Control Termites and kill them before they make a meal of your house or business.  Termites are incorrectly at times called white ants they feed on wood and serve an important function in nature by converting dead trees into organic matter.

Although termites play an important part in the eco system they are a pest in wood building structures as they will easily demolish all that is in their way.

This eating habit can cause serious damage, which may be very expensive to repair. In Australia there are many species of termites with about 20 species, which can eat sound wood in buildings.

The termites that cause the most amount of damage to buildings are social insects that live in subterranean colonies that may contain up to 200, 000 workers.

In order to maintain humidity and to protect them from extreme weather conditions, a colony or nest of subterranean termites may be up to 6-7 metres below the soil surface and have extensive tunnel networks that can extend up to 100 metres from the nest.

To control termites know what they look like:

Termites have pale brown to white bodies and they have a darker head and have no waist between the thorax and the stomach. The antennae on the top of their bead like segments.

There are 2 types of termites that are destructive firstly the non reproductive forms never develop wings and also are blind, and they have thin skin that makes them vulnerable to drying out.

The reproductive forms have two pairs of equal sized wings, one pair of compound eyes and a thicker skin that protects them better from drying out when exposed.

Their nests are formed either in trees, in soil mounds or underground. There are five main nest types and many species will build more than one type of nest:

• Ground mounds
• Tree nests
• Pole nests (on human structures such as fence posts and telegraph poles)
• Subterranean nests
• Tree wood

If the infestation becomes big enough you may see one or two termites but generally the only termite evidence is visual indicators you will see may be discarded wings or droppings that look like sawdust.

Other visual signs could include bubbled looking paint or wood that sounds hollow when you knock on it.

Since termites work 24 hours a day they can do significant damage to your home long before you see any indicators of their presence so it’s a good idea to have older homes inspected annually and new homes as well unless you know the home has been pre-treated against termites.

Further building tips to control termites:

• Avoid an infestation by ensuring your drain pipes are draining away from your home
• Don’t put wood post directly in the dirt where ground infestations can begin
• If you are going to build a deck or other railings attached to the home, put your wood post in concrete to block any attempts for termites to find you

A home termite inspection looks for trace signs of these wood eating insects with the inspection usually consists of a visual look that has the inspector crawl in spaces in the ceiling and under the house looking for any signs that the insect is active. It usually takes forty minutes to an hour to do a thorough home inspection depending on the size of the home and the depth of the inspection.

At times these pest are not evident to the naked eye and the pest controller may use thermal imaging tool if he is certain that there could be termites that are active.

Termites can unknowingly destroy your home unless you are prepared to do your own regular inspection and know what you are looking for or employ a professional registered pest control operator to look for tell tale signs of termite infestation.

There have been instances where a home has been destroyed and cost many thousands of dollars to rebuild, where an annual pest inspection price for a small fee compared to what it can cost if you need to replace your home.

Reminder to control termites know they can live in any climate, even in the coldest parts of the world so there is no area that is guaranteed a safe place from the wood-eating pest.