Every year, there are over 2 million residential properties that need treatment for termite problems

Termites usually cannot be seen or heard. For the most part, it requires a trained exterminator to be able to detect the signs of an infestation in a home. It is practically impossible for a homeowner to control termites on their own.

Termites eat cellulose, which is the complex chemical that the cell walls in plants contain. The creatures are important when it comes to decomposing fallen trees and various other plant materials.

Cypress Exterminator on-How Termites Live

• This insect builds a colony in poles, the soil or in trees. They rely heavily on the soil to acquire moisture.
• These colonies are rather large (containing 60,000 to 1.5 million termites).
• Colonies are composed of various castes, each of which has members with certain behaviors and functions. Some of these include workers, reproductives, and soldiers.

The Signs of Termites in a Cypress Property

• Termites will produce mud tubes that are of pencil-sized diameter or even larger, which will run across the masonry or bare concrete that is between the wooden part of the building and the soil.
• Wings that are papery, small and thin will be found on the window sill, floor or countertop. The wings will be all the same shape and size, around 3/8 of an inch to 1/2 inch long.
• The paint on wooden surfaces in the home will be distorted, thin or bubbled and these spots will be cool to the touch.

Cypress homeowners are unlikely to have actually seen the soldier or worker termites around the home. However, it is possible to come across swarming reproductives that are flying around. They look almost like a winged ant. Once the colony hits a specific level in its population, the reproductive swarmers are created. They are called this because they travel from the rest of the colony in the form of a swarm. When this occurs, it typically is due to rain during the Spring and it will be around dawn or dusk.

The majority of termites live under the ground. They spend a large amount of time looking for their food (wood), increasing the distance of their search as the population grows larger. The foragers of the colony tend to create tunnels either above or under the ground to allow for easier ability to search for food and bring this to the feeding sites. It is possible for these creatures to get into a building through these tubes. Termites also can enter  through expansion joints, hollow bricks, cracks, concrete blocks, the spaces surrounding plumbing and foam insulation under the ground. They only require an opening of 1/32nd of an inch.

Effective Cypress Termite Pest Control

Homeowners may do certain things to prevent infestation by termites, such as the following:

• Stack wooden items such as firewood and lumber multiple feet away from the building.
• Any construction that is in contact with the ground should be only of the pressure-treated variety.
• Place wood supports on decks, porches, patios and separate buildings at least a foot from the foundation of your home.
• Be sure to repair leaking fixtures and water lines, which is especially important if they may make wooden parts of your home get wet. Also, repair downspouts, gables, eaves and shingles.
• Pay attention to the levels of moisture that are around your home, and use techniques to keep the build-up to a minimum in crawl spaces.
• Keep decorative wood chips and mulch that contains wood a foot away from the foundation.
• Use only amber or yellow light bulbs outdoors, to keep from attracting the night-swarming termites to these areas. The most important thing that you can do is enlist the assistance of a Termite pest control specialist who works with Termites in Cypress. This specialist will be able to come up with a treatment plan to control the infestation and put up some type of a preventative system.