Termites are a particularly destructive household pest that can cause severe structural damage to wooden surfaces within your home. Termites can also be notoriously hard to remove, since the size of their colonies can vary widely. Therefore, the best form of pest control against termites is proactive prevention against them. Understanding the variety of ways that you can keep termites out of your home can help prevent damage and expensive repair and removal in the future.

Reduce Moisture

Like many other types of pests, termites thrive in humid and moist environments. In order to make your home a less hospitable environment for them, you may want to reduce the amount of ambient moisture in the air, and address any potential leaks within your home. This means getting a professional plumbing inspection done to see if there are any potential broken pipes or pinhole leaks that could attract termites and other pests, and installing dehumidifiers in particularly humid areas of your home, to dry the air out.

Put Food Away

Another important, but fairly simple, thing that you can do to reduce the likelihood that termites will find their way into your home is to remove any potential food sources. Covering up leftovers and keeping them in the fridge, using locking containers for any dry goods, not leaving pet food out, and regularly cleaning your dishes and removing trash are all great ways to minimize the potential of pests entering your home. Additionally, for termites in particular, you'll want to remove any organic debris, like loose firewood, newspapers, and bark from your home, and either keep them inside, or cover them and store them in a rack that is raised off of the ground, to make them inaccessible to termites.

Inspections

You will also want to inspect the weatherstripping around your doors and windows for any potential openings or gaps caused by damage. You can replace weatherstripping by simply peeling it off by hand. Replacement weatherstrippoing is available at most hardware stores, and it can be secured to the edges of your doors and windows using the adhesive strip on the back, without making use of any specialized tools. You'll also want to inspect the various wood structures within your home and around the exterior of your house, to see if there are any signs of termite infestation, which will take the form of multiple small holes and tunnels dug into the surface of the wood. If you see any of these signs, contact a pest control specialist immediately to treat the affected area.

For more information, visit sites such as http://www.albemarlepestsolutions.com.