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Termites in your house: How to identify and deal with a termite infestation
Do you have termites in your house? Then call on The Healthy Home’s experienced pest control experts. We are trained to deal with all types of pests, including termites. We are approved by the Dubai Municipality and Tadweer Abu Dhabi. Give us a call, and we will ensure your home is completely free from termites.
Termites are a type of eusocial insect that eat wood and can cause serious damage to any wooden furniture or structures. There are at least 6 different species of termites commonly found in the UAE. Visually, they greatly resemble ants but have wider bodies and straight antennae.
There are different types of termites in a colony, such as worker termites, soldier termites, and termite swarmers. Termite swarmers, also known as alates have wings. A swarmer termite flies, but only to a limited extent, and will mostly rely on its legs to move around.
Are termites ants? Not at all. They are unrelated to ants, and usually even enemies of many ant species. Termites are often incorrectly referred to as “white ants”.
Are termites harmful to humans? Not directly. They can bite, but very rarely do so. Termites avoid humans. However, termites can do tremendous damage to your home if left unchecked. Homes with wooden furnishings or structures are especially prone to termites.
Termites consume dead plant matter. This is why they usually make their homes inside wood. A lone termite in a house almost always means that there are more nearby, as termites have colonies similar to ants. When you spot the signs of a termite infestation, you should immediately call professional termite exterminators before the damage from the termites on your wood materials becomes very costly to repair.
There are 4 major signs of an impending or already underway termite swarm or infestation. Any of these signs should instantly alert you to a potential termite problem, and you should act immediately to address the problem by calling a professional termite exterminator.
If you find any termite swarmers in your home, that means there is a termite colony nearby. This could lead to an infestation very soon, as the termite swarmers themselves serve as scouts for the colony. They search for a new place to make their home, signaling the colony if they find a suitable environment. How can you tell if you found a termite or a winged ant? The easiest way to tell them apart is by looking at their wings. Termite swarmers have two sets of equally sized wings, whereas ants have one set of large wings and another set of smaller wings.
Additionally, you may find discarded wings on the floor or other surfaces. Termite swarmers will shed their wings, and so finding them is a telltale sign that termites are in your home.
If you notice termites on wood or any wooden surfaces in your home, then you can be sure that there is a termite problem in your home that needs attention. However, you will likely not see the termites out in the open most of the time. This is because they tend to live inside, rather than on the wood. If you notice sustained wood damage in an area, then odds are a termite swarm has made this place its home.
Sometimes, you will not see the damage, as it is entirely possible for a termite colony to stay hidden in the wood, damaging it from within while the surface of the wood is still intact. To complicate matters, there are some species of termite that do not make their homes inside wood, but rather they live in dirt near areas where wood is easy to access. So you might even be dealing with a termite swarm that is outside your house.
Mud tubes are, as the name suggests, tunnels of dirt or mud that termites build in order to protect themselves from dryness. Typically they are built to allow the termite colony to safely reach any exposed food source. You will usually find mud tubes outside your home, but they can still sometimes be found indoors as well. In any case, they are a surefire sign that a termite swarm is around, or has been around recently.
Termite droppings and waste, otherwise known as “frass”, will pile up in certain areas outside of any wooden areas that the termites have begun to eat. They look like piles of wood dust or shavings, and can usually indicate a termite swarm when the surface of the infested wood hasn’t been damaged.
Once you’ve detected a possible termite infestation in your home, do not hesitate to contact the experts. At The Healthy Home, we employ seasoned pest control experts who have years of experience dealing with all kinds of pests, including termites. We offer termite control services to deal with existing infestations, and we also have customized monitoring plans that allow us to regularly check for signs of termite activity in your home and let us act swiftly as soon as a termite problem is detected.
Lastly, our experts are also able to provide you with a preventative pre-construction solution to termites, but using a treatment near the out premises of your home. This treatment acts as a strong termite repellant and prevents infestation in your home.
Contact the expert termite exterminators in Dubai if you have any reason to believe that there is an infestation happening in your home or its premises.
