Posts Tagged ‘wood’

What has smooth galleries and small 6 sided pellets?

Drywood termites do and yes I found them under a crawlspace in downtown Mesa, Arizona.

Drywood termites are social insects that live in colonies in sound, dry wood. Each colony consists of offspring from an original pair (male and female). There are three growth stages – eggs, immatures and adults. Drywood termites are larger than local, southwestern subterranean species. Drywood termites tend to cut across wood grain destroying both the soft spring wood and the harder summer growth. Subterranean termites typically follow the grain of the wood, feeding primarily on the soft spring wood. Since they don’t live in the soil you must either get rid of the wood, if possible or fumigate. Some liquid treatments may work as long as the wood has not been painted or varnarished.

What can you find in your foundation slab?

This is the stuff that makes a termite treater go crazy, you never know what the construction crew left behind.

Incredible story of those crafty termites.

As good as you may think you are, termites are probably better! What’s that you say, no way. Termites have been working out their problems over the last 250 million years and what do we do but build houses (wood) right on top of their homes. If you give them an inch they will certainly take it and that is evident of the picture posted below.

You never know how or where they will enter a home and you almost have to play detective to understand and eventually solve the problem. So be prepared to investigate and you will be rewarded with the clues to solve the dilemma for the customer.

Termites and your slab of concrete!

So what happens when a pipe burst underneath your slab under your home? Well something like this picture above, no not the giant hole, the customer or the plumber dug this out. The point I want to make is that when you alter the slab it is very important to treat the soil beneath the concrete for termites. Sometimes if you fail to treat it may void your termite warranty. I also like to treat this while it’s in a state of repair and before you put tile or wood floor on it. I hate to mess up tile or wood floors with drill holes.

We do need termites!

Termites break down wood debris in nature, you can find them in logs and here in Arizona cactus and even grass. Termites are always looking for food 24/7/365 and they will do whatever they have to to find it.