Ask Anthony About Termites
Once again, our expert technician and ACE team member Anthony Mobley has some great answers to your questions, this time about termites. Anthony is certainly the person to ask when it comes to termites. He is the Termite Technical Director here at Fox Pest Control and knows a lot about these destructive pests!
Our first question came from Keegan in Odessa, Texas and he asked:
My home is newer, so I don’t have to worry about termites, right?
Anthony says, “Yes and no. So just because your home is new doesn’t mean that termites can’t infest it. It depends on what products were used to treat your home, and it depends on the construction. I would think about getting an inspection, just to ensure you don’t have termites, even though your home is new, even though you may have had a report saying you didn’t have termites. It’s always good to have a good inspection, and to make sure that a trained professional can do a good quality inspection and give you good feedback.”
From Cooper Cop we got this question:
How long does it take for termites to cause damage to a house?
“Now that’s a really, really good question. And there’s not a very specific answer to that. Termites could, depending on how long they’ve infested the home, they could cause damage in just the first four to five months. The thing to remember, though, is termites do cause damage. And what you want is to prevent that from happening. And so to make sure that you have regular inspections on your home to make sure that you have termite protection of some kind on your home. Sentricon system is fantastic. That’s what we use here at Fox, and it is great.”
B in New Hampshire asked:
Do I have to worry about termites if I live in a cooler climate?
“So the answer to that is, yes. Termites are everywhere. They’re in every state except for Alaska. They’re in the ground, they live in the ground, they forage in the first few inches of soil. And so, by them just randomly foraging for food, they will find your home. Just because it’s in a cooler climate, doesn’t mean that termites aren’t there. Just the pressure may not be as much as maybe a climate that’s warmer and more humid, but they are there.”
You Have to Watch This One!
As we filmed Anthony answering your questions, he told us about an experience he had recently at a home that he was inspecting for termites. It includes a fascinating video of termites in action, so click this one if you want to see a “termite highway.”
Ally asked Anthony this question:
Do termites have wings? My friend Jenni says they do and I think they don’t.
“So, that’s a great question. They do have wings. They have four wings of equal length that protrude out beyond their body, kind of to the back. But they don’t all have them all the time. They have wings to help them relocate, but the wings do fall off and the termite keeps living. Generally a termite with wings is going to be black long, slender body with clear white creamy color wings. So yes, to answer your question, termites do have wings.”
If you are worried about termites damaging your house you may be wondering;
What will Fox Pest Control do to protect my house from termites?
“So, what Fox is going to do is we’re going to send a trained professional out to your home to ensure that an inspection is completed. We’re going to document any things that we find any items or concerns, conducive conditions, actual termite damage or active infestations, we’ll document that. And then once we do that inspection, and we sit down and we talk with you about our findings, we’re going to offer you a way to protect your home. So with Fox, we use the Sentricon protection system to protect your home. So these stations are placed every eight to 10 foot all the way around your home, just out past the eaves. Once they find the stations, they feed on the station, they set off a pheromone for more termites to come. As they feed on it, really it has a chitin inhibitor in there, which basically doesn’t allow the termites to molt. And then when termites can’t molt, they die. And so we’re not actually in the business of just killing a few termites here at Fox pest control, we’re actually in the business of eliminating colonies. And that’s what our Sentricon termite protection on your home will allow us to do is to prevent colonies from establishing around your home.”
If your home needs a termite inspection, click here or call (855) FOX-PEST to schedule with one of our certified termite inspectors.
