28 Feb Termite Prevention: Stop Those Termites in Their Tracks
In the US, termites cost homeowners about $5 billion in property damage…per year! Often, people don’t know that they have an infestation until it’s too late. Once you can see the damage, you can be certain there’s even more destruction that can’t be seen.
When it comes to termites, it’s better to “prepare and prevent than repair and lament.” Prevention is key to maintaining the integrity of your home and saving you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in repair costs.
Luckily, we have something that can help! It’s called the Sentricon System, and it’s a revolutionary tool in preventing termite colonies from invading your home—and eliminating them in the process! But in order to understand how it works, let’s first look at subterranean termites and how a colony operates.
The Worker
The worker is the termite that feeds the colony because the other termites in the colony—like the queen, the king, soldiers, and swarmers—can’t feed themselves. Termites feed on wood, or cellulous, and they serve an important role in nature by helping to break down things such as dead trees. The only problem? Termites can’t make the distinction between a dead tree and the wood in your home.
Workers are the ones who build the tunnels as they search for food, sometimes traveling up to 100 yards—the length of a football field! They can enter your home through an opening as small as 1/32 of an inch, and once they find a great source of food (like the wooden beams in your home), they’ll use pheromones, or chemicals they produce to communicate with each other, to mark the trail and lead other workers to the source. But even after the workers find a source of food, they continue to search, meaning that they could potentially infest your home in multiple places.
How It Works
The Sentricon System works by placing stations in the ground that contain a special bait. This bait is even more appealing to termites than the wood in your house. It contains a special active ingredient called noviflumuron. Termites can’t detect noviflumuron, so they’ll continue feeding it to their colony in lethal doses until it’s too late.
When ingested by the termites, noviflumuron stops worker termite from molting or shedding their exoskeleton or external shell, and when termites cannot molt, they die. Without worker termites, the colony doesn’t get any food, so the colony dies, too.
Setting It Up
At Western Exterminating, all of our techs are certified Sentricon specialists! To install the Sentricon System, one of our techs will place Sentricon stations around the perimeter of your home, as well as in areas that are prone to termite attacks. We’ll maintain these stations, refilling the bait when necessary, so that your home is protected from termites 24/7, 365 days a year.
Protect your home today and get the peace of mind you deserve! To schedule an appointment with one of our certified Sentricon specialists, give Western Exterminating a call today at 817-834-3121.