Pre-Construction Termite Protection

Pre-Construction Termite Protection

Are you having a new home built? If you’re like most Americans, this will be one of the most significant investments you will ever make and one that you will be spending years to pay off, which is why it is vital to consider termite protection “before” your home is even built.

The Danger Of Subterranean Termites

Subterranean termites, like the name indicates, are insects that live underground. If you decide to build a home on, or near, these termites, you could be setting yourself up for a heart-wrenching crisis. Here are the reasons why:

  • Subterranean termites are silent invaders. These pests can be go undetected for years while infesting and feeding on homes. These wood eaters come up from the soil and eat channels through the wood of a home without showing themselves until it is too late. When a termite colony matures, it will produce swarmers. But, when this obvious sign of termite infestation appears, a lot of damage has already been done. Even worse, termite swarms don’t last long, and can sometimes go unnoticed when they appear on the outside of a home. This can cause a termite infestation to grow beyond the destructive capability of a single colony.

  • Subterranean termites can already be in the ground where you intend to build your home. These insects don’t wait for a home to be built, then move onto a piece of property. They can already be in the soil, living on dead trees and other decaying wood products, and this fact makes it very important to treat the soil before constructing a home, because the last thing you want to do is have your home built on top of an existing and thriving termite colony.

  • Subterranean worker termites are made for finding your new home. These insects can tunnel through soil as far as the length of a football field in search of an appropriate food source to feed their colony. They are also simple organisms that do not require sleep. They will tunnel and feed 24 hours a day, with no need for rest.

At Russell’s Pest Control, we don’t wait for termites to attack. We offer services that will protect the entire ground surface beneath your new home and stop subterranean termites in their tracks. We also install Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System bait stations to pre-treat your property and kill off any colonies present. With proactive termite prevention, you can know that your property is safe.

Don’t wait for termites to strike. Get pre-construction termite protection from Russel’s Pest Control and protect your investment from these silent invaders.

The Sentricon System: Combining Termite Control And Earth Day Celebrations

Let us at Russell’s Pest Control wish you a happy, though somewhat belated, Earth Day (Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22 in case you didn’t know). Lots of people think that the pest control industry and any event celebrating the earth and the environment are probably at odds with one another. We’re here to tell you that this is simply not the case. And, since it is termite season, let us give you the low down on why the Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System with Always Active Technology is such good news to Earth-lovers around the globe.

The Sentricon System has been given the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, an honor presented by the Environmental Protection Agency for scientific developments that show a marked interest in changing old habits to help reduce the number of hazardous materials released into the world. In the past, the only way to treat a home for termites was to use hundreds of gallons of a diluted chemical around the entire foundation of a home. The Sentricon System completely turned the industry on its head by introducing a method where we can use very small amounts of bait to draw termites into the Sentricon Stations. This means that all of the bait that will be used to eliminate the termite colony is contained in one place, and those stations are equipped with a slide lock on the top so they can’t be opened by a child or by a digging dog.

However, my favorite thing about the Sentricon System is the bait that’s placed inside each station. Most of the time, when you think of a pesticide, you probably imagine that its box or bottle would come with a clear warning on it. We’re used to seeing things like that; in fact, most of us probably have several items in our homes with various warning labels saying things like CAUTION or WARNING. The most potent products get the high-level DANGER rating, which indicates that the ingredients in that item can be deadly if handled improperly. The bait used in the Sentricon System has no such label. Seriously. This means that the cleaner you use to scrub your shower is considered more dangerous to humans than the bait inside the Sentricon System! This is because the bait is specifically designed to target termites. Their digestion process breaks down the bait in such a way that it becomes deadly to them. No wonder the Sentricon System received that Green Chemistry Award!

I’ve got a whole list of reasons why the Sentricon System is an environmentally sound choice for termite prevention and elimination, but perhaps you get the idea already. You can hear more information by calling us at 865.584.8549 for a free termite inspection, or you can visit our contact page.

A Wet Season Is A Termite’s Delight

Let it never be said that an East Tennessee season change is anything but unpredictable! Over the last few weeks, we’ve basked in the glow of the spring sunshine and shivered through the return of a late-winter snow. However, one thing that Knoxville residents have done a lot of in 2013 is dodge rain drops. January was an astonishingly wet month, and March also dealt us above-average rainfalls. While Knoxville homeowners may have mixed feelings about this damp weather, you can be sure that one portion of the population is perfectly pleased by all this moisture: That would be the millions of termites that reside in Knoxville, Maryville, Lenoir City, Sevierville, and other surrounding cities.

As we’ve mentioned before, termites thrive in wet environments. Termites are the clean-up crews of our world. They cheerfully consume dead and rotting (in other words, moist) wood that we view as unsightly clutter. Unfortunately, termites aren’t picky about what they eat. You might be glad that they’re busily getting rid of the fallen tree in the back of your property, but you would probably be less pleased to find that they’re hollowing out the support beams in your crawl space.

Because termites are completely moisture dependent, they must make mud tubes or tunnels for themselves so that they can cross spaces above ground. When a crawlspace or basement holds dampness for an extended amount of time, this makes the termites’ job a lot easier. They can chew through damp wood very quickly and access areas that might otherwise be unappealing in dryer times. So, if you have excessive condensation in your crawl space or water pooling near your slab foundation, you are at a greater risk for termite invasion.

We try to make sure that this blog is as full of self-help tips as possible because we want Knoxville homeowners and business owners to be actively involved in preventing unwanted pest invasions. But, termites are tricky. The average person will likely have a hard time spotting termite activity (which can lie hidden inside your walls for an extended period of time), and effective over-the-counter termite treatments are extremely rare.

Because of this dilemma, we at Russell’s Pest Control like to make the termite prevention process as painless as possible. We do free inspections for termites, so you can have professional eyes on your property without having to pledge your first-born as collateral. Additionally, we use the Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System with Always Active Technology.  That’s a long, intimidating product name, but let us assure you that it’s the best termite prevention and elimination system out there. The Sentricon System uses cutting-edge baiting technology to ensure that this product ends up in the mouths of every termite in the invading colony. And, because this system takes advantage of the specific structure of termite biology, we can achieve colony elimination without employing harsh chemicals that could have negative side effects on other bugs or animals in the area.

After just a few more warm, sunny days, the termites are going to wake up and start swarming, and that has potential to add unneeded stress to your already overly-busy life. We can’t make sure that you don’t get stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work or that your dog doesn’t track mud across the kitchen. Termite maintenance, however, is one stressful detail that Russell’s would be happy to take off your plate. Questions? You can always reach us on our contact page.