no effect on humans. Although parasite species can and do infect humans, this is not one of them. This species does not attack even beneficial insects such as ladybugs and earthworms.
When these nematodes come into contact with termites or other harmful insects, they invade their bodies and feed them. Nematodes release intestinal bacteria, which cause blood toxicity and host death. After the host is dead and consumed, the nematodes continue to breed and multiply all the time.
Termite Preferences
Termites are notorious for food on hardwood floors, but do termites also eat laminate floors? The wood floor type will determine the probability of a termite infestation better. Allelochemicals can act as a repellent to termites.
South yellow pine and spruce were among those susceptible to (and attractive) thermal infestations with many others. Thus, the damage to the thermite does not depend on whether you have hardwood or laminate floors. Instead, it depends on the type of wood in your home.
Final Words
Since termites feed on wood, damage in places where wood is prominent is usually most visible. This could include damage to hardwood floors, wood-built walls, and doors. Every type of wood in contact with the soil and your foundation will be a problem that risks a future infestation of the termite. As thermal colonies migrate, through cracks as little as 1/32 of an inch, they can find their way to your home.
There are several chemical and non-chemical solutions that you can use when they invade your home to get rid of these voracious plagues. To recommend a suitable solution, you can always contact a pest control professional in your area.
