A little over two years ago, we moved into our new home. First time home buyers actually! What an exciting time. Of course, the house needed a little work so before moving in we refinished the wood floors, put in all new doors, repainted all of the walls inside, and even installed all new windows! We thought that if there was anything wrong with the house we would definitely find it during all of this process. Plus, we had followed all of the home buying procedures by getting the recommended inspections, including a pest inspection. Surely, this means we don’t have to worry about buying termite protection.
Discovery
One of the reasons we were replacing windows was due to a previous homeowner’s claim of a window leak. We got that all fixed up and all we could see was some rotted wood. Our window installer wasn’t concerned and said we were good to go. Fast forward
1 1/2 years later and we started to notice some cracking of our paint under the window. It wasn’t until my toddler started picking off the paint that I really looked at it closely. It looked like salt and pepper on the backside of the peeled paint. How odd we thought. After googling it and trusting my gut, I texted a photo to Travis Aggson at American Pest Management who confirmed right there that this was a case of termite damage.
We had always had the mindset that it won’t happen to me. We’re clean people, we had our inspections done, we’ll keep on the lookout and stay ahead of anything. Why worry about termites now until we see something? Well, take my advice and go get termite prevention before you find the evidence. We started cutting into our wall and finding that this was a much larger problem than we had anticipated.
Sentricon Baiting Stations
Had we not noticed this when we did, we could have easily had structural damage within our wall with another year or two. American Pest Management came over and installed Sentricon units around our home as well as two wall units directly to the wood of the infected area.
After a couple of months, Travis came back to check for activity in the baiting units within the wall. There was much there which was odd. So, we decided to tear into more of the wall and see what else was going on. We then discovered the leak the previous
homeowners had talked about was true, but the insulation had never dried out. This created a dark and wet climate perfect for termites. This habitat was more attractive that the bait we had placed. We removed the insulation and kept an extra eye on the area for current leaks, but the area completely dried out.
Success
Almost 10 months later, with holes in the wall covered by plastic, we are now to a place where the termite colony has been eliminated. Time to get out the sheetrock and paint, and put this behind us.
A huge thanks to American Pest Management for helping with this entire process. Taking the time to inspect the situation every month or so to make sure these silent destroyers are gone. If you’ve ever been on the fence about getting a pest evaluation or purchasing preventative pest services, especially for termites, please make the call today.
Story provided by an APM Customer who wishes to remain anonymous.
You can learn more about termites at AmericanPestOnline.com.
