Top tips to protect your property from termites
Whether it’s cracks in your concrete slab, non-treated outdoor areas, and even travelling along your utility services, such as your data cabling or gas pipes, they manage to find a way.
But it’s not just a matter of blocking any cracks in your slab, or blocking off your utilities; that’s not practical. Instead, staying protected against termites is a long-term game—one you can start today.
Here are our top tips to protect your home against termites.
What you can do now
Termites need two things to thrive: moisture and food. So, by providing a moisture source, you attract termites to the area—and from there they seek out a food source.
So be sure to:
- Repair all leaking taps.
- Fix moisture problems in bathrooms.
- Connect your downpipes to a soakwell, to divert water from the footings of your home.
- Redirect air conditioning overflows to a soakwell.
- Store any wood or cellulose material in a dry, elevated space, safely off the ground.
- Avoid creating bridging and breaching locations over treated termite zones. This can include removing any treated soil, laying wood or bricks against the wall of your house, or building a fence or pergola over your termite treated zones. Termites can use these to bypass your treatment zones and enter your home.
What to do when renovating or building a new home
- Avoid building ground levels against external walls higher than your internal floor levels. This provides an excess of soil built against your walls which termites can use to travel into the wall cavity.
- Keep weep holes unobstructed. Weep holes are gaps between bricks designed to lets moisture out, and help to keep your internal brickwork dry.
- If using timber in landscaping, use termite resistant or treated timber
How can I make sure my home is secure?
To ensure your home remains free from termite activity, we recommend having an accredited pest inspector carry out a termite inspection at your property. This should be done at minimum once a year—or more regularly if you live in a heavily vegetated area.
To find our when your last pest and termite control inspection was undertaken, check inside your meter box. There should be sticker there that displays your home’s termite management history and tells you when it was last carried out.
If it’s been more than 12 months, or there’s no sticker at all, contact a trusted pest inspector to visit your property and perform an inspection for you.
Protect your home with a professional termite treatment
Termites never take a break—they’re there all year round. With the right advice and guidance, you can create a home that’s protected against termites, not matter where you live.
There’s no better way to reduce or prevent termite infestation than with a customised home termite treatment plan from Envirotechnics. We inspect your property and then recommend a termite management system using many options such as repellents, non-repellents, baiting systems, colony elimination, and ongoing monitoring.