Termite Control In The New Braunfels Area
Termites feed on wood and are commonly found in dying or unhealthy trees. Unfortunately, many buildings structurally rely on wood, making termites one of the most destructive and devastating pests in the Hill Country. From the outside, it is hard to tell what damage has been done. Our professionals have cutting-edge tools and expertise to evaluate where the termites are and how to eliminate them. To book a consultation or for more information, please contact one of our local offices. We’re always ready to help.
What Types of Termites are in the Hill Country?
Although there are many types of termites, two groups of termites most often affect the Hill Country. These are the subterranean termite and the dry-wood termite.
Subterranean Termites
SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES
Subterranean termites often, as the name suggests, live underground. While the colony lives underground, subterranean termites send worker termites to find food sources above ground. They feed on a variety of wood species and feed on both live trees and structural wood. Most often, they are attracted to moist wood which makes these otherwise elusive creatures detectable to the professional eye. Although they are more often found in warmer areas, these termites can be found throughout the United States.
Unfortunately, these termites are spread through infested wood or soil. Formosan termites are relatively new to the United States and are known for being the most destructive type of termite. They create huge underground colonies that can go undetected until damage is catastrophic. If you suspect subterranean termites around your building, call a local office for a consultation.
Drywood Termites
DRYWOOD TERMITES
Drywood termites live inside the wood that they eat. Unlike subterranean termites, they prefer dry wood and do not often infest live trees. Instead, they burrow deep into building structures. It is often difficult to calculate the number of drywood termites in a building because their colonies are much smaller and they burrow themselves deeper into the wood than subterranean termites. They affect any dried wood including furniture, picture frames, and walls. Tenting is the most effective method to treat drywood termites because it kills all termites at once. This prevents the population from slowly regrowing over time.
Noticing Signs of an Infestation
Termites are often drawn toward lights and can be spotted around windows or doors. The presence of dirt tubes on foundation walls is another sign of termites infesting a structure. You might notice signs of damaged wood along the grain or scattered pieces of soil around plaster and drywall.
While internal signs of termite infestation might be visible, the external signs aren't always visible. These pests can go entirely unnoticed for years, feeding underneath the floorboards and behind the walls. That's why our staff assists in providing the means to identify signs of termite activity and infestations.
New Building Termite Protection Plan
We know we're more than capable of handling any pests that show up, but we also know our customers would rather not have to deal with infestations. That's why we can help you take preventative measures beforehand, starting from when you construct a brand-new building. Together, we can help devise a pre-treatment termite plan using various strategies to protect your brand-new building. The pre-treatment plans include the base, and supportive structures in and around the building, which will be much harder to access later.
When pre-treatment is instituted early on and maintained throughout the building process, it can help make these new buildings less susceptible to termites. That includes ensuring debris is removed and moisture penetration to prevent bugs from making homes within your home or business.
Exterminate The Termite Problems
If an infestation is found in your home or building, our expert team of exterminators can help devise an effective termite treatment plan. Employing the two most common termite treatments we use liquid termiticides and Termidor SC.
When using liquid termiticides, the chemical is applied directly into the soil, creating a barrier between the termites in the ground and your home or building. The barrier created prevents any new termites from gaining entry and will prevent the existing termites in the walls from returning to the soil. When professionally applied, this method protects your buildings from termites for a minimum of five years.
Termidor SC kills termites through contact and ingestion, utilizing non-repellent technology that termites cannot detect or avoid. It is transferred within the termite colony, ensuring widespread elimination. Unlike repellent insecticides, Termidor SC solves the problem of termites detecting and avoiding the treatment. It acts slowly on individual termites but rapidly manages the entire colony, surpassing the speed of bait systems. With its long-lasting effectiveness, Termidor SC provides 100% protection from Day 1 and maintains its potency for years without reduction.
Termite dirt tubes, or mud tubes, are created by termites using soil, saliva, and feces. These tunnels offer shelter and moisture for termites as they travel between their nests and food sources. These resilient structures showcase the adaptability of termites. Professional pest control companies, like Monitor Pest Control, specialize in managing and eliminating termite infestations.
