8 DIY Termite Control Tips For Your Home

Termites have no high or low season. These wood-chewing pests are active the whole year and can cause destruction. As a homeowner, you can use several DIY termite control tips to guard your home failure, to which you will have to hire a reliable termite control company to do it for you. Here are some DIY steps to use in termite control.

8 DIY Termite Control Tips For Your Home

1. Seasonal Foundation Inspection

Do termites eat concrete? No, but you must inspect your foundation seasonally, looking for signs of damage to plan for a termite treatment plan. The presence of mud tubes is an indicator that termites are trying to find their way through the foundation of tasty woods. Therefore, plan for termite control tactic at this point.

2. Use your flashlight

Visit your basement and take a close look for any damages. Concentrate on corners and edges. If you happen to see mud tubes, then termites are invading your home. Use the old thumb test by pressing the wood with your thumb. If the wood is weaker, then find a treatment plan. Small piles of grass also indicate the presence of termites.

3. Maintaining Proper Sealing and ventilation

Sealing and ventilation prevent moisture build-up behind the walls. With no moisture, termites find it less attractive to explore your home, and therefore this is one of the most effective termite control tactics. Besides, proper sealing and ventilation prevent condensation, yet termites love condensed places for their habitat. This means your air conditioner should always be in good condition.

4. Bait the Termites

Use a termite bait station to draw termites away by destroying their nest. Termites hate this repellent, and if they were in your yard, reaching your house becomes a problem. If you have seen termites in your yard, use this method to prevent more damage.

5. Distance between woodpiles and your House

Since termites love woods for their habitat, ensure you keep these piles 20 feet away from your house. This is the quickest DIY termite control method. Also, ensure you trim trees and shrubs surrounding the tour house. Do not let the branches come into contact with the walls.

6. Space between Soil and Wood

Another tactic to deal with termites is ensuring you create an 18-inch pace between soil and woods you want to protect. Space keeps termites uninterested. You can also dig a trench and apply termiticide. This non-repellant will kill any termite that tries to move through it.

7. Heat

Heat is the most cost-effective DIY tactic to kill termites. Termites are heat sensitive. Therefore, if you can heat their habitat for 30 minutes at 120 degrees, they will die. This method should not be applied near plastics and wires.

8. Plastic storage and treated woods

Termites are only interested in woods. Thus, if you use plastics for storage, then they will not invade such areas. If you are using cardboards, then ensure it is in the recycling bin. If you prefer woods to plastics, then you must use pressure-treated woods. Termites will rarely eat woods that have chemicals.