Termites and Termite Control

Termites are highly social insects in the order Isoptera that feed on wood. Their job in the natural ecosystem is to consume and digest dead trees, returning the nutrients they contain to the soil.

The problem is that termites are as happy munching away on your home as they are eating an old tree stump. In fact, it's estimated that termites cause several billion dollars in damage to homes and other wooden structures in the United States every year.

Termite Biology

Termites are social insects who live in colonies. Their members are divided into castes, and each caste has a role to play in the colony's well-being.

The queen is the head of a termite colony and controls the development and behavior of the rest of the members through a system of chemical messengers called pheromones. Other castes include workers, soldiers, and alates. (Please click here to learn more about termite castes.)

Many homeowners believe that they have termites, when actually all they have is an ant problem. If you're not sure, please click here to learn how to tell termites from ants.

Termite Damage

The termites who do all the damage are called workers. Their jobs include tending the young and helping to feed other members of the colony, but the majority of workers in a termite colony forage for wood. And once they find it, they bring it back to the colony as food.

Over time, termites can literally eat you out of house and home, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Because termites live underground, they tend to do most of their damage to the lower portions of a structures such as the sill plates and floor joists, as shown in the picture on the right. Because the rest of the house sits on these structural members, repairing termite damage often involves jacking the house up off the ground to replace damaged timbers. This is a very, very expensive job.

Termite Treatment

Termite control is an important investment, so we use only the best termite control products available. Our treatment of choice for termite control in Pennsylvania is Termidor, a revolutionary, non-repellent termiticide that actually eliminates the termite colony.

Unlike old-fashioned "chemical barrier" treatments, Termidor gets to the heart of termite infestations, showing a 100 percent control rate in USDA tests since its introduction about a decade ago. And unlike termite bait systems (which often take in excess of a year to achieve control, if they work at all), Termidor usually achieves control within a month.

For more information about Termidor, please click here. Please be patient; the brochure is a big file. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. If you don't already have it, you can download it for free here).

To contact us for a prompt inspection and termite control estimate, please click here.