Damage caused by termites
Damage from Termites
Owing to their wood- eating traits, many termite species can do great injury to unprotected buildings and other wooden structures. Their addiction 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 several cellulosic materials. Particles removed from soft plastics, plaster, rubber, and sealants such as silicone rubber and acrylics are oftentimes employed in construction.
Humans have moved many timber-eating species between continents, but have in addition caused drastic population decline in others through habitat loss and pesticide application.
Precautions:
As reported by a web site created for pest control in Saint Louis, MO http://www.2niceguys.com, it is recommended to ALWAYS contact a professional when you believe that there can be termites present at your property. They also note that you keep mulch away from your property and wooden deck.
Here are another precautions that may be useful
* Avoid contact of predisposed wood with ground by utilizing termite-resistant concrete, steel, or masonry foundation with correct barriers. Nonetheless, termites are in a position to bridge these with shelter tubes, and it has been known for termites to chew through piping produced with soft plastics and even some metals, such as lead, to exploit moisture. In general, 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- remedy, have been in general use since the 1970s, it is better that these be used primarily for existing buildings without effective physical barriers.
* The intent of termite barriers (whether physical, poisoned soil, or a few of the new poisoned plastics) is to stop the termites from gaining unseen admission to structures. In most instances, termites attempting to enter a barriered building will be forced to enter into the less favourable approach of building shelter tubes up the outside walls, and therefore, they are often clearly visible both to the building occupants and an array of predators.
* Wood treatment.
* Use of wood that is naturally resistant to termites like Syncarpia glomulifera (Turpentine Tree), Callitris glaucophylla (White Cypress), or one or more of the Sequoias. Note that there is no tree species whose every individual tree yields only timbers that are immune to termite damage, so that even with famous termite-resistant wood types, there will often times be pieces that are attacked. No species of tree produces timber that is utterly immune to damage from every species of termite, some individual bits of timber could be attacked.
When termites have already penetrated a building, the first action is commonly to destruct 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) like triflumuron and, off late fipronil, a phenyl-pyrazole. Blowing dusts into termite workings is a highly skilled process. All these slow-acting poisons can be distributed by the workers for hours or weeks prior to any symptoms occur and can destroying the entire colony. Modern variations include chlorfluazuron, diflubenzuron, hexaflumuron, and novaflumuron as bait toxicants and fipronil and imidacloprid as soil poisons. Soil poisons are the least-preferred way of control as this requires much larger doses of toxin and results in uncontrollable release to the environment.