How to Control Drywood Termites

Drywood Termites feast on dry wood.

That could be the wood used to build your home in addition as wood used to construct furniture, old instruments, antiques, etc. Termites are different from Subterranean Termites as these can be indoors and live without water.

These destroyers of wood often live within an hour excursion of any coastline in the United States. Most states bordering either the Atlantic, the Pacific or the Gulf Coast may have issues just along the coastlines but poor Florida has them everywhere in the state.

We know termites can do billions of dollars a year in damage as they destroy wood. There are different types of termites and the Drywood Termite is rare in that it lives within the wood it eats. It requires absolutely no moisture. It doesnt build structures to allow access to anything – it just finds an opening in a piece of wood and then begins the tunneling course of action.

If there is one, there are usually many and they continue to eat away at wood until there is nothing left. Or unless you stop them in their tracks and cease the damage.

If you have Drywood Termites, it will be obvious by the piles of sawdust you see outside of the wood. But these piles of sawdust are not sawdust at all – they are the fecal pellets of the termites eating your wood. Yes, what you see when you think it is sawdust is termite poop piling up.

Drywood Termites do not like to live with their mess, so they form what are called kick-out holes to push these fecal pellets out. If there are a lot of Drywood Termites doing a lot of damage, there could be multiple kick-out holes and multiple sawdust piles. in any case wood the termites are eating and destroying will be the same color of the fecal pellets.

As soon as you observe this damage, you want to arrest it. Treating for Drywood Termites involves filling the tunnels with an all-natural, Green, and effective pest control product that controls them. Be sure to choose a product with clear instructions and one that is not comprised of synthetic chemical pesticides. This is your home and you do NOT want toxic chemicals in there!

Insert your favorite all-natural pest control product into the kick-out holes using either an injector, syringe or other depending on the size of the kick-out holes. After the tunnels are complete, seal the hole(s) with scotch or duct tape temporarily. This ensures no escape for the drywood termites to seal their doom.

Monitor the area that has been treated for several days to see if any additional effort is needed. As soon as you see a pile forming out of a kick-out hole, address it as soon as possible to minimize future damage.