Termite. This word may well trigger a nervous tic to those who own a wooden house or furniture.
And there is a reason for that: because of a need for cellulose and other substances that can be found in lumber, dry-wood termites feast upon wooden structures and eventually destroy them; but the crux is that they start eating things from inside, so at first the damage caused by this vermin can hardly be noticed.
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- Is it possible to get rid of termites by oneself?
- The measures
- Heat treatment
- Localized treatments
- Chemical liquids and dust
- Chemical foams
- Wood replacement
- Electrocution
- Microwaves
- Useful articles
- Helpful video
- Conclusion
- wooden houses (including foundation);
- furniture;
- shelves;
- books;
- frames of some old brown goods (TV sets, radiograms etc).
And all other things made of wood may suffer from termites’ invasion.
However, there’s no need to worry about living trees, since these insects are detritivores, which means that they only consume dead matter.
This matter is mostly consumed by termite worker with a small, white, partly translucent body.
A termite soldier fights against enemies of the colony. It is characterized by large mandibles (mouthparts) and a pronotum (the dorsal plate of a prothorax) as wide as or wider than its head.
Unlike subterranean termite soldiers, dry-wood ones are generally bigger.A termite swarmer aka alate are aimed at reproduction, which is understandable, as only swarmers are fertile. It has wings, but sheds them after mating.
Is it possible to get rid of termites by oneself?
The answer is positive. There’re many do-it-yourself solutions on drywood termite treatment in a house. However if the infestation is too severe, you should probably entrust a professional pest control specialist with this problem.
Besides, as you probably know fighting back your house from this vermin by oneself may appear a very tiresome and even hazardous task, so if no experience of dealing with venomous pesticides, or it just seems too hard for you, professional help may also come in handy.
The measures
How to treat drywood termites yourself? However, if you’d still like to start the ball rolling by yourself, you can choose one of these methods to apply:
- heat treatment;
- chemical foams, liquids and dust;
- wood replacement;
- electrocution.
Learn more about drywood termites: signs of their activity; best methods of treatment and spot treatment; how to get rid of them in furniture?Heat treatment
How to get rid of drywood termites naturally by yourself? One of the possible techniques of diy drywood termite treatment is heat.
First of all, you should buy or rent a special heater, for example GreenTech Titan DF (direct fired), which can raise temperature in your house up to 130°C.
Secondly, locate the exact location of the colony or colonies.
Thirdly, remove heat sensitive articles and cordon off the termite affected area with polyvinyl or polyethylene sheets and turn off household appliances.
The hot air to pump should be at least 120°C hot and be located within the infested area for minimum 33 minutes.Although this method doesn’t require poisonous chemicals and like all whole-structure treatments, treats all hidden sites regardless of where exactly they are, it does have some drawbacks.
For example, it can and it will make harm for all heat-sensitive items, unless you take them out of the treated house. And among those sensitive to heat, you may find such heavy items as pieces of furniture that are not so easy to carry.
Besides, it’s possible that you will simply forget to take off some things worth taking, and they will be spoiled forever. In order to control temperature, you may well need sensors to ensure that the temperature within the treated area is high enough.
In addition, even though this method can kill many existing termites, it doesn’t provide any prophylactics, so termites may come in again.
Localized treatments
The following techniques are highly localized, which means one drawback for all: their use requires more or less precise detection of the colony/colonies.
Chemical liquids and dust
In order to effectively use it, drill a hole into the infested timbers through kick out holes or the termite galleries. Then inject insecticide into these holes, so that it was dispersed all over the galleries.The advantages of this method are the following:
- availability on market;
- long-term effect;
- high efficiency against accessible infestation.
However, there’re a few disadvantages, you’ll have to cope with:
- the chemicals are poisonous, so you’ll need to vacate the building for a while;
- drilling holes is undisputable damage for the house.
Chemical foams
Chemical foams have the same way of use as liquids and dust and can boast of high-term effect as well. Besides, they cover hidden spots, which is also good news.
Alas, the efficacy of poisonous foams is questionable and the necessity of drilling holes is not fun at all.Wood replacement
How to kill drywood termites yourself else? Another remedial option is wood replacement. Just like it sounds, wood replacement is taking an infested item away from your home.
Pluses list of this technique:
- doesn’t require any special gear to buy or craft.
and… that’s all. At the same time, there’re a few drawbacks to cope with:
- effectiveness highly depends on detection accuracy;
- the more extent and the less reachable the infestation is, the worse this method can work;
- infected load-bearing wood cannot be replaced easily, since it may lead to a collapse.
Electrocution
In order to kill the vermin with electricity, buy an electric gun, locate the colony and “shoot” the insects.
On the one hand, this method is good becauset here’re no hazardous chemical needed and the device is portable, which let you carry it everywhere you’ve spotted the colony.
On the other hand, you’ll have to drill holes in the wood to enhance efficiency and it’s possible that electric current will damage some structures of your house too.
Besides, in general efficiency of this technique is highly variable, whereas every homeowner would always like to get rid of pests once and for all.Microwaves
Microwaves can fry termites up like chicken in an oven. Of course, you can’t use a usual microwave oven to kill the termites, but you can buy a special device capable of doing it.
As there’re not many of them available on market, some amateurs build such devices by themselves, which is very risky and may cause fire.
As for pluses, the device is portable, so you can carry it to kill termites anywhere. Besides, in this case you also don’t have to use dangerous chemicals.
Unfortunately, in order to successfully destroy the colonies, you’ll have to locate their precise locations. In addition, microwaves can damage a wooden item you apply the unit to, if its wattage is over ten thousand.
And the worst thing is that, as it has already been mentioned above, these termite-killing microwave devices cannot be easily bought in a local DIY store, so you’ll have to put some effort to obtain one.
Here you can learn more information about effective treatment method called tenting (fumigation): dangers for termites, preparing for fumigation and cleaning after, how long does this procedure last?
Useful articles
If you interested in more information of termites we recommend you to read the following articles:
- All types of termites. Are they harmful to humans? Can they bite you? And what is the difference between drywood and subterranean ones?
- What does swarmers of different species look like: drywood, subterranean, formosan?
- Signs of infestation outside and in the house: in walls or furniture.
- What does termite holes look like? What is droppings and is it toxic to humans? Do termites make noises?
- Posible termite damage, how does it look like? Examples of damage in walls and wood floors.
- All about flying termites: how do they look like, swarming season and what to do if there are swarmers in your house?
- How do they do nests and mounds? How to find it in your garden or inside the house?
Helpful video
How to get rid of termites yourself:
Conclusion
All in all, what you need to know about ways of dry-wood termite infestation treatment is that there’re plenty of them, the few described in this article are:
- heat treatment;
- chemical foams, liquids and dust;
- wood replacement;
- electrocution.
But all of them require much effort to employ and you’ll probably need a skillful specialist.
For example, you may well leave some nesting spots undetected and untreated, so in a while they will develop into a large-scale colony and start swarming.
Also you may get poisoned by venomous pesticides or damage your house with high temperature steam and electricity.
We hope the tips of treating drywood termites yourself are helpful for you.
