With winter in full swing, you probably aren’t seeing all the bugs you did during the summer months. The saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind,” and that’s usually how it works. If they’re not around to annoy you, chances are you’re not thinking of them at all. Unfortunately, this could be a dangerous way to live. Why? Because termites, though “out of sight,” could still be active inside your Greenville home. Termites are pests that do not take a season off. Even in colder regions, the ones living outdoors may slow down a little, but they don’t stop completely. However, with Greenville’s mild winters, termites can remain active throughout the year. And once they get indoors into our climate-controlled homes, they’ll really thrive, though you might have no idea they’re even there.
Why Termites Get Inside
Termites feed on wood. Although they can manage to do well with structurally sound wood, they much prefer wood that has water damage or is rotting. This is the first reason they’ll be attracted to your Greenville house. They may start at a rotting fence post, move towards your deck, then make their way inside.
Unfortunately, due to all the humidity and moisture of hurricane season, water-damaged wood is not difficult to find in Greenville. You may have water-damaged wooden structures in or around your home that you haven’t noticed.
How Termites Get Inside
They won’t walk through the front door and make themselves obvious. Instead, termites come up from the ground into the wood of a home. If the wood does not touch the ground, they will build mud tubes to protect themselves from the drying effects of sun and wind.
What Termites Do When They Get Inside Your Greenville Home
Once inside termites will continue to feed on your wooden structures. Since they do this within the wood itself, the only time you’ll see termites is when swarmer termites come out to reproduce.
That is part of the reason termites are so dangerous. They are out of sight and out of mind almost all year long, destroying your home while you remain blissfully unaware.
What To Do About Termites Inside Your Home
The best thing you can do is prevent termites from getting inside in the first place. Thankfully, this is not impossible, even in our humid climate. Spencer Pest Services offers year-round termite protection in the form of the Sentricon® System with Always Active™. Sentricon® with Always Active™ uses environmentally-friendly baiting stations that attract the worker termites, which then bring the bait back to other termites, eliminating the entire colony. Sentricon® with Always Active™ works year-round, keeping your home safe no matter what the season or weather.
If you already have a termite infestation, Spencer can help with that too. We’ll work to eliminate the termites inside your home and make sure others do not get in. Just because termites are out of sight, doesn’t mean they have to be out of mind. Call Spencer Pest Services for more information on our termite control options.
