PEST PROSpectives

Could Termites be Chomping Away at Your House Right Now?

• Pest Pros of Michigan

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Like little silent invaders, termites don't make a sound. They just quietly chomp away at the wood in your home until you happen to notice.

That could take a while.

Unless you know what to look for. Pest Pros of Michigan Associate Certified Entomologist Tony Sorrentino tells us what that is during this episode of PEST PROSpectives.

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Pest Pros of Michigan


PEST PROSpectives is a Livemic Communications production.

Richard Piet:

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome PEST PROSpectives . That's exactly what they are perspectives from the Pest Pros of Michigan. So think about this for a second. What are the chances, while you're sitting here listening to us, that termites are chomping away in your home or your office or your cottage, quietly, not making a sound? Tony Sorrentino is back with us, associate certified entomologist, one of the pest pros of Michigan, to talk about that. Tony hello.

Tony Sorrentino:

Hey Richard, how you been? It's good to see you again. It's always a pleasure to see you.

Richard Piet:

Good to see you. This is kind of a creepy subject in the sense that it makes you feel a little vulnerable, knowing that the possibility that these little chompers are busy somewhere in the supportive structure of your house potentially chomping away. What kind of signs should homeowners be looking for to determine if termites are there? You?

Tony Sorrentino:

You know we're right in the midst of termite swarm season in Michigan right now and people are seeing insects that look like ants, but it's not always ants per se. We've got hundreds of small flying ants. Yeah, those might be termite swarmers. That's one major red flag. Another one is like mud shelter tubes. That could be evident on the interior or the exterior of the home, on the exposed wooden building elements in the basement, or coming up from the grade at soil level across the foundation into the wood under the structure of the house. There you can see it running right up.

Richard Piet:

All right, I want to make sure I understand this Termite swarmers. Is that an actual termite or is this some other buddy of theirs?

Tony Sorrentino:

They're actually major reproductives or alates. They're the future kings and queens. They're going to set out and they're going to breed and then they're going to set up other termite colonies in the same areas and they fly. They definitely fly and they can be mistaken as flying ants. The difference is ants are going to have a pinched waist and the wings are going to be different length. They have four wings and the two forewings and the two aft wings are going to be different lengths on ants and the body of a termite alate is going to be consistent. There won't be a pinched waste and the wings will all be the same length.

Richard Piet:

I don't have a pinched waste anymore either. I can tell you that Me neither. So now a shelter tube. This is where they're making their home inside your wooden structure. I'm putting two to two together on that.

Tony Sorrentino:

Help me figure it out, it's shelter from the outside elements, subterranean termites. Intrinsically they live in the ground and they they will build the shelter tubes to protect their bodies from the elements as they move from the ground to the food source and back to the ground.

Richard Piet:

Okay, and so there are other red flags right Associated with all of this, when it's happening. What are they?

Tony Sorrentino:

You're going to see small holes I call them peekaboo holes where they're poking through the drywall. They've eaten the paper backing off. You wouldn't even see that it's happening until you go dust it off. You flake off the little piece of dirt that's on there and there's a hole, or a termite pokes its head out and is looking at you Not really looking at you because they don't have eyes but you catch my drift.

Richard Piet:

We're looking at them at that point. Right absolutely what are you doing in there? So they're actually making holes and burrowing away, and we might not notice this until there's been some progress made, right?

Tony Sorrentino:

Right. So a mature colony can consume up to a board foot. So that's 12 inches of a two by four in a year, but it's never localized to 12 inches of a two by four. They're not going to notice 12 inches are gone. It's going to be spread out across the area that they're eating, and as long as there's a way for them to get from the soil to the structural timbers in your house, then we have a problem.

Richard Piet:

Yeah, we sure do A board foot a year, although they're not that neat, they're just going to be all over the place.

Tony Sorrentino:

Well they go. They travel with the grain of the wood.

Richard Piet:

With the grain. Well, that's very considerate. I think that's how we're supposed to sand the wood too, isn't it, oh boy? So what makes a home a target for termites to begin with, and why some houses and not others?

Tony Sorrentino:

It comes down to conditions. There the termites are drawn to moisture and access to cellulose, like what we were just talking about. So things like damp soil against the foundation, poor drainage from or leaky downspouts, high grades where the soil is coming up and kissing the lower level of the siding. We want to correct those conditions. We want to make sure that it's not a haven in the first place.

Richard Piet:

So that's an interesting point. If the dirt around the foundation of the house comes up high, then that's kind of a bridge for them, isn't it?

Tony Sorrentino:

Absolutely Nothing's stopping them. Wood-to-soil contact is one of the biggest issues. We have the pillars or the posts for the deck. They go into the ground and they're seated on concrete that's down in the ground. What happens if termites come up into that? It's the same thing with wood to soil contact with the lower edge of the siding along the grade. You don't want that anywhere on your house.

Richard Piet:

Right, and this is tricky because, of course, we're also told that we need to keep moisture running away from the house, so it might be tempting to create that slope that brings the ground up higher at your foundation. Got to keep an eye on this too. Not too far up.

Tony Sorrentino:

That's right. You want to have effective space in between the ground and the grade and the lower level of your siding on the outside of the house.

Richard Piet:

So how do we actually prevent this? What do you recommend?

Tony Sorrentino:

Preventive termite treatment. There's a saying that I heard once and I always just grasped onto it In Michigan you either have termites, have had termites, or you're going to have termites. We've noticed an increase in subterranean termite pressure over the last seven years in southwest lower Michigan. I don't know what is to blame. Years in Southwest lower Michigan. I don't know what is to blame. I don't know if we're just tactical or technically proficient or just see it more than everyone else, but there's been an increase in our business and the amount of termites that we're finding.