Termite Control FAQs
Everything you need to know about termites!
Termites can cause damage that’s expensive to repair and in severe infestations, threaten the structural integrity of your home or business. Contacting a professional pest control company is crucial. In New Braunfels, invasive and aggressive Formosan and Asian subterranean termites are on the rise, causing serious damage in half the time native subterranean and drywood termites do. Drywood termites live inside the wood they infest and can be eliminated using tent fumigation techniques, as well as no-tent direct injection treatments. Formosan and Asian subterranean termites live in nests beneath the soil around your property. The most effective and permanent solution to getting rid of subterranean termites is the Termidor SC solution. If you suspect there is termite activity, immediately contact a trusted, reliable pest control company, such as Monitor Pest Control to perform a free termite inspection.
The truth is many times you can’t know for certain. A large percentage of the average home can’t be seen. In between walls, behind baseboards, and in areas of an attic or crawl space are all hidden areas where termites can be harbored. Many times, extensive damage can be occurring for years in these areas before people notice the problem. It is still a good idea to have the house inspected on an annual basis. Monitor Pest Control professionals are trained to check for signs of termite activity. This might be damaged or softwood, mud tubes, pellets, or termite wings and bodies from swarmers. Since even the most thorough inspection does not always reveal this evidence and does not fully guarantee the absence of termites, Monitor Pest Control recommends a preventative treatment for a customer’s peace of mind.
In New Braunfels, the question is not if you should get a termite inspection but rather when? Knowing that termites pose threats to your home and/or business that can prove expensive and destructive, you should get a termite inspection once a year and before your purchase a property as well. Professional pest control companies, such as Monitor Pest Control, offer free termite inspections and the most current technology and materials to eliminate and prevent termites, depending on the type of termite present.
If you notice signs of termite activity, it’s important to contact a reliable pest control service immediately. Monitor your property for the following signs:
- Small piles of sawdust-looking material called “frass” (termite droppings)
- Warped or buckling walls, floors or doors that appear water damaged
- Surfaces that sound hollow when tapped
- Surfaces you can easily poke a hole through with a screwdriver
- Discarded wings on windowsills
- Indoor swarming
- Mud tubes running up outside walls or nearby trees
Contact Monitor Pest Control to schedule a free termite inspection and address the issue before it gets worse.
When renting, buying, or selling a home or business, banks and other financial institutions may require a wood-destroying organism (WDO) state report when considering a loan for a home or business. In these situations, reliable pest control companies charge a flat fee to conduct and process termite inspections for state reports. The cost varies depending on the location and the size of the property. The cost usually covers the pest control technicians’ time performing the inspection, plus compiling and submitting the report.
However; many people contact professional pest control companies as a proactive prevention measure or more often when they suspect termite activity is afoot in their homes and businesses. In either case, when you contact a reliable pest control company, such as Monitor Pest Control, for an inspection, you’re doing so to get an estimate for the treatment of a current infestation or to enroll the prospect in a program to prevent infestations. Monitor Pest Control does not charge potential customers to perform termite inspections. Contact us to schedule your free termite inspection!
In New Braunfels, termites, especially invasive subterranean termites are on the rise and can cause more damage in less time than native termites. Termites can cause cosmetic and structural damage that may compromise the value of your home or business. Termite damage can be expensive to repair so most home and business owners want to proactively protect their properties from termite activity.
Most home and business owner insurance policies do not cover termite damage and/or repair. A termite warranty acts as an insurance policy that protects your home or business from termites. Because termite treatments can be expensive, it is important to protect your property from termites. Issued by pest control companies, such as Monitor Pest Control, most termite warranties are issued after a home is built and treated for termite prevention or after treatment for termites is completed.
It’s also important to understand what your warranty includes. Issued annually, some termite warranties cover the cost of termite treatment, and some cover the cost of termite treatment and damage repair, as well. New Braunfels termite warranties are renewable each year and transferable when you sell your home or business to a new owner. Should you have questions about termite warranty, please contact Monitor Pest Control – we are here to help.
