Thank you, termites!

Termites really scare people. The idea of bugs that do nothing but eat wood seems like the ruin of a good house. What I have been told by home inspectors and termite inspectors is that these buggers eat very slowly. They are sort of simple creatures. They don’t do much besides eat and reproduce. They can’t see, so they smell wet wood and eat the nearest wet wood they can find. Your job, as a homeowner, is to avoid being the owner of that wet wood.

Prevention is easy: don’t leave wood near the soil; keep wood from staying wet.

1. Where wood on your house touches soil, move the soil somehow or change the wood to an inedible substance like pressure-treated wood or some kind of plastic.
2. Don’t leave other wood lying around. Don’t stack firewood outside next to your house. Same with leaves and other wood debris. If you are storing these things, do it away from the wood parts of your house or garage.
3. Don’t use wooden flats in damp basements. That’s wood only a thin sheet of concrete away from the soil.
4. Termites eat anything with cellulose; don’t leave books or newspapers anywhere damp or wet, either.
5. If you cannot keep some wood dry or away from the soil, keep an eye on it. Likely places in a basement are the bottom of stairs and walls that are built on the slab. Outside, places where shingles are low on the house and touch the soil are the attractive sites. The whole outside of the house gets wet when it rains, but it sheds the water and dries out unless something is blocking the light and air flow. Watch for those dark, damp areas, like behind bushes and under porches.

Thank you, termites! Why do I say that? First, termites are a necessary part of the ecosystem of forest areas. Second, a nest of them ate wood in my most recent buyer’s new home. These termites had 1970s taste. They only ate the ugly paneling and left all the structure alone. I am grateful. It could have been worse.