Wood Destroying Insects Cause Extensive Damage in Holmdel, NJ
Challenge
I was called out to a house in Holmdel, NJ to identify damage to two different areas of the home. The client called in a contractor to repair the damage. The contractor suggested they call a pest control company to find out what the damage was from. The contractor had thought it might be water damage. As it turns out, I found two different wood-destroying insects upon inspection of the exterior of the home: Termites and Carpenter Ants.
Carpenter ants are wood-destroying insects. They are so named because they excavate wood in order to build their nests. Carpenter ants are common in the northeast and nest outdoors in damp, decaying wood like tree stumps, logs, or hollowed-out trees.
Termites are wood-destroying pests that have been on the earth since the time of dinosaurs. Across the world, there are approximately 2,300 species of termites with approximately 41 species of termites living in the United States alone.
Solution
Termites live beneath the soil and enter your home below the ground level of the dirt. For an effective treatment, I must drill into the concrete and inject a liquid application into the ground so that the termites will come into contact with the product. Once I finished the drilling, I injected a liquid application into the slab. This application binds to the treated soil and creates a protective zone that the termites cannot detect. Termites will come in contact with this treatment as they go about their normal routines. Once the termites come in contact with the application, they'll transfer it to other termites in the colony. The application will then spread like a virus throughout the colony and in a short amount of time, the termites are gone!
If the client had just done the repair without the source being correctly identified, we know the customer would have been in the same situation in a year from now, with all new damage. When assessing this type of situation, it's always good to call a licensed pest control company with a credentialed WDI (wood-destroying insect) inspector. Applying the right treatment is critical.
