Termites in Furniture

"Wayne shifted from Dallas, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota a month back. While picking up his furniture from Dallas, the pick-up truck was also carrying furniture of another guy from Houston who also wanted his stuff to be taken to Minneapolis. Couple of weeks later, Wayne realized that there was some inexplicable sawdust around his sofa. He called up the local carpenter and told him about it. The carpenter came and checked out the sofa and told Wayne it was termites..."

Sounds familiar? Termites, like other pestilences travel from one parent to another and destroy all that comes in their path. But how do termites get into the the low moisture areas? Well a breed of drywood termites, as they are popularly known as, do not only survive in low moisture, but happily nest and breed too. And termites do not always limit themselves to one piece of home furniture. They venture outside the furniture in which they have made their home, and explore new wooden pastures, and meticulously destroy all wooden furniture that comes in their way. Termites spare nothing, not even the wooden roof over your head and hence, an infestation of drywood termites in furniture must be done away with, as soon as possible, to stop further damage.

How to Treat Termites in Furniture?

Step #1: Identify the Termites in Furniture
How do you know if you have termites in your furniture? There are some telltale signs to diagnose this problem. The most obvious is, if you see some chipping away in the furniture. Among the more subtle signs that termites leave, you may see some inexplicable sawdust or drywood termite fecal remains around your furniture. This is one of the most telling signs that your furniture has termites.

Step #2: Assess the Extent of the Damage Made by the Termites in Furniture
The next step is to assess the damage made by the termites in furniture. If its an inexpensive furniture I suggest you simply chuck it out, as treating termites in furniture is a reasonably expensive exercise. But if your favorite antique furniture is infested, you ought to treat it. I also suggest that you check up the other pieces of furniture for termites too. If you think that the infestation is limited to only one piece of furniture, it can be treated locally. If the infestation has spread to other furniture items then you might need to treat the whole house. Read more on pest control.

Step #3: How to Treat Termites in Furniture
There are several ways to treat termites in furniture and there are some natural and non-chemical ways of doing that too. If the infestation is localized (only one piece of furniture), then you can keep the wood furniture in a room which you can keep heated up to 150 degrees for about 3 hours. Alternatively, termites cannot survive in extremely cold temperatures either, so you could keep the infected furniture in a temperature below 15 degrees for about 4 days. But these treatments may damage your furniture, so be careful with them. If you want to go through the chemical way, you can purchase a termite-killing kit, online. It is a simple matter of injecting a chemical into the part of the furniture, where the termites are nesting. After injecting the chemical killer, make sure that you cover that piece of furniture or isolate it in a non-wood surrounded room, otherwise the termites will only migrate to other furniture. If the problem is not localized and the termites have spread to your entire house, the best option you have is to call the termite killing companies. Depending on the extent of the infestation they may go for a liquid termite treatment, termite baits, borate treatment or fumigation. They will have to quarantine your house for 3-4 days to kill the termites. And for the time being, you will have to stay somewhere else as termite eviction is an intensive job. They might even cover your house to ensure that the termites don't spread into the neighborhood. If you interested in knowing the costs you can read more on termite treatment cost.

Step #4: Learn Your Lessons
Where did the termites in furniture come from? And how can we avoid them in future? This is a lesson which you have to learn to avoid future occurrences of termites in furniture. Termites could have come, if your furniture came in contact with someone else's furniture. If you have some old cardboard boxes lying around, then the termites could have even come from there, as termites live in those boxes too. If you have purchased second hand furniture, then you have to check that up for termite infestation too. Another lesson you ought to learn is that you need to keep an eye on your furniture to ensure that you get rid of termites while they are localized rather than when they have spread to other pieces of furniture.

Termites in furniture is pretty much a national phenomenon now. It is essential that everyone keeps an eye on their furniture to check the growth of termites and kill them before they kill your furniture.