After An Exterminator Rids Your Home Of Termites Can The Damaged Wood Be Repaired?
If you find extensive termite damage within your home, then the only thing you can do is hire a local pest control professional to rid your home of termites. But how can termite related damage be repaired once a home is free of termites? In some cases a call to a nearby handyman is required. However, some forms of termite damage can be repaired without the assistance of a handyman. Although minor wood damage can be repaired by yourself, minor termite damage can be hard to spot.
Termites love wood, more specifically they love the cellulose inside of wood. Wood typically contains forty to fifty percent cellulose, more than enough to satisfy a termites hunger. If you are unaware of what termite damage looks like, and are therefore, unsure if calling a handyman is necessary, then keen an eye out for the following signs of termite damage: termite trails, feces, eggs, and even dead termites.
Termite trails are digested wood residue. This residue looks like a powdery substance that forms a trail along your wood. Termite feces are often not recognized as such. Termite feces often appear as tiny pellets or sawdust. Termite feces is officially referred to as “frass”. Termite eggs are, as you can imagine, very small, but they look like tiny insect eggs. Dead termites may also not always resemble termite corpses on account of their small size. But looking closely at what looks like tiny dead insects will often reveal a termite infestation.
If pest control professionals eradicate your home of termite during the early stages of infestation, then you can use wood hardener to obscure minor termite damage on your wood. Simply fill in wooden dents caused by termite activity with store-bought wood hardener. Allow time for the hardener to dry. If the damaged part of your home is often walked over, then use a blow drier to speed up the drying process. Once the wood hardener dries, sand over the repaired wood. Once this process is completed, then your wood will look as though it had always been free of termites.
Have you ever repaired termite damaged wood on your own? If you have, then what did you use?
