Why Nothing Beats Sentricon for Termite Defense
If subterranean termites were feeding on your home right now, would you know it? Would you be able to see them eating away at the banister on your staircase? Would you be able to hear them chewing on the wall of your bedroom? Would you be able to smell them inside the floor of your kitchen? Unfortunately, no. The way we usually detect pests doesn't work with these sneaky pests. Termites make detection difficult, even for a termite control professional!
When termites come into our yards, they tunnel under the ground. And, unlike with many other pests, you're not going to see shallow surface tunnels or any other signs of the invasion. You could have an elaborate network of termite tunnels in your yard right now and not even know it!
When termites find their way to your foundation walls, they will feed on any wood that is touching the soil, without ever exposing themselves to the light. Worker termites are deterred by light and will remain underground while feeding on your home, preventing them from being seen. In fact, worker termites have such an aversion to light that they rarely expose themselves, even in low-light conditions such as those found under a porch, patio, deck, or inside a crawlspace. Termite control professionals must sometimes dig into the ground under a crawlspace to locate termite worker activity.
If termite workers can't feed on the wood of your home directly, they will build shelter tubes to gain access to it. But these shelter tubes can be hard to find as the workers create them in the darkest and most secluded locations around your home. In fact, termite control professionals have even found these wood-destroying "inside" the cinder block piers underneath homes. Therefore, if a termite control professional doesn't use a mirror to look down every pier under your home, they can't know for sure that there are no termites present inside the wood of your home.
While it is possible for an experienced termite control professional to thoroughly check a home for the presence of subterranean termites, the Sentricon® System with Always Active™ makes termite inspections a breeze! All your certified Sentricon® with Always Active™ technician has to do is inspect the Sentricon® with Always Active™ bait stations placed strategically around your home. If termites have visited your home, your technician will know. Sentricon® with Always Active™ uses the recruit behavior of worker termites against them; when workers find the bait, they let other workers know they've found a food source by laying down a pheromone scent for other workers to detect. These pheromones inspire other termite workers to come feed on the cellulose that was found. So when termite workers find these bait stations, before long a noticeable amount of the bait will get taken, alerting the technician to the presence of termite activity on the property.
With the Sentricon® with Always Active™ installed, not only is termite detection easy, the active ingredient in each bait station is usually enough to eliminate attacking colonies without any intervention from a technician! This active ingredient in the bait is undetectable to termite workers, so they have no idea that their colony is in danger as they share it with the other termites in their colony. This is partly due to the fact that the active ingredient in Sentricon® with Always Active™ isn't a poison; it is a chemical that prevents termites from molting. And when termites can't molt, they can't develop, and when they can't develop, they die.
When you have the Sentricon® with Always Active™, your home will be protected from termites 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And because it is so easy to detect worker termite activity with this system, you never have to wonder if termites are present inside your home!
Is it possible to protect a home with a liquid barrier and routine termite inspections? Absolutely! Homes that have Termidor installed can be kept termite-free when treatments and inspections are performed by experienced professionals. Sentricon® with Always Active™ just makes the process easier! And if worker termites ever try to attack your home, you'll know it. However, with liquid termite treatments, you won't know if your home is ever at risk as all the termite control happens under the ground. If you're the kind of person who likes to know, Sentricon® with Always Active™ is the way to go!
If you need termite protection for your Western North Carolina home, let the termite control experts at A-1 Pest Control help! We use Sentricon® with Always Active™ and Termidor to effectively protect residential and commercial structures from destructive subterranean termites. Give us a call to get started!