How to Prevent Drywood Termites in Port St. Lucie

Drywood termites are a common pest in Port St. Lucie that can be disruptive to your home. When damage from drywood termites gets overlooked, the consequences can be costly. The best way to avoid these consequences is to use preventative strategies. 

This article will go over the best ways to prevent drywood termites in Port St. Lucie, and potential treatment options if you’re currently experiencing an infestation!

7 Steps to Prevent Drywood Termites

Remove Food Sources From Drywood Termites

Unlike ants, termites aren’t attracted to sugary or greasy foods in your kitchen. They have a strict diet of wood and other insects. 

It’s not realistic to remove all the wood from your home, especially since many American homes are built with wood. However, the wood you can remove is the kind that termites are most attracted to: Damaged wood. 

Old and damaged wood is the perfect nest for termites to form colonies. Bonus points if the wood is damaged by water–moisture allows for the most ideal environment for termites.

To navigate this, inspect your older wood pieces for damage. If you find any, you might want to get rid of it to avoid the risk of a drywood termite infestation. This might be difficult, and you may want to keep your family heirlooms, but also remember it’s in your best interest to protect the rest of your home from termites. 

Be cautious with secondhand furniture and cabinets. These items are the most likely to be infested, as they are often already have some wear and tear in them. 

Seal Common Termite Entry Points 

Drywood termites can enter your home through extremely small openings. Don’t disregard the tiniest cracks and crevices around the exterior foundation of your home; most likely, termites can get through them. 

Sealing those openings with caulk is the best way to keep drywood termites from squeezing through. Caulk around the foundation, walls, and roof of your home. 

Common Entry Points for Drywood Termites: 

• Attic vents 

• Beneath roof eaves

• Cracks around door and window frames 

• Soffits 

• Exposed beams

• Trim wood 

• Foundation beams 

• Floor joists

Store firewood correctly to Keep Termites Out  

With Florida’s tropical weather, you may not need a fire to stay warm, but bonfires are a way to have fun with friends and family and enjoy being outside. 

Unfortunately, firewood is a perfect place for drywood termites and other burrowing insects to have their own party. 

To keep firewood away from termites, store it outside, elevated off the ground. If you have a fireplace inside, thoroughly inspect the wood for evidence of insects before bringing it indoors.

Trim Trees and Shrubs to Keep Termites Away

Termites will often live within trees, shrubs and bushes. When these come into contact with your home, they’re more likely to get inside if there are any small openings that were overlooked. 

Keep your landscaping trimmed away from your home to reduce the likelihood of drywood termites entering your home. If you have any dead trees or tree stumps in your yard, remove them. 

Paint Exposed Wood to Create a Termite Proof Barrier 

Termites can chew through exposed wood much easier, so by painting it, or using a wood sealer, you can give it a tougher outer shell. The termites may try to eat the wood, then struggle and give up. 

Regular Termite Inspections

We recommend that you have your home inspected for termites, especially if you haven’t done so before. 

Native Pest Management offers free termite inspections, where we can identify whether termites are active in your home, the kind of termite, and the best course of action. From there, we can provide a quote. If you’re refinancing or selling your home, we also offer WDO Inspections. 

Schedule your free inspection today by giving us a call! 

Evidence of Drywood Termites: 

Are you worried you might already have a drywood termite infestation in your home? If you’re noticing one or more of these 6 common signs of drywood termites in homes, it may be time to get in touch with a local termite control company in Port St. Lucie. 

1. Kick-out holes: Kick-out holes are exit holes for termites. When termites develop into swarmers and leave the nest, they exit through small holes about ? inch in diameter. 

2. Frass: Termite pellets. Drywood termites use frass to seal up kick-out holes. Frass usually consists of wood and dead insects, since that’s all they eat.  

3. Hollow wood: As drywood termites eat away at the wood, they often hollow it out before making noticeable damage.  

4. Discarded wings: When termite swarmers find a mate, they lose their wings and find a new nest together as the king and queen of their own colony. Termite swarmers are only present after a colony has been established for a few years, so finding swarmers or termite wings is a big sign that you could be dealing with a large infestation. 

5. Clicking sounds: Believe it or not, termites aren’t silent creatures. You can actually identify termites by pressing your ear against the wall and listening. They will bang their heads against the walls of their tunnels as a way of communicating with each other. 

6. Stiff doors and windows: If you’re having trouble opening and closing doors and windows, it may not just be an old door or the weather. When termites damage wood, they can warp the shape of the door or window, making it more difficult to utilize. 

Drywood Termite Control in Port St. Lucie 

If you believe you already have termites in your home, preventative strategies won’t be helpful. The best thing to do at that point is to contact a company for a professional termite treatment. Native Pest Management offers tent fumigation and no-tent termite treatments for drywood termites to get rid of even the largest colonies in homes. 

Tent Fumigation in Port St. Lucie

Tent fumigation requires you, your family, and your pets to be out of your home for at least 24 hours. During this time, we will place a tarp (tent) over your home and release a fumigant inside. This fumigant will kill the drywood termites inside. This is the most expensive termite treatment, but it is also the most effective for larger and more severe infestations. 

No Tent Termite Treatment in Port St. Lucie

We can use no tent termite control for less severe infestations in small and localized areas. We inject expanding termiticide foam into areas of termite activity, which will flow directly into active drywood termite galleries. The product will come into contact with the entire colony, including the queen. 

While termite infestations can be worrisome, Native Pest Management is here to help your family and your home. Along with St. Lucie County, we also offer our termite control services in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, and Indian River Counties, as well as their surrounding areas. Take back your South Florida home by letting us get rid of drywood termites. 

To learn more about drywood termite prevention and treatment in Port St. Lucie, schedule your free quote today!