Eco Pest Control is the leading provider of the Sentricon termite treatment system in the greater Richmond, Virginia, area. Every termite treatment plan begins with a thorough inspection, and our service technicians are trained to not only notice the subtlest signs of a termite infestation, but also to observe risk factors that could lead to future problems with termites. In addition, all our termite technicians have advanced training in the Sentricon termite treatment system.
How the Sentricon Termite Treatment System Works
Sentricon is scientifically designed to eliminate the entire subterranean termite colony – including its queen. Even if you’ve bever had termites, you want to keep it that way. The Sentricon termite treatment system can be installed to both eliminate and prevent termite infestations.
To start, you should have one of our Certified Sentricon Specialists inspect your property for signs of termites. Leave it to us to leave no termite behind. Whether you are eliminating a current colony or preventing a future one, the Sentricon termite treatment system can help you with either – or both.
Once the bait stations are deployed, the termites eat the bait – which they prefer nearly 10 times more than wood – and share it with the colony. The active ingredient in Sentricon is noviflumuron, which gets shared within the colony and prevents termites from maturing through molting.
When termites can’t molt to grow, they die. When the colony dies, the queen dies.
Your home gains continuous protection year after year with ongoing service from Eco Pest Control’s Certified Sentricon Specialists and by simply keeping Sentricon stations in place. Your home is protected 24/7 from any future infestations. Talk about real peace of mind.
Key Benefits of the Sentricon Termite Treatment System
Trust the scientifically designed system most proven to destroy entire colonies – queen and all. After all, it’s not your house, it’s your home.
- Starting Now. Take No Prisoners. Using scientifically engineered bait to naturally enter their food chain, the queen and her entire colony are decimated. For good. And it begins working immediately if visible, active termites feed on the bait found in Sentricon’s Recruit AG above-ground stations.
- Green Chemistry Challenge Award. The original Sentricon termite treatment system is the only termite product awarded the EPA’s Green Chemistry Challenge award for superior environmentally responsible chemistry.
- Our Specialists Aren’t Just Trained, They’re Certified. Termites are too big of a threat for haphazard do-it-yourself attempts to protect your biggest investment. Our Certified Sentricon Specialists must pass intensive training on the installation and maintenance of complete home protection, keeping your peace of mind uncompromised.
- Science Trumps Termites. The science behind the Sentricon termite treatment system leaves termites helpless because they can’t tell the active ingredient is lethal. And in lab tests when given the choice, termites ate nearly 10 times more bait than wood.
Our termite inspection conducted by one of our specially trained exterminators will determine whether you have an active infestation. Our findings – along with your input – will help us develop a termite control plan that works for you. We offer several termite control treatment options, including the Sentricon termite treatment system, to provide you with the protection you need.
6 Conditions Making Your Home More Desirable to Termites
Sometimes it takes years before termite damage is spotted because they enter your home undetected and begin their damage deep inside your walls. Here are the six most common termite entry points found around your home.
- Trees & Foliage. That tall tree providing ample shade to your yard could also be providing termites an easy route into your home. Tree roots can grow 20 feet or more from the base of the trunk and can penetrate a home’s foundation. The closer the tree, the more likely there’s a root path into your home.
- Firewood Pile Against Home. When stored against a home or directly on the ground, firewood can lead foraging termites directly to your home. While the best termite prevention is the Sentricon termite treatment system, you can help deter their damage by storing firewood five feet away or more from your home and avoiding direct wood-to-soil contact.
- Mulch Beds. Mulch may pull your home’s landscaping together, but it can also create a termite’s ideal environment because it retains moisture. Make it harder for termites to find your home by leaving a few inches’ gap between the mulch and your home’s foundation or prevent their damage with the Sentricon termite treatment system.
- Basement and Crawlspace. Naturally occurring moisture in basements and crawlspaces can create the ideal environment for termites. Using a dehumidifier in your basement or installing vents and a polyethylene soil cover in your crawlspace can help reduce moisture, but the best prevention remains the Sentricon termite treatment system.
- Constant Moisture. Constant sources of moisture, such as an air conditioning drainpipe, provide termites with what they need to establish a secondary colony above ground and with no ground contact. Stay termite-aware by directing drainpipes away from your home and checking for leaks and termites regularly.
- Cracks in Foundation. Just because you have a concrete foundation or slab doesn’t mean you’re safe from termites. Moisture over time can develop tiny cracks in your foundation, and no crack is too small for a determined termite. It only needs a 1/16-inch-wide crack to gain entry, which is why you need to protect your home with the Sentricon termite treatment system.
