Damage caused by termites
Damage from Termites
Due to their timber- eating habits, many termite species can do great harm to unprotected buildings and various wooden structures. Their characteristic of remaining concealed often ends in their presence being undetected until the timbers are severely damaged and exhibit surface changes. Once termites have entered a building, they do not limit themselves to timber; they also damage paper, cloth, carpets, and other cellulosic materials. Particles taken from soft plastics, plaster, rubber, and sealants such as silicone rubber and acrylics are often employed in construction.
Humans have moved many timber-eating species between continents, but in addition have caused drastic population decline in others through habitat loss and pesticide application.
Precautions:
As reported by a website made for pest control in Saint Charles, MO http://blog.2niceguys.com, it is suggested to ALWAYS contact an expert when you believe that there may be termites present at your home. They also note that you keep mulch away from your home and porch.
Here are some other precautions that may be of use
* Avoid contact of susceptible timber with ground by utilizing termite-resistant concrete, steel, or masonry foundation with proper barriers. All the same, termites are able to bridge these with shelter tubes, and it has been known for termites to chew through piping made of soft plastics and even some metals, like lead, to exploit moisture. Generally, new buildings should be constructed with embedded physical termite barriers so that there are no easy means for termites to gain concealed entry. While barriers of poisoned soil, so called termite pre- therapy, have been in the main use since the 1970s, it is preferable that these be used primarily for existing buildings without effective physical barriers.
* The intent of termite barriers (whether physical, poisoned soil, or some of the new poisoned plastics) is to stop the termites from gaining unseen admission to structures. In most cases, termites attempting to enter a barriered building will be driven into the less favourable approach of building shelter tubes up the outer walls, and thus, they can be visible both to the building occupants and an array of predators.
* Timber treatment.
* Use of wood that is naturally impervious to termites like Syncarpia glomulifera (Turpentine Tree), Callitris glaucophylla (White Cypress), or one of the Sequoias. Note that there is no tree species whose every man or woman tree yields only timbers that are immune to termite damage, so that even with recognized termite-resistant timber types, there will sometimes be pieces that are attacked. No species of tree produces wood that is totally immune to damage from every types of termite, some individual bits of wood may well be attacked.
When termites have already penetrated a building, the first action is usually to destroy the colony with insecticides before getting rid of the termites' means of access and fixing the problems that encouraged them initially. Baits (feeder stations) with small quantities of disruptive insect hormones or other very slow acting toxins have become the preferred least-toxic management tool in most western countries. This has replaced the dusting of toxins direct into termite tunnels that had been widely done since the early 1930s (originating in Australia). The primary dust toxicants have been the inorganic metallic poison arsenic trioxide, insect growth regulators (hormones) such as triflumuron and, off late fipronil, a phenyl-pyrazole. Blowing dusts into termite workings is an extremely skilled process. All these slow-acting poisons may be distributed by the workers for hours or weeks prior to any signs occur and are capable of destroying the whole colony. More modern variations include chlorfluazuron, diflubenzuron, hexaflumuron, and novaflumuron as bait toxicants and fipronil and imidacloprid as soil poisons. Soil poisons are the least-preferred method of control as this requires much larger doses of toxin and ends in uncontrollable release to the environment.