Pest Control – Why It's Not the Same as Termite Control

When you have a pest problem, it can be downright annoying. You may see ants crawling around your kitchen, cockroaches in your garage, or even spiders in your basement. But when you have a termite control problem, things can get downright devastating. Termites cause more than a billion dollars' worth of damage every year – more than natural disasters, like fires and storms! If you think you have termites, you don't have time to waste. You need a professional exterminator who can get in your house and get rid of them. The longer they have time to hang out inside your home, the more damage they're going to cause. But before you call your neighborhood pest control company, you have to make sure they're well-versed in termite control.

Why? It's one thing to be a pest control expert; it's another to be a termite control expert. Termites operate very differently than the average pest, so they have to be treated differently than the average pest. You may think that because you don't have any cracks or tiny holes in your walls that termites can't get in. However, that's not the case! Termites are capable of coming up with sophisticated ways to get into your home. Don't live on the ground floor? It doesn't matter to a termite! That's because they construct "mud tubes" made out of their own feces to travel from underneath the ground up into your home's foundation. Then, they can use these "mud tubes" to go back and forth to get more food. If you keep a sharp eye out, you can see these mud tubes.

A termite control specialist should be able to spot them very easily. But the way they get in isn't the only thing that makes termites different. Unlike the average pest, termites live deep inside your house. Your odds of actually seeing one scamper across the floor are very, very slim.

That's because they're far more interested in the wooden studs inside your walls. To them, that wood is far more delicious than anything you may have left out on the kitchen counter! So, what can a termite control specialist do? Unfortunately, if your exterminator comes to spray or put down baits geared for "traditional" pests – like ants and roaches – it will not help your termite problem. Instead, termite control has to be centered at the core of your home – like inside your walls and underneath your foundation. It may take sophisticated tenting techniques or even drilling and trenching to get to the source of your termite infestation. Every exterminator doesn't know how to do it – which is why it's so important to find the right expert!

About the Author

Richard A. Manfredi has written about www.affordablepest.com . When you have a pest problem, it can be downright annoying.