5 Ways To Protect Your Home From Termites
Termites are responsible for $5 billion worth of property damage each year. If you aren't lucky, you might find that your own house has been infested with termites. However, there are a number of good practices that you should keep in mind to help prevent a full-blown termite infestation. Keep in mind the following tips to ensure that you don't ever have to lose portions of your home due to termite damage.
Keep Wood Off The Ground
Termites are a rascally form of insect that prefer the ground level rather than areas that are high up. Often times, when you discover termite infestations, they will most likely be towards your floor and near the foundation of your home. As such, it is important that you keep your wood off of the ground. By keeping your wood off of the ground, termites won't have access to your massive stockpile of thick wood. It is highly recommended that you keep wood stored at least a few inches above ground level.
Keep The Subfloor Ventilated
When it comes to making their home, termites love the areas below your house. The area around your foundation, as well as any crawlspaces, are prime targets for termite homesteads. Why is this the case? They simply love damp, moist and poorly ventilated areas. Most areas such as crawlspaces are poorly ventilated. You can ventilate your crawlspace by supplying it with air from your HVAC system, or you can use small fans or dehumidifiers to vent the air in the space. By making sure that such areas are quite well ventilated, you're ensuring that no termites will have any desire to make any sort of permanent home there.
Keep Moisture Away From Your Foundation
Foundations are a prime locale for termites to make their home, and for numerous reasons. For one, it's incredibly low to the ground, making it a prime access point for termites, two it is quite dark in that area, with termites simply loving areas without an ample source of light, and third and most importantly, the area is moist. Termites thrive off of moistness. Make sure that such areas are adequately dry in order to keep termites away. You can do this by ensuring that your gutters adequately divert water away from your foundation and ensuring that you clear out things you may have near your foundation, like lawn clippings and leaves, that will retain moisture.
Do Not Overuse Mulch
When it comes to your lawn and garden, it may seem as if mulch is a Godsend. It looks fantastic and can actually serve to benefit the greenness of your landscape. However, termites tend to make their home in between the mulch and the dirt, and from there, they can move towards your home, creeping forward, ever steadily, most likely towards your foundation.
Regular Pest Inspection
Although this should go without saying, some people are not particularly keen on regular pest inspections. Just because you are having a pest inspection does not mean that you have an infestation. It is important that you have regular pest inspections to check around your house – this generally means approximately twice a year – to see if you have any pest problems. Par for the course for termite inspections, a pest control representative will most likely walk the grounds of your home and inspect your foundation for any indication of an infestation.
Termites can be a pain in the rear, as they are very hard to detect and can wreak havoc on your home before you are even aware that you even have a termite problem. Luckily, there are preventative measures you can take to make sure you see nary a one. Hopefully, this brief article gave you some insight regarding how to take those preventative measures. For more information, visit websites like http://cavanaughspest.com.
