Termites are one of the deadliest pests that can damage your household furniture. Once infested in any of the furniture at your home or office, it can spread promptly and cause massive damage. One of the biggest threats of termites is that, it’s hard to notice, unless you pay attention. And usually by the time you notice its presence, it may have caused the damage to your furniture.
But protecting your furniture from termites is not so difficult. One of the best ways to protect wooden furniture from termites is to get occasional pest control done at your home or workplace. There are specialist pest exterminators that offer termite treatments services and help you protect wooden furniture from termites.
But there are other ways to protect wooden furniture from termites and deal with them easily. If you have recently done interior work at your home and want to ensure your furniture remain protected from termites then you must read this post till end. In this post, we are going to discuss widely on the simple ways in which you can protect wooden furniture from termites easily.
Ways to protect wooden furniture from termites
You never know, termites can get into your home and attack wooden furniture. If your furniture has not yet been infested by termites, then you can protect it with a little bit of precaution.
And here’s what you can do to protect wooden furniture;
Protect from moisture
Moisture contents in wooden furniture can invite termites and hence if you want to protect your wooden furniture from termites, make sure it’s not moist. Firstly, wooden furniture doesn’t needs to be cleaned using water or any other liquid cleaner. Just a normal dry dusting or dry cleaning using a microfiber cloth is enough. And in case your home suffers from seepage problem, especially during the rainy season, then do something to solve the issue lie sun drying
Use Aloe Vera
Did you know that aloe vera can be used to protect wooden furniture from termites? All you need to do is take an aloe vera and crush it till the gel inside it is released. Now after taking out the gel, rub it all over the wood furniture. Aloe vera gel basically creates a barrier that termites will never cross, or won’t be able to cross.
Olive oil and white vinegar
Another way to protect your wooden furniture from termites is by applying a mixture of olive oil and white vinegar. What you must do is make the mixture and apply it evenly on the wooden furniture you want to protect from termites. This mixture too acts as a barrier, and it will repel the termites quickly and easily.
Wood polishes
There are certain wood polishes available in the market, which can protect your wooden furniture from termites. You may not be able to polish it all alone and that’s not a problem because you can hire a carpenter for a couple of days and get all of the furniture polished. It works to a great extent and help in protecting wooden furniture from termites.
These are some of the best techniques that can help you in protecting your home and office furniture. But what if you already have termite infestation? How do you deal with the situation and get rid of termites on your own?
6 things you can do to treat termites on your own
If you find any sawdust type of material or discarded wings lying near your wooden furniture, and cracked and damaged paint finishes on your furniture, then surely your furniture are suffering from a termite infestation.
Inspect
The first step you need to take to protect wooden furniture in your home is by inspecting them thoroughly. You need to inspect your wooden furniture first, because you need to know the root cause of damage. Sometimes it is just dampness which damages the wooden furniture, and maximum of the time it is a pest infestation that damages the furniture. So, inspect the root cause, and then accordingly deal with the problem.
Cardboard trap
Wondering how cardboard can help you get rid of termites? They can, because they have cellulose present in them, which attracts the female termites. And it also gives out a woody smell, which the termites cannot resist. So, to make a cardboard trap, just spray a little water over it and make the smell more powerful, and then place it near the target area. After few minutes or hours, you’ll see that the termites have assembled over the cardboard. Just dispose the piece of cardboard (the trap) or better burn it.
Put the furniture under sun
Termites hate sunlight; in fact they die under sunlight. So, what you can do is place your effected wooden furniture under the sun, and let the scotching sun beam kill this dangerous wood eater. Try this out on a summer day, when the sun is heated at its best. And this procedure will also help you to beat the moisture within your wooden furniture, so that the termites cannot thrive there any further.
Oil treatment
There are varieties of natural oils that can be used to cure a termite infestation. But the best natural oils are neem and orange oil, which can eliminate these pests quite easily. You can use orange oil to kill termites, since this oil contains a compound called D-limonene, which is very powerful and can effectively kill termites. You can also use neem oil to kill termites. But what you have to do is repeatedly keep applying the neem oil in the termite colonies, until and unless the entire colony is eliminated.
Use borax
Borax is a common treatment for eliminating or killing termites. What you can do is either spray Borate solution on the affected wooden furniture or paint the infested area with the same solution. If you want to spray the solution, then spray it directly in the tunnels made by the termites. And if you paint the furniture with Borate solution, then it will definitely eliminate these pests, and the furniture will be protected from further infestation.
Use pesticide
There are plenty of anti-termite pesticides available in the market, which can be used to kill these pests effectively. But, you have to be very careful while handling them, as the chemicals used to kill termites are very poisonous and can affect your health severely. So read the label and instructions before using any chemical.
Over to you
Precautions always pay and if you are a little alert, you can easily protect your wooden furniture from termites. Don’t store junk and other woods that may have termite infestation in your home and backyard. Discard damaged wooden furniture if you don’t plan to use it and especially if there are termites in it. If you keep in it in the backyard or garden area, it may invite termites and once infested, they may spread to other furniture very quickly. Avoid moisture, use oil and natural products like aloe vera etc.
Look around carefully and if you find sign of termites, get help from termite expert or try some of the techniques we have discussed. You house is precious and so are the furniture and its does not make sense to tolerate termites. You better deal with it.
What else do you think one can do to protect wooden furniture from termites?
