Regular cleaning is a way of taking care of your home. It’s normal to take good care of this because this is where you and your family live. Sometimes, even if you clean this regularly, there are insects and animals, which get into your house and ruin your precious home and the things inside it. Rats, cats and even your pet dogs can be culprits in causing these damages. Aside from these, termites are also common cause of damage inside the house leaving holes in the wall and cracks on woods. If you see any termite damage in your house though you already had your house treated for termites, you may want to check first when the termite damage was made. This may be before the treatment. If that’s case, it means that there’s no need for another termite treatment and you just have to fix the damage. If the damage is just new and was made after the treatment, this means that you need to get termite control again.
Here are the steps on how to tell the age of termite damage.
Here are the steps on how to tell the age of termite damage.
- Check for termites around the damaged area. The easiest way to determine if the damage is new or old is to see if there are still termites in the area. If there are still termites in the area, this means that the damage is just new. If there are no termites in the area, it’s probably an old damage that was made by the termites before the treatment. Don’t just look outside the damaged area. Knock on the damaged wood to see if there are termites hiding inside or at the back of the damaged part. If there are termites around, they will surely go out after knocking on the wood. If there are no termites, it’s best to check if there are termite eggs around. These are usually white in color or sometimes clear. If you see any of these, it means that there are still termites around which just recently caused the damage.
- Check for the wood’s color and smell. See if the color of the damaged wood is gray or has faded. If this is the case, it means that this is an old damage. If the wood’s color is still bright or it still looks new and you smell the scent of wood that has just been cut, it means that the damage is just new. This was caused by termites that are still living inside your house. You can also tell if the damage is new if you see termite wings that have fallen around the area as well as their droppings.
- Follow the termite tube. Termites build tubes so they can access wooden parts in your house that they take as food. If you see a termite tube, follow the tube and see if there’s paint somewhere that goes over the tube. If there is, this means that the paint was applied after the tube was made. So it means that the damage is old. If not, it means that you need to act immediately and have this treated.
If you already hired a professional for treating your termite problems and you still find new damages which might be caused by termites, it’s best to contact the termite control professional you hired so he can resolve this concern.