In general, tent fumigation kills everything. But, more specifically, tent fumigation is used to eliminate multiple drywood termite infestations in homes and businesses. Drywood termite infestations can be difficult to detect as they may infest places that certified technicians can’t access for direct applications of baits and repellants. In these situations, tent fumigation may be the only option to eliminate drywood termites.
Tent fumigation is sometimes employed before people move into a new structure to ensure the elimination of drywood termites, beetles, and other pests. Tenting for subterranean termites that are nesting above ground is sometimes necessary, however, tent fumigation isn’t effective in most subterranean applications, as subterranean termites live in nests under the ground near the homes and businesses they infest. Sometimes, tent fumigation is used to eliminate advanced bedbug infestations. Because tent fumigation is an arduous process, taking several days to complete, with labor-intensive prep work involved removing food, medications, and houseplants, in addition to displacing your family, no tent drywood termite treatments are suggested, whenever possible.
Should you have any questions about fumigation or other pest control issues, do not hesitate to contact your go-to New Braunfels pest professional, Monitor Pest Control. Family owned and operated for over 20 years, we have experience helping homes and businesses throughout New Braunfels and the surrounding counties address all of their pest issues promptly.
A thorough inspection of termite infested areas in your home or business is required so our knowledgeable technicians can determine the best way to approach your drywood termite infestation. Each case needs to be evaluated independently as there are many factors to consider. Professional pest control companies, such as Monitor Pest Control, use the Termatrac device, the latest termite detection technology to scan for drywood termite activity. Infrared and acoustical devices may also be employed to detect hidden termite activity by picking up foraging and chewing sounds emitted by drywood termites. Armed with this knowledge, our inspection team can make appropriate recommendations.
For many drywood termite infestations, no tent solutions involve applying direct baiting and repellent treatments to infested wood where drywood termites live. With our no tent solutions, termite-infested wood is directly injected with our product and the best part is you will not have to pack up and leave your home. However, in the case of multiple drywood termite infestations and/or termite activity that technicians can’t access for direct treatment applications, tent fumigation may be required to eliminate drywood termite infestations. Tenting for drywood termites involves an extensive inspection to determine how to tent structures for the most effective fumigation procedure. Tenting also involves extensive preparation of the home or business before tent fumigation can begin. This preparation includes packing up food and medications, removing houseplants, as well as leaving the home or business for a few days. Tent fumigation is considered the best way to eliminate complex drywood infestations.
If you suspect you have a drywood termite infestation in your New Braunfels home or business, contact us to discuss treatment options and schedule an inspection.
Because drywood termites live in the wood they infest, drywood termite activity may go unnoticed for a long time. Drywood termites have adapted to living indoors without needing to be near a water source. One tell-tale sign of drywood termite activity can show up as piles of saw-dust looking material, called “frass.” Upon closer inspection, these piles of frass consist of distinct six-sided pellets that drywood termites excrete. Drywood termites’ digestive systems use the moisture from the wood they have eaten to form these barrel-shaped pellets that they expel from their living chambers through “kick-out” holes.
Other signs of drywood termite activity include:
- Discarded wings on windowsills after termites swarm during mating season
- Warped or blistered floors, walls, and doors that look like water damage
- Surfaces that sound hollow when tapped and appear transparent
- Surfaces that a sharp object, such as a screwdriver can poke a hole through easily
- Furniture that appears unstable
- Doors and windows that don’t open and close easily
- Clicking noises in wooden surfaces
If you have noticed any of these signs of drywood termite activity in your home or business, do not hesitate to contact a professional pest control company with termite experience, such as Monitor Pest Control. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, our knowledgeable team is well versed in common pest control issues in New Braunfels. A thorough inspection will help our team determine the best method for treatment – tent or no tent. Across New Braunfels and the surrounding areas, you can count on us to get your drywood termite infestation under control.
As drywood termites live in the wood they infest and can go unnoticed for a long time, pest professionals cannot usually determine when drywood termite infestations actually started. With smaller colonies, rather than the invasive and more aggressive Formosan and Asian subterranean termites, drywood termite damage is more difficult to detect. Drywood termites also infest wood in attics, upper window casing, and fascias that may go unnoticed for quite some time.
