We are well into termite season in California. In the Sacramento area, most of the termite infestations are from subterranean termites. Termites can swarm any time of the year. However, the most significant risk of termites is during the warmer months of the spring and summer. Subterranean termites tend to swarm in the warmer months after a rainfall.
What should you look for?

Sometimes a house can have termites, and unless you are specifically looking for them, you will not even know it until quite a bit of damage is already done. As a homeowner, nothing beats having a trained professional from Pinnacle Pest Control come to your home to do an inspection. Understanding that with social distancing, people do not want anyone to go into their homes, there are things you can look for to check whether you have termites in your home.

Blistering in Wood Floors
If you start to see blisters in wood or open areas that were not previously there, it could be a sign that termites have been eating at the wood from the inside. Subterranean termites can cause damage to wood that could easily be mistaken for water damage.

Hollowed out or Damaged Wood
If you have exposed joists or subfloors, you should knock on the wood and listen for what it sounds like when you hit it. Use something like the handle of a screwdriver. If you hit the wood and it sounds hollow, then you have a problem. At that point, if you hit the wood even lightly with the working end of the screwdriver and you can break through the wood, then termites have more than likely been through there, leaving behind a series of mud tubes they use to head back to the soil where their colony is.

Evidence of Swarms
A termite swarm is when termites leave their colony and search for a new home. As a termite colony matures, they start to produce alate nymphs, which develop wings on which to swarm to a new location. While swarming these termites also find a mate. When the pair finds a suitable location, they shed their wings and the pair will mate.
If you see the wings which were shed and left behind, it means you have some form of a colony in your home. Swarming termites can be confused with swarming ants. You can tell the difference between termites and ants through close visual inspection. While each has two pairs of wings, termite’s wings are all equal in size while and ants’ second pair of wings are shorter than the first. Regardless of inspection, if you are seeing swarming bugs, you need to call us.

Mud Tubes
Many people think that you must have wood-to-ground contact to have subterranean termites. This is not the case. Termites are adaptive pests, and they will create a connection between the ground and the wood they are searching for. These mud tubes are crafted to maintain a specific temperature and humidity the termites require to survive. The tunnels are very effective at keeping out the cool and dry air. Termites do not care if your home does not have an environment conducive to them. In the process of destroying your home, they are creating their own that does a great job of protecting them as well as creating the conditions they require.

Termite Droppings, or Frass, are generally a sign of Drywood Termites
As with most pests, a sure sign they have been around is the trail of droppings they leave behind. These droppings, or frass, is generally a sign of Drywood termites, which is also an issue in the Sacramento area, but less of a threat than Subterranean termites.
Unlike their subterranean cousins, the Drywood termites will nest in the wood itself. This means they are busy creating the colony by eating the wood. When they excrete it, it is still mostly wood. At this point, termites do not want to have their excrement clogging up their home, so they push it out through the holes they create. The frass will have the appearance of sawdust.

It is important to remember that spotting termites is not easy, especially if you do not have exposed wood, such as joists or subfloors. Many times, when we do an inspection, the homeowners might not even realize they have termites. And if they do know, they have no way of knowing how long they had them before they finally realized it.
During this time of social distancing, take extra care to check your home for signs of termite activity, and even if you have a thought that you might have termites, call our office. Do not wait for the social distancing orders to be rescinded. The additional damage can be extensive and expensive to repair.

Termites are some of the oldest insects on the planet.  The oldest unambiguous termite fossils date back to the Cretaceous geologic period, which took place between 145 and 66 million years ago.  Due to their diversity in that period, with other circumstantial evidence, termites probably date back to the Jurassic Period or even before that in the Triassic Period.  The Triassic Period spans a time between about 200 and 250 million years ago.

Termites have been around for quite a while, and they are not disappearing anytime soon.  In California, as with practically every place in the United States, there are two types of houses.  There are those that have termites, and there are those that are going to get termites.  It is just a matter of time.

Termites, besides being destructive, are insidious.  A house can be infested for some time before anyone in the home is aware of it.  By that time, the damage is quite extensive and quite expensive.

As the geologic evidence shows in the Cretaceous Period fossils, there is quite a bit of diversity in the termite population.  Different termites enter and attack a home in different ways.  Depending on the type of termite, there are various ways to rid your home of these ancient pests.

When most people think about getting rid of termites, they think of having a home fumigated.  This is a process that requires everyone to leave the house while the termites are being take care of.

This is not always the case.  In some cases, treatment for termites can be done in a way that is safe for people and pets and deadly to termites.  The best part is that you do not have to vacate the premises for us to implement this treatment plan.

If you or someone you know is into essential oils or aromatherapy, you are probably already familiar with Orange Oil.  Orange Oil, besides its diverse household uses in everything from food additives to cleaning solutions, Orange Oil is also a highly effective treatment for certain types of termites.  Pinnacle Pest Control was the first company in the Sacramento area to be certified in the use of XT-2000 Orange Oil and the first to bring this product to the local market.

When you call Pinnacle Pest Control for a termite inspection, an XT-2000 certified technician will come to your home to locate the areas of the infestation.  Once the infestation is found, we use a boroscope to identify the exact area where the termites are.  A boroscope is an optical viewing device similar to those used during arthroscopic surgery and other medical procedures to give a doctor a clear view of what is going on inside of your body.  We use this same type of technology to see what is happening within the walls and other hidden areas of your house to get a real-time and accurate view of what is happening and where the termites are.

Once we get a clear view of where the termites are, we drill a series of holes in the infested walls and inject the XT-2000 Orange Oil into the holes.  The Orange Oil then spreads throughout the wood, killing termites and their eggs on contact.

After the job is done, the holes are patched, and you can see no evidence that we were ever there except for the sweet smell of the Orange Oil itself.

Orange Oil, also called D-Limonene, is a renewable resource and is a by-product of producing orange juice.  After the juice is made, the oil is extracted from the rinds.  This is food-grade oil.  After the oil is extracted, it is further distilled into technical grade oil.  This oil is then formulated to create the XT-2000 Orange Oil, which is a highly effective treatment for drywood termites.

D-Limonene has been used effectively in the treatment of pests since 1958.  Though like all things, processes and formulations improve over time and our XT-2000 Orange Oil is a safe, proven top of the line tool in the fight against these voracious and destructive pests.  The best part of the Orange Oil treatments is that it is entirely safe.   You do not have to leave your home and incur the additional costs associated with going, finding a place to stay, and then dealing with even more expenses such as buying meals and finding a place for your pets to stay.

If you see any signs of termites, or you have not had your home inspected and just want to peace of mind that your home had not been attacked, call Pinnacle Pest Control.  Our XT-2000 certified technician will come to your home and perform a thorough inspection.  If we positively identify termites, we will discuss your option, which may include the Orange Oil treatment we discussed here.

Give us a call to have your inspection done.  Protect your home and your family from these pests in a way that is entirely safe and non-toxic.