Growing up, I lived in a sprawling farmhouse in the country. This beautiful home was constantly filled with the sounds of laughter and the smells of delectable food being prepared in the kitchen. Unfortunately, our home was often invaded by some unwanted guests, ants. Pesky ants would welcome themselves into our living room, kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and bathrooms. One night, I crawled into my bed only to discover I wasn’t alone. Ants had somehow climbed onto my bed! These destructive ants even ate holes in some of the clothing hanging in my closet. Is your home filled with unwanted, biting ants? On this blog, you will discover the latest methods pest control specialists use to rid homes of pesky ants.
Those Pesky Ants
Things Termites Like to Eat—And Ways to Encourage Them to Leave Your Yard
Logan Watson
Discovering that you have termites living in your yard, or possibly even in your basement, is not the type of news people like to hear, but it happens often. Termites are annoying flying insects that can destroy a home if left unaddressed. Treating termites involves several steps, and the first step is usually trying to kill the insects. The second step is eliminating the things in your yard that are attracting the bugs there. If they have nothing to come to your yard to eat, they are likely to find a different place to live. Here are the top things termites are attracted to.
Wood
As you well know, termites eat wood, and they eat it from the inside out. This is one reason it can be hard to find a termite problem at first. The signs on wood are not always obvious right away, but they can be more obvious over time. Termites will eat any type of wood, and this includes the wood used to build your house. It also includes wood that you have piled up to use in your fireplace this winter. Termites also love mulch and any other type of wood.
If you want to get rid of termites for good and ensure that they do not return, you may need to take some steps relating to the wood at your house. If you have wood piles, you should move them as far from your house as you can. You should also pick up any wood pieces that might be setting around your yard, and you may also want to replace your mulch piles with stone.
Moisture
In addition to liking wood, termites also love moisture. In fact, termites cannot live in areas that are really dry; they need moisture. Moisture is necessary for termites for several reasons. The first is that it is necessary for them to breed. Secondly, moisture makes the ground easier for them to tunnel through.
While it might be impossible to get rid of all the moisture in your yard, you may need to take steps to reduce it. This is especially important if you have standing water in your yard in certain places. If this is the case, you may need to determine how to drain this water to keep your yard dryer from here on out.
Other Sources of Food
Termites do primarily enjoy eating wood, but this is not the only thing they go after. They also like eating cardboard, paper, and even birdseed. Eliminating all of these things from your yard may help stop termites from enjoying your yard.
The other important thing you should know is that termites like eating is cellulose, which is what wood is actually made of. Cellulose is considered a plant-based material, and it is one of the most abundant compounds found on earth. While cellulose is found in all wood products, it is also the ingredient found in paper, and that is why termites are attracted to paper.
Eliminating everything in your yard that contains cellulose is not possible; however, taking all the steps listed above can help reduce the sources of what attracts termites to a yard. A pest control company can also help you find other ways to reduce the sources that attract termites, and they can help you eliminate the bugs. Pest control companies are also great at helping people understand the extent of damage termites have done already.
If you suspect that termites have invaded your home or yard and are not sure how to get rid of them, you should call a termite elimination company. Termites are bugs that are highly destructive, and you should never ignore the signs. To learn more, hire a pest control company today.
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