Although nobody knows for sure how long it takes for drywood termites to cause damage to structures, some pest control professionals estimate that drywood termite infestations can take as long as three to eight years to cause extensive damage in homes. While drywood termites may take longer to cause damage, infestations left unchecked cause hundreds of million dollars worth of damage annually.
With annual termite inspection programs offered by most professional pest control companies, proactive homeowners can protect the integrity of their homes from drywood termites, subterranean termites, and other destructive household pests. For this reason, at Monitor Pest Control, we recommend annual home inspections. After a thorough inspection, we can make recommendations for how to best address the termites found, if any. This allows us to help our customers get their New Braunfels home’s termites under control before an extensive amount of damage is done. To add to the headache and expense of repairing termite damage, most homeowner policies do NOT cover termite damage.
The integrity of your greatest investment, your home, could be jeopardized by a drywood termite infestation. Prevent major drywood termite damage with an annual inspection – contact Monitor Pest Control from New Braunfels today.
Tent fumigation for termites poses major health risks and can even lead to death in humans and animals if people or pets are exposed to the fumigant pesticides before, during, or after the tenting process begins. Due to these risks and risks to the environment, professional pest control companies meticulously inspect properties scheduled for tent fumigation, taking extensive precautions to prevent exposure to humans and pets. At Monitor Pest Control, our experienced team has a checklist they review each time a home is tented for termites. This list includes many safety precautions, including a walkthrough to ensure the structure has been vacated by all people and animals.
Humans and pets are required to move out of the structure for a few days to allow the chemicals to dissipate after the fumigation process. Certified technicians measure the percentage of chemicals present in structures for at least 24 hours before removing the tenting to ensure the effectiveness of the tent fumigation. After the tent is removed, the home is aired out for at least another 24 hours before anyone is allowed to enter. Technicians measure the level of chemicals present in the home before declaring it a safe structure to enter.
When preparing for tent fumigation, branches should be trimmed away from structures, and antennas and other devices must be disconnected. Tarps are then placed around the structure and sealed with “sand-snakes” to prevent leakage. All of these measures help to contain the chemicals that are used as part of the fumigation process.
If you have questions regarding the safety of using tent fumigation, please do not hesitate to contact Monitor Pest Control. Our team is available to answer all of your questions.
The reason tent fumigation takes several days to perform lies in the fact that the preparation and tenting process take skill and precise attention to detail to meet the safety standards professional pest control companies such as Monitor Pest Control require to perform tent fumigations across New Braunfels. After fumigation, technicians will aerate structures measuring the amount of fumigant inside the structure for at least 24 hours. Technicians determine when it is safe for humans and pets to safely re-enter fumigated structures.
In cases of multiple drywood termite infestations, tent fumigation may be the only option.
However, in the past few years, improved baiting and repellant technology has evolved to the point that no tent fumigation is used more widely than tent fumigation, due to the extensive preparation involved before, during, and after the tenting process and the health risks involved to people, pets, and the planet.
At Monitor Pest Control, we take every precaution to ensure the safety of our customers and their families. Our trained termite professionals will explain the entire process from beginning to end and address and any questions or concerns you may have at the time of your scheduled fumigation. Feel free to contact us anytime to schedule an appointment or ask a question!
Yes! If you are a property owner in New Braunfels, you should worry about termites. These destructive wood-eating pests can cause major damage to the wood in your home. This damage may even affect the structural integrity of your home. Termite damage can be expensive to repair and although it is surprising to many, most homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover termite damage.
Because termite activity may be happening without you realizing it, termites can be tricky to spot until after the damage is underway. Some termites enter your home through wood to ground contact and live in large underground colonies in the soil near your home. These subterranean termites build mud tubes to use as passageways between your home’s wood and their extensive nests below the soil. If you walk around the perimeter of your home and see these mud tubes, it’s time to take action. Drywood termites, on the other hand, live inside the wood they infest, carving out galleries by eating the wood inside flooring planks, windowsills, door frames, eaves, and other window and roofing architectural features. Sometimes, drywood termites even make their way into furniture.
