Termite Treatment

If you have termites, you may notice one or more of the following:

• Swarmers: Termites often swarm in early Spring and after a rain shower to start new colonies. The swarming event can be brief, so even if you do not see flying termites, you are likely to see the discarded wings around window sills, doors, heating vents, bathtubs and sinks after a swarm takes place. Termite swarmers use their wings to move away from their original colony. Their wings break off and they pair up and find locations with a wood source where the male and female can begin a new colony. Whether you see the swarm or think there might have been one, call Black Diamond asap!
• Live insects: keep an eye out for soft-bodied, light-colored insects about the size of a grain of rice. Termites avoid light, so they are seldom visible in open areas.
• Mud tubes: Foraging worker termites, the ones that eat wood to feed the rest of the colony, must stay in moist conditions and away from natural enemies like ants. To get across barriers between the soil and the wood above, termites construct small, meandering mud tubes from moist soil and excrement. The tubes are about the diameter of a pencil, though they can become wider. Tubes can be seen on foundation walls or inside walls, on plumbing pipes and spanning crawl spaces between the ground and the subfloor. These termite highways are a sure sign that termites are or have been in the home.
• Damaged wood: Termites eat wood from the inside out along the grain, so damage often isn’t visible until it becomes significant. Termite inspectors often will tap to listen for hollow-sounding wall studs, baseboards and floors. If the wood gives way, it may reveal a hollowed-out honeycomb pattern. The wood also will include some mud similar to mud tubes, plus live termites.

Yes. Termites never sleep—they are always eating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Termites swarm in the spring. The "swarmers" emerge from their nest, then land to shed their wings and mate to begin new colonies. Swarming termites are a sure sign that there is an infestation nearby.

Swarming termites and ants look similar and are easily misidentified. The clearest way to distinguish them is to examine the wings. Termite Swarmers have two sets of wings of equal length. The front pair of wings on a swarmer ant is longer than the back pair. There are other distinguishing characteristics: An ant will appear to have two indentions and three sections on its body, whereas a termite appears to have one indention and two sections on its body. Ants also have a joint in their antenna while termites do not. But here’s the biggest difference: Ants are usually just a nuisance. Termites damage your home.

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Termites date back more than 120 million years to the time of the dinosaurs, and are one of the only creatures that can digest cellulose, the primary structure material of plants. They live in colonies that consist of multiple castes with different jobs; the workers, the soldiers, the alates, and a queen paired with a king.
Workers do most of the labor, and are hard to spot at only an eighth of an inch, but their white, soft bodies and lack of eyes are quite recognizable. The soldiers have a similar build but are much larger, and their massive orange heads are capped with large pincers for defense. The queen is the largest of them all at an inch or more, with a tiny front half and a massive, elongated abdomen for producing eggs. Her king is much smaller at around half an inch, with a dark coloration. There are also the alates that are sent out seasonally to form new colonies, and these breeding termites, or "swarmers, "are what most people see that alerts them to an infestation when they swarm in the spring. They have two pairs of wings to fly and dark shiny bodies unlike most termites, and this hardier build is a survival mechanism as they search for a mate and a suitable location to initiate their own colony. These winged termites have a straight waist, straight antennae and their two sets of wings are equal in size.

Eastern Subterranean termites emerge from the soil to infest homes and other structures. They are very sensitive to low humidity, so they bring soil with them as they move through a structure, creating their signature mud-lined shelter tubes. Damaged wood will also be lined with the same mud mixtures that will increase as the termites chew into new areas.

Typically, termite treatment and damage is not covered under home insurance policies. Insurance companies consider it to be preventative maintenance and will usually require the owner to cover 100% of the cost to treat and repair associated damage.

Wood, moisture, foam board insulation, cracks in the foundation, construction debris, mulch, darkness, warmth, wet weather, etc.

Termites can infest a house as long as there is wood or wood by-products to consume, and no effective termite control measures have been taken. Colonies can grow to over a million within a few years.

Eliminate wood contact with ground, reduce moisture near the foundation and in crawl spaces, never store firewood or wood debris against or beneath the home, and have the home treated by Black Diamond for termites.

The amount of time it takes for a termite colony to cause damage is determined by several factors. The size of the colony is one of the largest factors when considering how quickly damage will be done. The larger the colony, the more structural damage they can do and the faster they can do it. A single termite eats about 2% of its body weight in wood daily, and a colony of 60,000 workers can eat a whole square foot of lumber in one month. As such, even a moderate size colony can do massive amounts of damage in as little as six months. On average, it can take three to five years for a termite colony’s damage to become visible. At this point, the colony will have dealt thousands of dollars of damage.

Termites will infest a home until there is no food source left in the home.

No, termites do not bite humans.

Service costs depend on a number of different factors. This can be the type of treatment needed, the size of the area being treated and the time needed to properly treat the pest problem. Call 877-DEAD-BUG to speak to a helpful Office Agent for more information. You can also schedule a free estimate with an Eradication Specialist.

We aim to get every customer's infestation as quickly as possible. Most service calls are completed in a 24-48 hour period.

Call our office at 877-DEAD-BUG or use our online chat to speak with a representative about starting services.