First Signs

I had a gentleman walk into the office today to talk about problems he was having with his oak trees. He was having them pruned and termites were found within one tree. We talked about treatment options and he scheduled an appointment with the forrester to discuss general tree maintainance. If you are concerned about termites the first thing you need to look for is dirt or mud in places that is does not naturally occur. Subterranean termites like high humidity and use mud to seal their tunnels to maintain the moisture levels that they require within their colony. When they move into a different area they pave the way with mud tunnels and this is one of the easiest signs to look for.

When infesting trees in over ninety percent of the cases the tunnels will be found outside the bark of the tree.

Having said that you must remember there will be a small percentage of the time when the termites will come up the inside of the tree. They can do major damage with few or no outward signs. The first sign of trouble may come after a wind storm.

When the tree or parts of the tree are blown down due to lack of support caused by the feeding of the termites. You can greatly reduce your possibility of loss by monitoring your trees and structures for signs of feeding or the building of mud tubes. Insecticidal barriers are a deterent to the termites, but they are driven by hunger to constantly seek out ways around these barriers to new sources of food. Breaks in the insecticidal barrier cause by digging animals, broken plumbing, planting of ornamentals too close to the house, or cracks in concrete slabs pose threats to your home. Louisiana provides many of the necessities of life for subterranean termites: moderate temperatures, plenty of water, and numerous sources of cellulose(wood). When cracks in concrete slabs offer them entry points not visible from the outside termites can begin feeding before outward signs are visible. They will eat the paper off the inside of gypsum board then tunnel though the gypsum to eat the paper on the outside. When they break through the paint on the inside of the room they will seal this opening with mud. By taking a white cloth and rubbing it acoss a wall suspected of harboring termites you will wipe off the mud leaving streaks on the cloth and pin prick holes in the wall revealing the work of the termites. Until everyone has access to a termite sniffing dog or infrared devices that detect hot spots inside the walls of our house caused by large numbers of termites feeding, we are limited to using our eyes to detect the presence of termites.