Termite Control

Termite Control

Category (2): Texas Department of Agriculture

Termites, or silent destroyers, are a constant threat to your home. Our technicians have been trained to inspect the construction features of your home that may be an open invitation to termite infestation, and to recommend simple but powerful cost effective pest control solutions.  In many instances, home owners have termites but don’t realize it until significant costly damage has occurred.   

Termites are considered the top threat to wood-based structures, even a greater threat than fire, flood and wind.  In fact, according to the National Pest Management Association, Americans spend more than $5 Billion annually to repair home damage caused by termites.  Here in the United States, two are two main species of termites, the subterranean termite which are termites that live underground, and the dry-wood termite, which live above ground entirely in wood structures.  Subterranean termites nest in soil, whereas dry-wood termites can be found in the framing, furniture, and hardwood flooring of homes.  Both species tend to be active in warmer climates, like South Texas. 

Are Termites in Your Home?

Our technicians have identified several important signs of termite infestations.  Homeowners and business owners should be aware of these signs and, if observed, should call pest control service as soon as possible before expensive damage occurs.  These signs include:  

1. Hollow-sounding wood: Our technicians use special electronic instruments design to insect the integrity of wood used to construct the frame of your house or business.  If the wood sounds hollow when tapped, its an indication that termites could destroying the wood from the inside out even when the wood surface appears smooth from the outside.  Sometimes its difficult to see the damage visually with the human-eye because termites prefer dark, humid environments, so they typically feed inside the wood rather than on the surface. 
2. Termite Swarmers:  Reproductive termites also called  termite “swarmers “ take flight to create new colonies; leaving their nest one to two times per year during the spring or fall.  The exact time swarming occurs depends on certain weather conditions.  Termites like to swarm in the morning at sunrise and in the evenings at dusk.  Indications of reproductive and swarming activities are usually seen by small openings in the surface of the wood.  If swarmers are found inside the wood, the infestation is usually throughout the entire structure of the building or your home. 
3. Discarded Wings: Termite swarmers can take flight inside or outside your home as they leave to start new colonies.  Shortly after they take flight, they shed their wings.  Shed wings might be found in spider webs, on the surface of your home’s foundation like window sills. 
4. Fecal pallets called frass: Some of the most common signs of dry-wood termites are the appearance of small fissures and cracks near the wood surface coupled with small fecal pellets called frass,  which are discharged from their nest.  In some sense, these small fecal pallets look like granulated sawdust.  For homeowners, its important to keep roof gutters, downspouts, and crawl spaces free from wood scraps and other debris materials containing cellulose which is the primary food source for termites. 
5. Termite mud tubes: Because subterranean termites require moist living environments, they build mud shelter tubs to enclose their tails.  These mud shelter tubes serve as bridges between termite colonies and the wood they consume.  Mud tubes are made of small tiny pieces of soil, wood and debris, and are used to protect the colonies from weather elements and predators and to conserve moisture they require.   Homeowners will generally find termite shelter tubes along the external walls of their homes or the crawl space underneath their house.  Our technicians have been trained to accurately identify all four types of mud tubes which include working tubes, exploratory tubes, drop tubes, and flight slits or swarming tubes. 
6. Cracked paint on wood surfaces:  Swarming dry-wood termites can enter through an opening smaller that the edge of a dime, so cracks in the home’s foundation, window seals, roof siding, and vents should be sealed.                                           

PurpleBug Fee Estimates 

In most cases, when one or more of the above mentioned signs are observed you home, unfortunately, is most likely infested with termites.  PurpleBug will come to your home and at no cost (free) will provide an inspection coupled with an estimate to bring your home back to pest-free status.  Our technicians recognize that termites need sufficient sources of food to survive which include warmth, moisture, and wood containing cellulose and that certain conditions around the home promote termite infestations. 

Our technicians look for stacks of fire wood in and around your home, mulch for your flowers and garden, debris for trash and garbage, heavy foliage from near by trees and brush, and much more.  Once we identify conditions that promote termite infestations, we will point out those conditions with recommendations for change.  PurpleBug offers several options for termite elimination and control.  Our technicians will offer customized plans specifically for your needs to become termite-free.  PurpleBug offers effective termite control solutions with an unmatched guarantee compared to our competitors. 

Termite Control Solutions

PurpleBug has an arsenal of weapons to manage, eliminate and control termite populations.  Our most frequently used weapon is perhaps our bait technologies and application solutions, which protects wooden structures on the principle that foraging termites will feed on treated cellulose materials.  This inexpensive but powerful approach eventually over time kills termites and in some instances the entire colonies. 

Highly-toxic ingredients in the bait we use kills termites slowly enough to allow foraging termites to return to colonies and spread the bait to other termites through food sharing; a process called horizontal transfer.  Because dead termites repel other termites, the toxic bait chemicals we use kill slow enough so that dead termites do not accumulate the bait areas.  At PurpleBug, we use three kinds of bait products including: (1) ingested toxicants or stomach poisons, (2) biotermiticides or microbes, and (3)insect growth regulators, all three of which are used for either termite colony elimination or termite colony suppression.