The Best Way To Prevent Termites From Invading Your Jacksonville Home

Termites in Jacksonville can damage structures over time and create trouble. It's smart to learn as much as you can about these insects so that you can protect your home investment and guard your bank account. Let's talk a little bit about termites in our area, look at a few effective prevention tips you can use to prevent termite damage, and discuss the role pest control in Jacksonville plays in protecting properties from these little nibblers.

What Are Termites?

Termites are tiny insects that feed mostly on wood. If they find an opportunity, they can get into man-made structures and damage wood. For this reason, companies like Lindsey Pest Services install termite control products that actively eliminate colonies in the city of Jacksonville. It is far better to be proactive with termite control, rather than reactive.

Are Termites Dangerous?

Only if you're a piece of wood. If the thought of having wood-eating insects in your walls disturbs you, you can rest easy. Termites are not able to bite you. While they eat wood, they don't really do it by biting. Their mouthparts are made for scraping wood.

What Attracts Termites?

Termite prevention in Jacksonville begins with understanding what attracts termites and how they may get into your home. Before we get into specific prevention steps you can use to stop them, consider these quick facts:

• Termite workers tunnel into your yard in search of food. They eat anything that has cellulose. Their first choice will be decaying wood. If they find it, a short visit could turn into having active termites in your yard.

• Winged termites fly into your yard in search of a place to create a nest. They're drawn to moisture. A clogged or broken gutter system can create conducive conditions for an infestation in two ways: It can moisten perimeter soil and rot wood. Both will attract the attention of winged termites.

• When winged termites crawl on your home, certain species will get in through entry points and create a nest inside your home.

How To Prevent Termites In Your Home

Long before a termite problem begins, you should be thinking about how to stop termites in your yard, and how to detect active termites on your property or in your home. Termite prevention in Jacksonville is a mixture of pest maintenance, detection, and exclusion.

Pest Maintenance

The goal of pest maintenance is to alter conditions in your yard that may attract termites.

• If you have wood on the ground in your yard, consider removing it or elevating it. It is bad to have wood-to-soil contact. The same is true of structures. You should address any points where wood on your home, or structures in your yard, enter the ground. Have you ever seen a wood deck that sits on concrete? This is so that termites don't sneak directly into the wood. They have to make visible mud tubes on the concrete to go from the soil to the wood. This helps with detecting a termite problem.

• Rake up organic debris and remove it from your yard. If debris has to stay in your yard for a short time, get it up off the ground. You don't want termites to be able to go directly into a pile of organic material, such as dead branches. You want them to have to create mud tubes to get to that food source. That way you can see them.

• Make sure your gutters are working properly, and take other steps to address perimeter moisture. There are many things you can do, such as removing weeds, trimming vegetation, watering in the early morning, etc.

Detection

You need to routinely inspect your home for termite activity if you hope to protect it. Search for signs of termites in your yard and signs of termites in your home.

• We mentioned shelter tubes. Look for these on any hard surface above ground. Most shelter tubes look like wiggly mud lines.

• Look for worker termites on, or inside any dead branches you find in your yard.

• Keep an eye out for winged termites.

• Look for shed termite wings on the ground, on structures, or in spider webs.

• When you look for signs of termites in your home, you're mostly looking for signs of drywood termites. These termites produce frass, which can be noticeable.

Exclusion

Inspect the exterior of your home and address any gaps, cracks, and holes. This will prevent winged termites from getting inside. This type of termite doesn't eat wood. It needs an entry point to get inside.

Need Help?

If you live in Jacksonville and you need help with termite inspections, termite treatments, or proactive termite control, the best option is to contact Lindsey Pest Services. The products and methods our certified professionals use have a strong track record of success. Don't wait till you're seeing signs of termites in your yard or home. Reach out to us today and get your termite protection in place.