How to Tell If a Home Has Termites
There are several types of termites. Subterranean Termites are the most common. Flying Termites, a form that termites enter into when they are reproducing, are most often seen by homeowners. Drywood Termites live in wood rather than soil. Formosan Termites, which are native to Asia, are now prevalent in the southern United States. Formosan termites can be more destructive than other kinds of termites. Termites themselves may be hard to spot, but you can find signs of their destructiveness if your home has been infested. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Look for wood mud tubes. Mud tubes are formed and used by termites to travel from the soil to the food source or your home. They are typically the diameter of a pencil and have no specified length. Look for these mud tubes on the exterior of your home. They may disappear as they near the food source, such as cracks in your home's masonry, around windows and doors.
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Check for wood damage. Termites eat wood and will destroy the wood frame of your home, as well as damage other wood products such as furniture. The frame can appear brittle and may be fragile to the touch. But as termites eat wood starting from the interior, damage to wood may be hard to notice. Pull up a piece of flooring or remove a piece of siding to have a closer look at the wood underneath. Tap on wood with a hammer and listen for a hollow sound, as this could be a sign that the termites have eaten the insides of the wood piece. Or use a penknife to see if the wood comes apart with little trouble. Wood that is not infested should resist such pressure.
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Look for muddy material on the surfaces of wood. Since termites damage their food source by eating the wood, they create holes that they will then try to patch with their own feces or mud. This muddy material may be difficult to see, and a magnifying glass may aid you in finding this muddy material.
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Check for wings. Termites will shed their wings as swarms near or enter your home. Termite wings are small and appear translucent and/or whitish in color. An entire swarm will shed their wings at the same time, leaving a large number of small wings in the same vicinity.
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Look for sawdust. As termites eat wood, they create sawdust that can be found around your home, and inside drawers and cabinets if an infestation has occurred inside your storage areas.
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Check for bubbles in your paint. If the paint is on an infested wood surface, bubbles may begin to surface from termites eating the wood underneath the paint.
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Look for termite droppings. Termite droppings may be found on or below the actual wood that is infested. They are tiny mounds that are often wood colored, and the feces itself are made up of small pellets.
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Look for termites. Termites are sometimes called "white ants" because they somewhat resemble an ant. They are whitish in color, have three legs on each side and pincers on the top of their heads. Termites may or may not have wings since they shed their wings. Termites may be hard to find. They are great at hiding. Start your hunt for termites in dark, moist places such as your basement or attic. Termites also enjoy hiding in crawl spaces, around plumbing fixtures and around the foundation of your home.
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References
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