What Happens When You Don’t Treat Termites? Struggling with a termite invasion is the worst nightmare a homeowner can have. While being one of the smallest insects that can visit your house, termites are among the most dangerous.
Their tiny size can make you ignore them, making you think that a microscopic and can’t cause any damage. Unfortunately, this approach is incredibly wrong and can cost you a lot of money in the future.
When you ignore termites, you allow them to thrive and damage the wood infrastructure of your property. Read on to know what happens when you don’t treat Termites.
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To understand why are termites dangerous, you need to know what they eat. These insects are crazy about cellulose. They take this vital food from wood they find inside and outside your house.
A wardrobe, a chair, or a kitchen cabinet are the perfect meal for these hungry tiny monsters. While you may think that they are too small to eat cellulose enough to cause visible damage, that’s not so. In fact, there are thousands and thousands of termites that invade your house at once. The collective amount of cellulose they can consume is huge.
So if you ignore the colonies of termites, your furniture will get significant damage in a couple of years. Yes, they need some years to cause visible damage to wood structures. It means you have a lot of time to stop their feast and keep your precious furniture intact.
If there is something worse than furniture damage, then it is house structure damage. Termites can thrive not only on furniture. They can also set up a camp in the basement or attic, eating away at the house structure.
And while furniture damage doesn’t entail serious consequences, except repair and replacement costs, structural damage is way more dangerous. The more cellulose termites eat from foundation beams and roof wood, the weaker the house integrity gets.
The good news is that termites would need around 5 years to cause serious damage to a structural beam. And some more years to eat away at it until it breaks. The bad news is that termites can really make the house structure weaker.
The danger they pose is real. You are good to avoid ignoring these slow wood eaters. And exterminate them before the destiny of your house gets in their hands. If you notice signs of termite infestation at the house foundation or roof, call in a professional for an inspection.
The professional exterminator has all tools to detect the presence of termites in the hidden and hard-to-reach areas. If he confirms the infestation, you are good to ask him to kill the colony right away.
Postponing the extermination will only allow the insects to breed and grow in number.
Aside from eating the wood, the termites are also dangerous for people’s health. People living in a house with a termite infestation can suffer from breathing problems, including asthma. Allergic reactions involving uncontrollable coughing and sneezing are also common.
The air conditioning systems can play a role in spreading the contaminated air from the termite nest to the people. Although it happens very rare, termite bites and stings can lead to extreme pain and itching.
It’s good to mention, though, that this insect doesn’t carry diseases to humans and its bite is not toxic.
Insecticides homeowners use to kill termites are even more dangerous than the insect itself. If you decide to challenge this creepy insect, make sure you wear protective gloves and a mask during chemical application.
On the whole, if you ignore termites, you can suffer serious consequences in the future. You will have to spend lots of money on repairing the damaged furniture. Sometimes, you will even need to replace it due to irreparable damage.
Similarly, you will have to invest in the renovation of the house structure, unless you stop infestation timely. Investments in health may also become a necessity. The irritating particles of dust from the termite nest can blend in the room air, causing allergy and breathing difficulty.
In this way, it becomes more than obvious why you need to exterminate termite invasion as soon as possible. By doing so, you will keep your health and house safe.
