How to Use Termite Poison
One of the worst situations to deal with is when your house is being eaten by termites and you have to get rid of them with some type of termite poison. A lot of people immediately call an exterminator which is the best way to handle the problem. But, whether you call an expert or decide to do it yourself, you should find out everything you can about termite poison, what types exist, how it is used, and the side effects.
First of all, before using termite poison, make sure that the damage you have noticed in your home is really being made by termites. You can do a little personal inspection and if you see any evidence of termites, you can call a company specializing in assessing termite damage and getting rid of the termites.
Locating termite damage
In case you didn’t know, termites are not always obvious and they can do a lot of damage to your house without being noticed. Take a flashlight and a screwdriver and start examining wood in crawlspaces or in the basement. Use your screwdriver to tap on all types of wood to see if they are hollow inside. If you can push your screwdriver into the hollow space, you most likely have a termite problem.
If you see termite feces, droppings which are a brownish-red, tan or black, or if you see dead termites or their body parts lying around, you need to take action immediately. Call a termite inspector who will first take a look at the damage and give you an estimate of how much money it will take to get rid of the termites. If you just don’t have the money or are a do-it-yourselfer, do a little research and get started killing the termites inside and keeping new ones from entering.
Keeping termites out
Once you have gotten rid of your termites it is vitally important that you stop termites from entering the house again. Seal every single entry you can find into your home no matter how small. This can be done with a caulking gun and sealant. The places termites are most likely to get into the house are around windows and doors, in the spaces around wires, pipes, and cables, in foundation cracks, and around vents and ductwork.
You can cover structures such as vents with screens. Get rid of all wood that is lying around. Termites don’t live in the wood but in the ground under the wood. If you heat with wood, don’t worry about bringing termites inside with the wood because without their queen they cannot reproduce. They will also dehydrate quickly indoors so keep your house as dry as possible.
How to poison termites
Termite poison is an effective way to get rid of your termite problem. You can spread it yourself or hire a company to do it. There are basically two kinds of termite poison--the liquid kind called termiticide and the bait type. You can buy them together in kits with a monitoring system. The monitoring system goes outside.
It is a block of wood that sits on the ground and it has a plastic covering. Slits in the plastic allow the wood to make contact with the ground and enable you to look in to see if the wood is being eaten by termites. If it is, you put you poisonous bait in the box and the termites carry it back home and it kills the colony. Liquid spray termite poison can also be used.
Natural methods
There are natural ways to get rid of termites without using poison but generally they are less effective. One of the best is to buy beneficial nematodes and release them into your yard. They will enter termites, kill them and eat them!
Termites can do a lot of damage and if left alone can literally destroy your house. No matter if you decide to use termite poison or not, get rid of them as quickly as you can. Seal up your home so new termites have no way to get inside.