Most houses these days are full of wood and this is an absolute delicious substance for some creatures.
Indeed, those houses that have lots of wood should invest in a termite and pest control program to make sure that their valuables do not get eaten away.
Termite bait is rather toxic to say the least but in the hands of the experts, this is probably the only way to keep these creatures at bay.
The creatures just love the cellulose in wood and must keep searching for new sources of food to keep the colony alive.
Once they have found a good source, unfortunately a house for example, they will burrow deep into the fabric of the building and keep eating.
They lay scent trails along their burrows to let other members of the colony where the food source is and this is why the common household spray will not get rid of them.
It may kill off the ones right there but there is sure to be a whole army coming up the rear.
Signs of infestation are rather easy to notice.
Sand like dust around the base of wooden structures, or even strips of painted wood which cave in when touched are two prime examples.
These creatures eat from the inside out so they virtually eat right up to the paint barrier.
This then means that this wood starts to get very weak so it could mean that the structure of the building will start to suffer in the end.
Many methods of eradication have been tried in the past and they have had some degree of success.
However, none of them have actually attacked the colony and it is here where the queen resides.
Even if most of her workers are killed off, this queen will still produce young for years and this is why an infestation is hard to stop.
Newer methods of eradication have taken the habits f these creatures into account and a rather innovative way of control was discovered.
Older methods would include digging deep trenches all around the infected property to form a circle.
Within these trenches, gallons of toxic chemicals were poured to form a toxic barrier to stop the creatures from getting to the house.
However, eventually the chemicals would break down and the whole thing would have to be repeated over again.
These days, tubes are sunk into the ground around a building at regular intervals and poison bait laid in them.
The habit of laying scent trails to a good food source made sure that they would keep coming back to this feeding station and leading others there too.
The queen would be taken food from this source and eventually would succumb to the poison.
Without this queen, the colony inevitably dies since it is only she who can lay the eggs.
The great thing about this method is that the tubes stay in position indefinitely while being monitored by operatives and computers to make sure that there is no re-infestation.
Historic buildings have used this method too since no trenches could be dug around them.