How To Effectively Remove Termites From Your New Braunfels Home

If you have found termites in your New Braunfels home, it is time to contact a certified termite control professional. Subterranean termites are sneaky pests that can avoid detection before and after you attempt to remove them. Professionals use industry-leading products and follow manufacturer's guidelines to provide termite treatments you can trust. While there are many ways you can prevent termite damage, we don't recommend that you do your own termite control treatments. Your home is a big investment. Join us as we look at some ways you can avoid termite damage, what products work to address termite problems, and how to get the best results from these products. If you'd like to speak to someone about termite pest control in New Braunfels, feel free to contact us at any time. We're happy to help you find the answers.

How To Identify Termite Damage

The most important step any New Braunfels homeowner can take is to learn how to uncover evidence of termite damage. While termite workers do a great job of hiding this evidence, it is possible find signs of a termite infestation in your home.

• Do you have a wooden fence? You may dig around the base of wood posts that go into the ground. If you find damage that looks like trenches stacked on top of each other, it is likely termite damage.
• Do you have a back deck that has wooden posts? Check those posts for trenches under the soil. You may also inspect the wood of your deck for splintering or mud. What is the mud? Subterranean termites bring mud up into their tunnels. They use the mud to patch any breaches in their tunnel walls.
• Do you have a wood skirt on your home and a crawlspace underneath? That crawl space is the perfect place to find termite activity. Look for mud tubes on the inside walls of your skirting and inside the block foundation piers. Also, look for splintering, or tap wood to see if support beams sound hollow.
• Do you have structural wood exposed behind landscaping? In a shaded and moist location like this, you may see subterranean termite damage near the ground. It will look as though the wood is eroding. The damaged wood underneath the surface will seem porous or brittle.  
• Do you have holes in your exterior door frames? Those holes aren't likely termite damage. Subterranean termites don't typically attack hardwood unless it is severely saturated with moisture.
• Do you have changes to the wood inside your home? Subterranean termite damage looks like water damage. Surfaces bulge. Wood sinks down or bows. Doors may stick and windows may open and close freely.

It is best to locate termite damage proactively. If you wait to see termite damage, you'll likely provide ample opportunity for subterranean termites to damage your home significantly.        

The Extent Of Damage Termites Can Silently Create In Your Home

How much damage can one little termite do? Not much. But you won't have just one termite come to feed on your home. Colonies have thousands of individuals. That's a lot of mouths to feed. We can't tell you how much damage termites will do to your New Braunfels home, but we can share these facts with you.

• Termite workers are always looking for food. They never stop. These simple organisms work day and night, 365 days a year, without sleep.
• Termite workers can travel a hundred yards in search of a food source. Therefore, more than one colony can feed on your home at a time. 
• When a food source is found, the queen is alerted, and more workers are created to keep up with acquiring available food.
• Sometimes a termite colony will establish a satellite colony, allowing faster access to a distant food source.
• Termite workers are rarely seen. They avoid light as much as possible. They don't even like to expose themselves to moonlight.
• Termite workers don't make noise as they feed on your home. They don't chomp on wood; they scrape. 
• A termite colony can have 60,000 to more than 1 million individuals.
• Subterranean termites cost U.S. property owners billions of dollars annually.
• Texas has the most destructive subterranean termites in the country.
• It isn't a matter of "if" termites will attack New Braunfels homes but more a matter of "when" they will attack.

The greatest issue with DIY termite control is that property owners have difficulty knowing that their efforts have failed. Sneaky termites keep sneaking. It is in their nature. They eat homes from the inside out. 

Factors That Attract Termites To Homes And How To Remove Them

We touched on this, but let's circle back around to take a closer look. Termites cause damage to wood because wood is food for termites. If you have wood-to-soil contact, such as fence and deck posts, you'll attract termites. If you provide a food source, the termite queen will produce more workers and the colony may create a satellite colony in your yard. Both of these things are bad. Removing termite attractants can reduce the risk of termite damage. It won't provide complete protection, but some protection is better than no protection. These are tips you can apply whether you detect signs of termites in your yard or you never see termite activity.

• Do you collect sticks and stack them on the ground? Consider putting sticks into a plastic bin. Termite workers won't have access to them in a bin.
• Do you have deck posts that go into the ground? Consider installing a block foundation. Termite workers will have to create mud tubes to go from the soil to the wood of your deck, and you'll get a chance to see them.
• Do you have a wood fence? Consider replacing your wood fence with a termite-resistant vinyl fence. Vinyl materials have come a long way. You can get a beautiful wood appearance with modern vinyl materials.
• Do you have wood on the ground in your yard, such as wood scraps or construction materials? Store them on an elevated platform.
• Do you have stumps or logs? Burn those stumps out and remove the logs to get rid of the termite food.
• Do you have untreated wood mulch? Consider a treated product or switch to gravel.
• Do you have a dying tree? It is a good idea to have a professional nurse that tree back to health. Termites don't eat healthy trees.

Along with termite food, termite workers are attracted to properties that have elevated moisture. There are a few ways you may promote termite activity. 

• A clogged gutter adds to the moisture saturation next to your home and makes the soil perfect for worker termites.
• Leaf litter and leaf piles trap moisture underneath and make environments that termite workers love.
• Dense landscape vegetation, overgrowth, and weeds trap moisture and promote termite activity.
• Plumbing issues can add ground saturation and invite termite workers to explore your foundation walls and find the sills of your home. 

Removing attractants can have a big impact on termites. Termites respond to the environment. They go where the environment provides ample opportunities for survival and population growth. In areas with lots of food, they grow their numbers quickly in response. You can put out the unwelcome mat simply by altering favorable conditions. Unfortunately, these conditions aren't always easy to correct, so property owners turn to termite control products when they see signs of termites in their homes or yards. While these products have the potential to work, they often fail due to misapplication and/or improper maintenance. There are few things as disheartening as finding out that termites continued to damage your property after you spent the money and did the hard work of termite control. 

The Best Form Of Termite Protection For New Braunfels Homeowners

Contact Gold Star Exterminators if you own a property in New Braunfels. We combine the two most effective termite control methods to get the best results. We begin with using Termidor to treat the structure if necessary. For long-lasting and sustainable control, we trench and treat around the structure. We support the treatment with a complementary annual inspection and also install a bait solution around the exterior. Liquid treatments offer the highest level of control and bait stations make monitoring termite activity a breeze. If termites are active on your property, you'll know it. Should you choose to get your termite control through Gold Star Exterminators, it is an ongoing program that is renewed annually. You can stop at any time. But you won't want to when you see how many times your termite protection has stopped termites from getting into your home to nibble away at your equity. Reach out to us today to speak with us about your termite control options or to schedule a service visit with one of our certified professionals. We're here to help you find the right solutions to all your pest concerns. Termites are no small problem. Don't wait until you see a termite swarm in your house. Get proactive about termite control today.