How to Prevent Termite Infestations in Your Raleigh Area Home
No one wants to live in a pest infested house, and termites are the absolute last pests that you’d ever want to share your home in Raleigh with. There are plenty of pests that can cause damage to your home but a termite infestation has the capacity to destroy your entire house. Termites feed on the cellulose found inside of wooden structures and they’ll hollow out your home to get at it. Termite infestations that are left untreated for years have been known to lead to a structural collapse.
The best way to avoid the costly damage of a termite infestation is to prevent termites from entering your home to begin with. Continue reading to learn a few of the best ways to deter termites from your Raleigh area home.
4 Helpful Raleigh Termite Prevention Tips
Avoid Woodpiles – Dead, moist and rotting wood is particularly appetizing to termites. Because of this, you should never keep piles of firewood or scrap lumber near your home in Raleigh or, worse, inside your crawl space. Termites that are drawn to your property by a woodpile likely won’t stop there; once they’ve eaten their way through dead logs and lumber, they’ll move on to the wood inside your house. If you do keep a woodpile on your property, make sure that it’s elevated off the ground and kept far away from the perimeter of your house to prevent a termite infestation.
Keep Mulch Away – Another good way to prevent termites from being attracted to your Raleigh area home is to avoid laying down mulch beds bordering your house. While termites don’t usually feed on mulch, its presence traps moisture, creating the sort of conditions that termites favor. Termites that take shelter in your mulch beds are likely to start eating their way through your house. If you insist on mulching around your home, use cypress heartwood mulch, which is termite-resistant. Otherwise, stick with rock or sand bedding for gardens that border your home.
Fix Leaks Quickly – Leaking pipes don’t just cause water damage; they also attract termites. When wood is rotted by leaking water, it becomes especially appetizing to termites. To avoid a termite infestation in your Raleigh home, you should make sure to fix any leaking pipes as soon as possible, then replace water-damaged wood. The more extensive the water damage, the likelier it is that termites will swarm your home, inflicting even more severe damage as they feast on the rotted wood.
Get Preventative Termite Treatments – The most effective way to repel termites from your property is with preventative termite treatments performed by professionals. There are several options for termite prevention, the most reliable of which is liquid treatment. Termite control technicians can spray liquid termiticide around the entire perimeter of your home, forming a continuous barrier that excludes termites. For new houses being constructed, preventative termite treatments may also be applied to the wood and the concrete slab. For additional ongoing protection, we recommend that you have your pest control company in Raleigh set up termite bait stations on your property. The Sentricon Bait System can effectively wipe out entire termite colonies using a termiticide which prevents termite workers from maturing, causing them to die off.
Your Best Choice for Raleigh Termite Prevention
Are you worried about a termite infestation occurring on your property? Then let us keep that from happening. Call Sustainable Pest Systems today if you want professional termite prevention solutions for your home in the Raleigh area!