How to Prevent Termites - Termite Prevention Tips That Can Protect Your Home From an Infestation

Do you know how to prevent termites? These dangerous insects can bring your whole house down if you have a wooden house! Termites live on wood and cause havoc by eating outwards on chunks of wood or structural elements that prop up your house!

Annual inspections of your property are necessary by monitoring each structure carefully according to the plan of the house. Keep records and make note of insect damage every year. Termites need water to survive, so make sure there aren't any leaks either indoor or outdoors.

Check the plumbing, replace old caulks, washers and give more attention to leaks and drips and also make sure your gutters and drainpipes are clean, so that it can get rid of standing water near your house.

Look for termite infestations or nests. Signs of dry wood termites are characteristic piles of 'dirt' underneath wooden structures or ceilings, while subterranean termites form mud tunnels in their tracks.

Read on to know how to prevent termites.

To prevent these dangerous pests, using termite-resistant building blocks like cedar, juniper and redwood are emphasized. Also, if you have any standing water or patch of soil which is always wet, termite mounds might appear since they need water to survive.

While making your house, and putting the floor on, put films of 6mm polyethylene in the spaces underneath the foundations to prevent moisture from seeping up into the wooden floor frames. Wall vents in the foundation should keep these tiny crawl spaces really dry, so good ventilation is necessary. While putting your house together, construct objects on the exterior so that they slope away from the wood structures to assist in better drainage facilities.

Look after the plants in your house to reduce chances of having molds forming on the wooden walls. Water them via sprinklers but don't forget to adjust the sprinkler else you'll have water spraying onto the wood sidings and walls. Use weather sealers to seal exposed wood from moisture, most importantly window frames on the outside and the bottom edges of the wall.

Move all scraps of wood and debris away from structures of wood. Sand barriers in between crawl spaces especially under fences and patios help prevent burrowing termites because they can't tunnel through sand. Trenches around 6 inches wide and 4 inches deep filled with 16-grit sand around all wooden structures helps prevent these termites from tunneling since they are too large to be transported away and too small to be tunneled through. Cracks in the foundations after settling or earthquakes should be sealed using 16-grit sand.

Termites are small creatures that give home owners big headaches. These measures surely work, but professional exterminators can do the job for you every few years. Remember that they use toxic chemicals which leave traces in walls, carpets and furniture for years at a stretch. So look for services that use nontoxic treatments like heat, microwave, electro gunning and deep freeze.