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Termite Pest Control
Although all termites eat wood, they come in two main varieties, the ones that live exclusively in wood, and soil-burrowing type. When it comes to termite pest control, it is the wood-living ones that cause home owners the most trouble although ground burrowers can also cause damage to the foundation of the home . They live inside dead wood, chewing away to create tunnels. Although the colonies can live in different types of wood, from damp to dry, it is the drywood termites that are of the most common , they can cause significant amounts of damage to furniture and the structural beams of houses. Today houses are often built with termite repellent materials in order to limit the damage they can do.
Termites live in complex social colonies, much like ants. They have a caste system, with a queen as the head of the colony. A queen is a female termite that has mated, and lays viable eggs to produce more termites. Pest control methods need to make sure they eradicate this important colony member as a queen is capable of laying many thousands of eggs every day. A large colony may have more than one queen producing eggs, so it is easy to understand how a growing colony can literally devour a house from within. The queens can grow very large, as they increase in size every time they moult. Eventually they can become so large that they can no longer move, and they are tended to by other members of the colony.
The king termite stays with his queen, and mates with her for life. Together this team of reproductive insects are responsible for the production of a massive work force and army. The largest group of the colony is the worker termite. Pest control is necessary to keep their numbers down, as they are the ones responsible for most of the damage done to our houses. They are sent out to gather food for the colony, and as we know, this means wood or any cellulose based product . These little foragers, under a centimetre in size , are the soft-bodied white termites most often seen. They feed the other members of their colony with partly digested wood.
The protection of the colony and its royal family is seen to by the slightly larger soldiers. They can be easily told apart from the workers by their enlarged head and mandibles. Depending on the type of termite, the soldier's heads are equipped with massive biting jaws, or can be of a strange shape, often adapted to blocking tunnels from the termites biggest enemy, the ant. Termite pest control will also eradicate these soldiers, who despite their defensive modifications are no match for the different methods of the pest control contractors.
When it comes to termite pest control, many companies specialise in the safe removal of this invasive species from houses and furniture, using new methods that inflict as little damage on the environment as possible. One such company, Ecola Termite Services, has a range of techniques to draw from , depending on the severity of the termite invasion and the type of termites that have invaded . While fumigation may be the only resort for a very badly infested house, smaller colonies may be eradicated using other, less invasive methods such as the Direct HeatTM treatment, the Microwave and the Electro Gun.