Signs of Termites
How do you know if you have termites? While it’s always best to have an inspection done by a pest management professional, termites will occasionally leave clues. If you do investigate, here’s what to look for:
Swarming. Termites often swarm in warmer weather and after a rain shower to start new colonies. The swarming event can be brief, so even if you do not see flying termites, you are likely to see the discarded wings around windowsills, doors, heating vents, bathtubs, and sinks after a swarm takes place. Termite swarmers use their wings to move away from their original colony. Their wings break off and they pair up and find locations with a wood source where the male and female can begin a new colony. Whether you see the swarm or think there might have been one, call a professional immediately.
Mud Tubes. Foraging worker termites, the ones that eat wood to feed the rest of the colony, must stay in moist conditions and away from natural enemies such as ants. To get across barriers between the soil and the wood above, termites construct small meandering mud tubes from moist soil and excrement. The tubes are about the diameter of a pencil, though they can become wider. Tubes can be seen on foundation walls or inside walls, on plumbing pipes and spanning crawl spaces between the ground and the subfloor. These termite highways are a sure sign termites are or have been in the home.
Damaged Wood. Termites eat wood from the inside out along the grain, so damage often isn’t visible until it becomes significant. Termite inspectors often will tap to listen for hollow-sounding wall studs, baseboards, and floors. If the wood gives way, it may reveal a hollowed-out honeycomb pattern. The wood also will include some mud similar to mud tubes, plus live termites. Formosan termites are an especially robust, destructive species with large colonies. Walls of infested buildings may contain carton nests that hold enough moisture to allow the colony to live entirely above ground, sometimes causing bulging walls.
Live Insects. When building or remodeling in your home, keep an eye out for soft-bodied, light-colored insects about the size of a grain of rice. Termites avoid light, so they are seldom visible in open areas.
How to Identify Termites
Hollow wood in your home? Cracked or bubbling paint? Discarded wings? Learn how to identify the pests in your house.
Is It an Ant or Termite? Swarming termites and ants look similar and are easily misidentified. The clearest way to distinguish them is to examine the wings (C). Termite swarmers have two sets of wings of equal length. The front pair of wings on a swarmer ant is longer than the back pair. There are other distinguishing characteristics: An ant’s waist (B) is narrower than a termite’s waist. Ants also have a joint in their antenna (A), while termites do not. But here’s the biggest difference: Ants are usually just a nuisance. Termites damage your home.
Workers. Workers make up most of the colony because they are responsible for feeding it, including the queen. These soft-bodied, clear to light-colored termites are about the size of grains of rice. They rarely leave the dark, damp tunnels that run from the colony through the soil and into the wood of buildings. Workers continuously forage for food, maintain the nest, and tend to the queen and her brood.
Soldiers. Soldiers are the defenders of the colony. They have long heads and powerful jaws and are responsible for colony defense against natural termite enemies such as ants.
Reproductive Pairs (Swarmers). Male and female reproductive termites develop wings, leave the parent colony in a swarm, mate, and start new colonies.
The Queen. Hail to the queen! She is the largest and most important colony member because she can lay eggs at a rate of one every second – as many as a million eggs in her lifetime. She is large, up to four inches long, and can live for a decade or longer under ideal conditions. If she dies, a new queen will arise to take her place and keep the colony going, unless, of course, you have the Sentricon termite treatment system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if I think I have had a termite swarm in my home?
Swarming is a natural process that usually occurs in warm weather after a rain shower, as termite reproductives seek to start new colonies. If you see termites swarming, or merely find a collection of their discarded wings, call us. It could be ants. It could be termites. It’s important to get an expert inspection.
How do termites find the Sentricon termite treatment system bait stations?
Worker termites are constantly foraging for new food sources, even if there is an ample supply present. In fact, termites can forage distances greater than 100 yards as they search for new food sources. The Sentricon termite treatment system is designed so the bait stations intercept the random foraging patterns of the workers.
Is it okay for my kids and pets to play near the bait stations?
Yes. The stations are placed in the ground with only a service cover visible and require a special key to open. In addition, the active ingredient used in the Sentricon termite treatment system, noviflumuron, is designed specifically to disrupt the molting process that occurs only in insects and closely related organisms, not people or pets.
What will happen to my pets if they come in contact with the bait stations?
The quantity of active ingredient in each Sentricon termite treatment system bait station is so small that a dog would need to ingest approximately 200 of the bait station inserts – which is simply impossible – before becoming sick.
Is it okay to plant a vegetable and herb garden near the bait stations?
Yes. The active ingredient in the Sentricon termite treatment system is not systemic and will not be taken up by the plants, and the potential for leaching is extremely low.
Resources
- Environmental Protection Agency: Termites: How to Identify and Control Them
- United States Department of Agriculture: Subterranean Termites – Their Prevention and Control in Buildings
- National Pesticide Information Center: Termites
