Termites

Earlier this week, I awoke to a disturbing discovery. Well, it started out as just one bug on the floor... then I saw another, and another, and another... until I found that they were scattered throughout the downstairs, concentrated by the back door that leads to the garage. Hundreds of little black bugs. Some with wings and some without. And lots of wings without bugs. I told Michael that we had an infestation. I described the bugs and he thought they might be termites. Some quick internet research confirmed it.

I vacuumed all those little buggers up and found they were entering through a heating vent, so I covered it with plastic and taped it off so they couldn't come in any more. When I left the house to run some errands, I came back to a garage filled with termites! Apparently the warm weather causes them to come out, because I didn't see them for a couple days, and then it was warm again yesterday and today, and I have been seeing them in the garage. Fortunately they aren't inside the house anymore.

I had an exterminator inspect our house and property on Tuesday. Fortunately, he did not find any termite damage to our house, but told us that the ones we were seeing are swarmers who go out once a colony has reached its maximum capacity to find a place to start a new colony. He says the colony has probably been there for four or five years. We did have a termite inspection when we bought the house, and it was negative. The exterminator suspects they are under the porch because that is the only place he couldn't look and he didn't find them anywhere else.

Our house will be treated on Monday. They will dig a little trench all the way around the house and put the chemicals in, which will seep down into the ground and crystallize then kill the termites. (As best I can remember his description of what they do.) And for the perimeter of the house that connects with the garage, they will drill holes through the cement to put the chemicals in that way, then seal the holes back up. He assured me that the chemicals are completely safe for people and animals, only harmful to termites.

Unfortunately the extermination process is pretty expensive, but obviously it is necessary. At least it won't be as expensive as having to repair damage to the house itself. That is something to be thankful for.