Sure with some bugs, attempting a little bit of DIY tactics might be possible.
The ads from home improvement stores certainly make it look easy and safe. It might even make you wonder why you’d bother with a professional pest control company.
But some pests are a little more than any homeowner can handle.
Enter termites. They are pretty bad. While some pests are more visible and leave a bit of evidence for you to find, termites often don't leave any tracks at all. Unless you know what you’re looking for, you might not even know they’re present until they’ve eaten a decent chunk of the wood in your home. And no one wants to deal with those repair costs.
But you want to know all of your options in order to make an educated decision. Let’s look at the differences between DIY termite treatment vs. professional termite control so you can understand all the pros and cons.
DIY Termite Control vs. Professional Termite Control 101
You might be wondering why your home needs termite control in Central or Southern Maryland in the first place.
You might even think if you suspect termites that buying a can of whatever product you find at the store can control it. Job done.
Well, that’s not a helpful strategy with termites. These products might help you kill the ones it contacts, but it won’t eliminate the termite colony. This would be like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.
Let’s look at three elements of a professional termite treatment so you can grasp what you need for 100% control.
What a Professional Termite Treatment Entails
For the best professional termite treatment, you want a comprehensive perimeter application.
This means that if your pest control pro finds termites present in your home or any signs of termite damage, they will conduct a treatment to eliminate the termites first. Then they will conduct a trench-and-rod treatment as a preventive measure to keep them away. During this service, the pest professional will dig a shallow trench around the foundation of your home and inject a termiticide every 1.5 to 2 feet along this trench.
This complete surrounding of your home is incredibly important in termite protection because a break in the perimeter means an entryway for termites. A service professional who knows what they’re doing will even extend this perimeter through driveways and walkways. To do this, they drill a small ⅜-inch hole every 18 inches and inject the termiticide.
The Products Involved in Professional Termite Treatments
While DIY termite control might involve a contact product that will kill a few termites here and there, professional applications involve proper termite inspection and identification to confirm your level of infestation.
Then the treatment is extremely thorough. On top of this, the pros use top-rated termiticides because no one wants to mess with serious home damage from termites. This treatment needs to work. The termiticides pest control companies use are those that termites pick up and take back to their colonies to wipe out the main population. They will also have longer residual, meaning they last more than a season, keeping your home safe.
Professional Termite Treatments Come With a Guarantee
Once you have a pest like termites that can destroy your home and cost you thousands of dollars in needed repairs, you want to know the treatment you employ will work.
This is why DIY termite treatments don’t come with a warranty, but quality professional termite control services do. Termite treatments typically range from between $10 to $13 per linear feet of your home’s perimeter. And the best services will come with a guarantee. For instance, Natural Green Systems guarantees its treatment as long as the homeowner keeps up an annual $125 inspection to ensure termite barrier treatments are still in place, doing their job.
These follow-up inspections are important with termite problems because things like weather can break down your barrier over time. Annual check-ins can ensure your perimeter remains intact so termites don’t return. Since termites like to come back to places they’ve found food before, this is an essential part of termite control in Central and Southern Maryland once termites invade your home.
Choosing Between DIY Termite Treatment Vs. Professional Termite Control
While it might be possible to find DIY termite control products at your local hardware store, termites are something you really don’t want to mess with. The more you let them linger, the worse your termite population and problem could get.
Choosing professional termite control in Central and Southern Maryland is the best way to eliminate your termite problem and then prevent any recurrences moving forward.
Termites are certainly tough to deal with. You don’t want the extra hassle of trying to combat them and failing only to have an escalated problem to handle moving forward.
If you still have questions and are unsure if you have termites or what you should do if you suspect them, give Natural Green a call. Our experts are pros at dealing with termite problems, and we’d be happy to take a look and let you know what we see and what kind of treatments and solutions we recommend.
Don’t let that terrible feeling that termites are lingering in your home keep you up at night. Give us a call today for a free termite inspection, and we’ll bring our proven termite control experience and create a custom plan for your Central and Southern Maryland home.