Instead of simply worrying about termites in your New Braunfels County home, it is important to take preventive action against termite activity in your home. Protect your greatest investment – your home – from the destructive activities of termites. Contact a professional pest control company with licensed and certified technicians, such as Monitor Pest Control, to schedule a free termite inspection. Starting with a thorough termite inspection, we will determine if there is an active termite infestation and if so, we will make recommendations for treatment based on the type of termite that is infesting your home. Depending on the location of the drywood termites in your home, tent fumigation or a no-tent solution may be necessary. Subterranean termites are treated with a baiting system or a traditional liquid treatment depending on the type of structure, the level of infestation, and the location of the infestation in the structure. Monitor Pest Control offers programs to protect your property from all pest invaders, all year long.
Termites are helpful in the natural world, as they break down dead trees, supplying nutrients that replenish the soil. Without termites breaking down fallen trees, forests would be impossible to navigate due to the amount of decaying wood littering forest floors. In addition to obstructing woodland activities, such as walking, hiking, and camping, without termites breaking down wood, the risk of forest fires would be higher in some areas. In Africa, Australia, and South America, mound-building termites build structures to live in that sometimes measure 98 ft. in diameter. Termite mounds usually outlive the termite colony that builds them. This can be helpful to other termite colonies or other insect populations looking for a place to call home after termite colonies abandon the mounds. Living mounds provide food for some animals that eat termites and these mounds can also be helpful as lookouts for vulnerable animals on savannahs and plains to alert them to predators in the area. Other animals, such as elephants can reach food on higher branches of trees, by standing on top of these mounds.
While termites are helpful in the wild and are essential to the health of forests, in your home, termites can be incredibly harmful and dangerous, causing cosmetic and structural damage that can affect the structural integrity and value of your home. Unfortunately, homeowner’s insurance policies rarely cover damage that was caused by termites and in many cases, homeowners are not aware of the damage that has been caused until the infestation is quite extreme. Across New Braunfels, both drywood and subterranean termites can be found in homes and properties of all types. Contact Monitor Pest Control to schedule a free termite inspection of your New Braunfels home. Our knowledgeable team of licensed and certified technicians can assess your termite situation and devise a plan to get rid of the termites in your home.
Termites are difficult to control for several reasons. First, termites can enter your home during mating season when reproductive termites swarm to find mates. Drywood termites can squeeze into a very small crack in your home’s wood and nest, growing their new colonies in hard-to-access areas of your home such as attics, wall voids, and other low-traffic areas. Aggressive and invasive Asian and Formosan subterranean termites find access to your home through wood-to-ground contact. These super destructive termites do not live in your home but in the soil near your home. Subterranean termites construct mud tunnels that they use to transport the wood in your home to their massive colonies, with populations in the millions. With a lot of mouths to feed, Formosan and Asian subterranean termites eat any type of wood, including live wood, utility poles, and just about anything containing cellulose in and around your home. These invasive termites can damage your home in as little as six months, half the time it takes for dry wood termites to cause damage.
Often, homeowners are completely unaware of termite activity until, or unless, they see frass (sawdust-looking substance) or discarded wings on windowsills or furniture. Some homeowners may not notice until walls, floors, window frames, and doorways look warped or appear water damaged, with blistering paint. Hollow-sounding walls that you can easily poke a hole through are also a good indication of termite activity.
Termites are difficult to control because they are typically eating away at your home unbeknownst to you. And, attempting to eliminate termites with DIY (Do-it-Yourself) commercial products just is not as effective as professional termite elimination treatments. Contacting a professional pest control company, such as Monitor Pest Control is the only way to effectively rid your home of termites. After inspecting your New Braunfels County home or business, our trained and certified team of termite experts will make recommendations about how to treat drywood termites (tent fumigation and/or no-tent solutions) and subterranean termites (baiting system or traditional liquid treatment depending on the type of structure, level of infestation, and the location of the infestation in the structure).