Termites Termites eat wood, and can consequently cause great structural damage to your home if left unchecked. A typical homeowner's insurance policy does not cover destruction caused by termites, even though they cause over 1 billion dollars in damage to homes throughout the United States each year. Our inspection and treatment program can help you understand the threat of termites, and take the necessary steps to protect your home. Termite Inspection You can’t assume your home is termite-free just because you’ve never seen them – they only swarm once or twice a year, and you might miss it!  We thoroughly inspect your home or business, looking for the tell-tale signs of termite infestation.  Some of the things we look for are:   Mud tubes built for traveling above ground Damaged or hollow-sounding wood   Pinholes in wood members   Small piles of sawdust   Piles of small wings   Other specific termite indicators Termite Treatments To control these unwanted pests, we provide an effective treatment plan, which may include: Preferably, local chemical treatment of infested areas as discovered by inspection Exterior Protection - a continuous chemical barrier is created around the exterior of your home or building to keep termites from entering Insect Growth - we apply chemicals which duplicate the insect's natural hormones to disrupt their growth and development Termite Facts Subterranean termites are extremely destructive. First they build tunnels to wooden structures, and then they burrow into those structures to obtain food. Any wood or cellulose-containing material constitutes termite food, and given time to do so, they’ll eat until nothing is left but a shell. Termites avoid light and air, so they build their colonies where you’re not likely to stumble upon them. Drywood termites live in the wood and need no ground contact.  They need little moisture to survive and generally nest in warm areas of your structure such as an attic.  Like all termites, they’re small and quite.  Your only clue will be small (pin head size) pellets found at the bases of walls, doors, or windows. Dampwood termites live in moist wood as their name implies.  They need no ground contact.  They are quite large as termites go but fortunately live in small colonies.  Leaking roof gutters, bathrooms, masonry porch/stairs, stucco walls, etc are all areas of suspected infestations for dampwoods.  The preferred method of control is to abate the moisture supply. For more information about termites, click here. Is it a termite or an ant? On the off chance you do see them, remember that it’s easy to confuse termites with ants. Fortunately, there are features that distinguish them. Ants narrow waists bent antennae two sets of wings (one wing is longer than the other) Termites thick waists straight and beaded antennae two sets of wings (same size) Powderpost Beetle Fact Aside from the fact that there are numerous types of wood boring beetles, they all do essentially the same thing – damage wood.  It’s the adult beetle that bores into the wood to lay eggs and then the larva eats the wood.  As the larva becomes an adult which emerges from the wood, the new adult usually re-infests the same wood from which it came.  The signs and symptoms are easily recognizable by the numerous pin head size bore holes and very fine frass (sawdust). The solutions for extermination are application of local chemicals, fumigation, and/or structural repairs. For more information about powderpost beetles, click here.