How to know if we have termites, in a homemade way? First of all, we must find out if what we want to eliminate are termites or not. Since you have seen that your furniture has holes and they give off a kind of sawdust. That’s not termites, it’s woodworm.
The truth is that termites are known as an invisible pest because it is very difficult to detect. Basically, at home, we can know that we have termites in two ways: by direct vision and by affections in the wood.
How to detect termites
We can detect them by direct vision when in spring they leave the colony in the form of winged termites, which is called swarming. We can find hundreds of winged termites that looking for an exit have ended up on the ground or next to the windows. Its appearance is very similar to that of the winged ants, although unlike these, they have the same four wings.
They can also be detected when we observe earthy tunnels in the form of laces, which termites use to move from one place to another. Unlike ants, termites avoid light and construct these false tunnels to move in search of food.
The affections in the wood appear when the wood stays hollow since the termites devour it without any visible symptom from the outside. We advise hitting the wood to check if it is apparently solid, it can serve as a home form of detection.
Home remedy against termites
If the house has a garden, clean up the surroundings. Avoid accumulating wood in the surroundings: it can be beneficial, but it is not always easy to apply since the comfortable thing is that the woodshed is near the house.
Seal all cracks in the house to prevent the entry of termites: fully recommended, although it does not guarantee to avoid the entry of termites. The professional treatments contemplate this type of treatment creating physical and chemical barriers around the house although they require work and use of insecticides with limited duration. You can check about the best termite killer here.
Separate wooden furniture from the wall leaving a few centimeters for ventilation. If you only have wood in the furniture and not in the structure of your house, it can be useful at least to know that there is no access for the termites to the furniture. It is more than unlikely that we have problems in the furniture and previously we have not detected problems in the lower areas of door frames or wooden windows.
Direct application of boric acid, sodium borate, and pentachlorophenol in wood
They can work on treated wood for a limited time against woodworm, but in no case will the termite be removed. Any product that we apply to the wood will only be treated superficially (depending on the penetration capacity of each product). Normally about 1 cm. With specific products for woodworm, which will always be better than the products, we can go a little deeper. Just a couple of centimeters. They are treatments for woodworm.
For Termite we should inject products to soak all the interior of the wood, being very complicated and expensive. By direct application in the wood, the inside of the product will always remain free for the termite to continue to act. It is throwing money and time, a time during which termites will continue to cause damage that may end up being irreparable.
Application of gasoline in wood
Interestingly, it is a very extended termite treatment home method. It is evident that like the previous methods it will not eliminate the colony, and besides the bad smell, it is highly flammable. In a short time, it evaporates and its effect will disappear. The termite returns after a few days and continues feeding. As we explained in the previous cases, the application of wood products will only work against woodworm, although better than any of these remedies, is the use of specific insecticide products against woodworm such as BASF Pylex Herbicide, Natural Elements Weed Killer, Xylazel or similar.
Application of boric acid by homemade baits
This method makes much more sense than the previous ones because it at least tries to simulate the bait system against termites in part of its explanation. It involves buying boric acid powder in a pharmacy and applying it to natural wood chips to create bait traps. Place the traps where you think the termites can access. You check them from time to time to add more chips if they are disappearing. Sprinkle boric acid in the places where you think there may be termites. It does not stop being an insecticide more. If the termites detect that it is harmful, they will stop consuming it.
It will have affected a tiny part of the colony, a maximum of a few hundred individuals from a colony of up to a million individuals. It is essential that an insecticide affects the whole colony at once in a delayed effect.
Use of Beneficial Nematodes
The beneficial nematodes are microscopic worms used in some countries for the control of insects. They enter the insects in their larval state to use them as guests. These worms are used for some pests, but we do not know their use against termites, it also seems too complicated to be considered a home remedy against termites.
Termite Stakes for termites
So that if the infestation is small, stakes against termites can be placed in the ground where they release poison, preventing termites from living in that soil. They say it can be effective for outdoor use near piles of wood. If they existed, hundreds of stakes would be necessary to poison a whole plot of land. There is no small infestation. We detect a condition that comes from outside, but we do not know exactly where, so we would have to put innumerable stakes so that we were able to neutralize the progress of the termite colony towards our house. What it seems is that “termite stake” is confused with the stations that professionals put to detect the plague. Small plastic stakes with wood inside as bait, which is stuck in the ground to detect termites and then replace wood with cellulose with specific insecticide component. It’s a professional remedy against termites.
Effective remedies against termites
The limitations in the use of chemical insecticides in force since 2008 have made science evolve towards other solutions against termites that are more respectful of the environment and at the same time more effective. Currently, the termite pests are treated with the bait system, existing four brands of bait:
They use products such as Hexaflumuron, Flufenoxuron, and Diflubenzuron inhibitors of chitin that cause the delayed death of the entire termite colony. The termites carry the food to the interior of the colony where the rest of the individuals feed without detecting the origin of the poison. When the molting of the exoskeleton arrives, they are unable to perform it dying the entire colony.
The rest of insecticide products do not eliminate the colony, although they can serve as immediate solutions for treatments of a wood element. Even so, it is advisable to use it by professionals to avoid incurring health risks.
The home remedies against termites, unfortunately, do not exist or at least offer no guarantee. Most likely, when we have detected the presence of termites, it is because of the caused damage. The attempt to eliminate termites in a “homemade” way probably only serves to give termites more time to cause irreparable damage.