We have termites.  Again.  We had them last year and  I totally freaked when I found out.  I had images of them having to rip out huge sections of our house due to termite damage.  But no, it was nothing like that.   Our house was still under warranty for termites from the builder so someone came out and treated them for free.  We were not impressed with the service though (you get what you pay for I guess), and one year later here we are again.   So this time we are going to look into paying for a service, with a guarantee.  Someone who will do more than spot treat.

How do we know we have termites?  Well see the pic?  That tiny mud tube making it’s way up our foundation is made by termites.  They can’t live in sunlight so they make tubes to travel in and stay out of the sun. And they work fast too.  We knocked this tube down a mere 12 hours ago and it’s already about half way built again. And the fact there is a piece of straw wrapper right where they are building doesn’t seem like a coincidence.  Termites will even make freestanding mud tubes to reach wood that isn’t touching the ground.

A freestanding mud tube

I thought AZ was especially bad for termites but after doing some research I learned that Hawaii has the worst termite infestation and that 15.1% of the houses there have termites.  Georgia is next with 5.5% of houses being infested.  On average 2.3% of homes in the US have termites.  So it’s something to keep your eye out for.  When fall starts to set in those little buggers come looking for a warm place to feed.  They eat dead plant material, so paper and wood are perfect meals.

Last year when we called the warranty people the lady on the phone said it takes 20 years for termites to do structural damage.  Apparently she could hear the panic in my voice when she said that it would take 8 weeks to get someone out to my house.  While I couldn’t find anything with a Google search saying how long it takes for regular termites to damage the house, I did find that it takes Formosan termites 10 years.   Apparently Formosan termites are the “killer bees” of termites.  So I’m going to assume the lady wasn’t lying to me and it really will take regular termites 20 years to ruin my house.

So like I said, we are looking to hire a termite service.  We talked about it briefly last night and we are thinking about just going ahead and getting full on pest control.  We’ve been toying with the idea for a long time now.  But our thinking is that getting the add on of pest control to the termite service probably won’t be that much.  And we already pay about $14 a month to do the pest control ourselves.  So we will have to see how much more it will be.  If it’s $170 a year we are pretty much breaking even, and it would be so nice to call someone out just because I heard a cricket in the pantry.  lol.

Do you have a pest control service?  How much do you pay?  Is it worth it?

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