Introduction To Boating

You may be surprised to know just how much damage termites can do. But you have to remember that while a single termite might be only eight millimetres (a third of an inch) long, a colony or nest can hold between several hundred and several million termites.

Most of this number will be workers and their job is to go out and get enough food for all the residents of the colony. In general, they search for cellulose material, but in practice that could be your home, especially if it is made primarily of timber. Not that they will not eat their way through other materials too.

Plastic, soft metals like lead, and even concrete are no actual barrier to thousands of determined termites. But they would rather wood. Some species prefer dry timber and others would rather damp or rotting timber. However, do not think that you will necessarily see termite damage at a glance. Often termites will eat their way into the end grain of a piece of wood and then work their way up through the centre of it.

This part of the timber is the newest growth and, I imagine, the most tender to a termite. Anyway, they will gnaw into the centre of, say, a floor joist, and make a walk-way or gallery through it to the next length of timber. So you may not know that you have termites until they have so undermined your floor that you fall into the cellar one day.

This is why, if you live in an area where termites are known to be active, you should have your house checked over or sprayed at least once a year. Just because you have not seen a termite or any termite damage, does not mean that you have not got termites. Not by a long chalk.

There are three major types of termite: the damp wood termite, the dry wood termite and the subterranean termite. As you can see, no matter what state the timber in your house is in, there is a termite that will eat it. By far the nastiest of these is the subterranean termite and by far the nastiest of those is the Formosan termite. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are safe from the Formosan termite because you do not live in China. They are all over Asia and in the USA as well.

Subterranean termites, living underground, are evidently much harder to see. Not only that, they are either very clever or very introverted, because they build walk-ways or tubes of earth from the exits from their underground colonies to the nearest bit of timber. This helps them go unnoticed, unless you know what you are looking for, and then, when they have reached timber, they will burrow into the end grain and they are off, eating their way into the very structure of your home.

Within no time at all all the timber support beams, purlins, rafters and joists could be hollow shells of wood. One serious gust of wind or a heavy snowfall and that could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with pictures of termites. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for further details.

If you own residential or commercial property in a warm to hot country, them I am certain that you have heard of the risk of termite damage. However, do you know which signs of termite damage to look out for? Do you know how quickly you can go from not having a problem to having a large infestation? And do you know how long it will take a major infestation of some termites, notably the Formosan termites, to make your property dangerous?

If you are not aware of the answer to these questions, then you have two options, either to learn quickly or hire in an expert. In regions of termite activity, it is suggested that every property is inspected at least once a year. There are about fifty species of termites in the USA, so it is not an easy task to identify which species you have.

Having said that, subterranean termites are the most awful and the Formosan subterranean termites are the most awful of that bad bunch. They can live in colonies of between several hundred and several million and if a million Formosans decide to dine on your house, then you will have to react very rapidly indeed.

Naturally, you do not want to lose your own building to a termite infestation, but neither do your neighbours, so you have a moral duty to eradicate any termite colonies on your property. So, why should you suspect that you have a termite issue?

Since termites eat wood, amongst other things, the best thing to do is look for timber damage around your house. The basement is a good spot to start. Do not be concerned about what type of timber, inspect it all, since there are termites that like dry wood, termites that like damp wood and termites that will eat anything.

If you think that a piece of timber has or is being eaten, use a screwdriver gently to attempt to break it open. if you see white insects that look like ants, you have termites. Sometimes, flying termites swarm too., but so do ants.

Termites are white because they rarely see the sun, they do not like light, so they build so-called galleries to walk through. These galleries can be through a length of timber or they might use chewed wood to make galleries leading to where they want to go. For, example pencil-like galleries may hang off the underside of your floorboards to the ground or be attached to concrete walls.

These tube-like galleries can be abandoned or active. Snap a few and see. If they are brittle they have been abandoned, but that does not mean that the termites have departed.

Sometimes, the tubes are constructed of earth and this is a very bad sign, because it means you have subterranean termites, probably under your house. If you knock these galleries off the walls, they will leave marks called etchings, which will be evidence of termite activity until the house is knocked down, for anyone who knows what they are looking at.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with Termidor termite treatment – a termite killer. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for further details.