Richard Piet:

Wow, so there's something comfy about termites in Southwest Michigan, absolutely so. When you're trying to prevent it, what steps do you take? And then, subsequent to that, if you find you have them, what are the pest pros do to try and correct that situation?

Tony Sorrentino:

So this is one of the ones that there's no negotiation on it. I would never recommend DIY treatments, or if you know a guy that knows a guy, I would call a professional, because there's specific methodologies that we use in the industry to ensure that an effective barrier is created around the house. It's not just a spot treatment. It should never be just a spot treatment, because there's nothing saying that the termites are only right here in this 10 square foot area. There's nothing that you can have up to five active colonies per acre of land. That's just science. Those are facts, those are averages.

Tony Sorrentino:

I'm not saying there's five active termite colonies per every acre of land, but you could have as many as five active termite colonies per every acre of land. But you could have as many as five active termite colonies per every acre of land, given the right soil conditions and the right weather conditions and the right whatever. I'm just saying termites are an issue. Termites are an issue in Southwest Lower Michigan and if you prepare your home and you're doing the inspections, I would get a termite inspection every two to five years If you've had termites, if you think you might have termites, there's so I'm thinking about things that contain wood that could be around your house.

Richard Piet:

The first thing that comes to mind is a pile of wood that you intend to burn right. That must be an inviting spot.

Tony Sorrentino:

You're waiting for problems. If you leave wood, that's wood to soil contact in its purest form, it's essentially rotting wood that's sitting there waiting for termites to find it.

Richard Piet:

And if you have that, maybe it has to be lifted up off the ground somehow. I've seen, you know, like wood holders that are round and they have legs and they sort of elevated off the ground. Does that do any good?

Tony Sorrentino:

Yeah, absolutely. I would store any kind of firewood or anything like that off of the soil and away from the structure. That's a nightmare for me. I'll walk up to do a termite inspection at someone's house and they've got the wood stacked up on the backside of the garage. Do you want termites? Because that's how you get termites.

Richard Piet:

You could put a neon sign Welcome Right there. Don't want to do that.

Tony Sorrentino:

All right.

Richard Piet:

What about gutters? We should keep those clean anyway, but is that an inviting place?

Tony Sorrentino:

well. So it's not so much the gutters, it's what happens because the gutters are clogged right. So so we've got poor drainage because of that and we're looking at then the water not draining down the downspout and away from the structure. It's just going to be falling right there next to the foundation and then saturating the ground right there. It might be high grade, it might cause an issue. It might never cause an issue, but it might cause an issue.

Richard Piet:

Right Now. I think I heard you say there's no spot treatments with termites. You're going to create a boundary. Is that what I heard you say?

Tony Sorrentino:

Pest pros. We don't do spot treatments, it's the full structure, because I can't put a warranty on a spot treatment and, plus, a lot of times when you're dealing with termites, it's someone's house. You know what I'm saying? That's their largest personal investment in their life, unless you open up a business and then all bets are off. But let's just talk about regular Joe homeowner. That's their largest single investment. So do you want to skimp on that? Do you want to skimp on that? Do you want?

Richard Piet:

to cut corners. I wouldn't. If there's only one space where they're infested, you're still treating the whole boundary because they could just move right.

Tony Sorrentino:

Are you sure there's only one space? Yeah, I see your point. So they're incredibly hard to notice. They're cryptobiotic. You don't see them until it's too late. They made a whole life out of not being seen, and when they poke through the drywall like that, they didn't ever mean to do that. That was never an intentional thing. It was a mistake, and so when we find them, we do focus on that area. We'll do direct treatment in that area, but we do want to wrap the outside with a full protective barrier and whether that's a liquid barrier or a bait station barrier or a combination of the two, and what we call an integrated termite treatment strategy that combines both aspects and direct treatment to you know, help make it a tangible result, because you know, if you come out, it's just one, it's one way or another you might not get the results that you're looking for right away.

Richard Piet:

Right, and so, after this treatment is over, what should a homeowner expect? They're gone, it's done, or they have to check with you on some sort of schedule thereafter check with you on some sort of schedule thereafter.

Tony Sorrentino:

That's one of the reasons that we utilize bait stations is for monitoring and to prove efficacy of service. We're checking those bait stations two to three times annually to make sure that there's no new termite evidence. We also do an interior inspection for the warranty on the termite treatment, and then that comes up every year too. So we're going to go in and look at the spots where the termites were found and make sure there's no new termite evidence inside the house as well. And if at any time you know the house is under warranty and we stand behind our work, if at any time you know, hey, there's something funny going on, well, we're going to come out there and we're going to make it right 100% of the time.

Richard Piet:

And a homeowner should probably ask, when they're talking to a professional like you how do you make sure monitoring continues? This has to be part of the process, right?

Tony Sorrentino:

The warranty is renewable. Year after year it comes up and we notify hey, I was wondering about your extended warranty for your termites. But most people are into it. They want to extend the warranty. The interactions are usually always good. We go out and everything's consistent and you know, we get another satisfied client, you know, and they can rest easy knowing that Pest Pros has their back and their house is protected.

Richard Piet:

Well, we make a joke about extended warranties, but this one is for real, right? Yeah, you want to make sure that there is a professional having a look, especially after there's been a precedent in the past where termites have been around. Ask these questions and ask the pest pros all the questions that you have about termites, particularly if you are concerned that you have them. Maybe based on some of the things Tony said, I have seen that I've seen the hole. Maybe I should have a professional have a look. Click through from the show notes here to the website Pest Pros of Michigan or dial them up. The number's there too and you can get your questions answered. Tony Sorrentino, one of the Pest Pros of Michigan. Thank you, sir.

Tony Sorrentino:

Thanks, richard, have a good one.