Termites in Guelph
Most people think of termites as tropical bugs, but they appeared in Guelph in 1975, and by taking advantage of centrally-heated buildings, they've managed to survive and spread, even through our cold winters.
Termites first arrived in Ontario around 1930, at the docks in Toronto. They have multiplied into dozens of communities including Guelph, and because their main food source is wood, they have done a lot of damage to real estate here. This has been a major headache for a lot of homeowners, since a house affected by termites can be reduced in value by 10% – 25% or even more.
So if you are a homeowner or investor in Guelph real estate, what do you need to know about termites?
Affected areas in Guelph
The good news is that there are only two small zones that are colonized with termites in Guelph. Houses in or near these areas should take extra precautions to prevent termite infestation, but every homeowner should know what to look out for in case the problem spreads.
Because paved streets form natural barriers to the spread of termite colonies, the infestations tend to be contained within city blocks. Houses within the infected blocks, and in the blocks neighboring them, are at greatest risk of termite damage.
Termites don't tend to swarm in northern climates, so most of the spread of termites in Guelph comes from people moving infected wood to new areas. Wood chips and mulch, firewood, dead trees, stumps and even transplanted bushes can be sources of infection – a small piece of wood with as few as 15 termites in it can be enough to start a new colony.
Preventing termites in Guelph real estate
The best way to deal with termites is to prevent infestation in the first place. If you follow these guidelines, you will significantly lower your chances of having termite trouble:
- Keep any wood on your property a minimum of 6 inches away from soil contact. If you have lumber or firewood stacked outside or in crawl spaces, lift it off the ground with concrete blocks. And make sure that any structural wood has a masonry foundation that comes at least 6” above ground level.
- Control moisture. Keeping your basement dry and well-ventilated will make it much less attractive to termites. Immediately repair any leaks in your roof or plumbing system, and keep your gutters & downspouts clean. If you have an air conditioning system, make sure it drains at least 5 feet from the house.
- Cut back any trees, bushes or ivy to prevent contact with the house – termites can use these as entry points as well. And any wooden fences should have at least 6 inches of clearance from the house.
- Don't use wood or bark mulches in your garden beds. As far as possible, avoid having any wood products on your property at all. Cardboard, newspapers and cotton can also be eaten by termites so they should be removed too. Keep in mind that if you are in a termite-control zone, there are regulations about removing any of these materials from your property.
The City of Guelph has the following contacts for more information:
Chad Parker, Termite Control Officer
(519) 837-5615, ext. 2379
Email: cparker@city.guelph.on.caBruce A. Poole, Chief Building Official
(519) 837-5615, ext. 2375
Email: bpoole@city.guelph.on.ca
How to recognize a termite infestation
The type of termites found in Guelph are called Eastern Subterranean Termites, Reticulitermes flavipes. The workers are about the size of a grain of rice, and translucent white in colour. They are shaped like ants, but with straight antennae and without the ant's narrow waist.
You won't find termites just crawling around in your basement. To live, they need an environment that is dark, moist and high in carbon dioxide. So from their underground colony they build mud shelter-tubes to travel to their food sources. It's often these shelter-tubes that are the first sign that termites are present.
Once the damage gets more advanced, the other symptom of termites is areas of wood that become rippled where they've been eaten away from below the surface. Often the face of the wood is just paper-thin, and a knife or screwdriver can easily gouge out large sections of wood, revealing the termite tunnels inside.
By choice, Guelph termites tend to eat softwoods like pine and spruce, and the faster-growing hardwoods like silver maple. But if they have no other option, they will also eat cedars and hardwoods as well. They can also chew through other materials like foam insulation, plastic and plaster to get to a source of food.
To inspect for termites, look for the characteristic mud tubes or rippled wood in these areas:
- any wood in the basement or crawl space, including window frames, wall studs, beams and joists;
- exterior wood around the house, such as decks, support posts, door and window frames;
- foundation walls, especially around cracks and expansion joints; and
- any other wood on the property, such as firewood, lumber, plant boxes, compost bins, fence posts and tree stumps.
A pocket knife or screwdriver is useful to test wood for damage; if there is bark on the wood it should be pried off to check for termites underneath.
What to do if you discover termites in Guelph
If you see any of the above signs, don't panic. They may be old evidence of a colony that is no longer there.
And even if you do find live termites, the rate that they eat wood is quite slow – it can take three to five years for them to cause real damage to your woodwork, so there is time to assess your options.
The standard technique used by exterminators to deal with termites is to soak the soil all around the property with insecticide, to a depth of ten feet, and inject insecticide throughout affected areas in the home.
This is not only a very expensive and messy process, with no financial assistance from the Municipality, but from an environmental point of view it's also extremely damaging.
And the termites often come back.
If you have a property with a termite infestation, or that’s on a block in the danger zone, then please contact us. We want to work with other homeowners and real estate investors in Guelph to eradicate entire colonies. We are gathering names of interested parties who'd like to completely eliminate termites from Guelph, working on a block-by-block basis.
The technique we intend to use was developed by an entomologist at the University of Toronto, who uses traps to collect live termites, then treats them with a slow-acting insecticide and re-releases them so that the insecticide gets spread throughout the colony.
This method uses about 0.01% of the quantity of insecticide used in traditional methods, and is far more effective. Please contact us if you are interested in joining this program and protecting your real estate investment.
If enough homeowners on your block are willing to contribute, this program will be much less expensive and more effective than if you just have your own home treated by an exterminator.
To read more about environmentally friendly methods of termite control, this page from the University of Georgia is a great resource.
And please get in touch with us if you'd like to join forces to help control termites in Guelph.
