The Horrible Hidden Damage of Termites in Tucson, Arizona

It all began yesterday when I started looking for my old high school yearbooks in the closet, where I thought I had put them years ago to store.

Hindsight is 20/20 and the optimist in me now says, "I'm so glad they weren't in there."

What I found in one corner of the top closet, hard-to-reach shelf was horrible and depressing.

Tucson, Arizona as part of the southwest is very well-known for having problems with termites. Termites are wood-destroying insects and they are very common in the southwest because it is so dry here. They go after dry wood, including certain types of furniture and now it's clear to me, dry paper too.

When the area they 'work' in is visible they are very easy to recognize. They make very thin, round tunnels out of mud and they can easily be spotted hanging down from the ceiling and/or along the wall. When the tunnels are noticed the mud is dry and when closely inspected you might be able to see little white specks of the drywall in them too. The termite's tunnels usually catch your attention as something you're not used to seeing in that spot and then you say to yourself, "What's that?" If you let them be, those tunnels have been known to hang down so low that they hit people in the head. That sounds so disgusting to me.

Termites seem to be more active during our monsoon - rainy season. They use the wet, or damp dirt from the ground to make their tunnels. Termites live in colonies in the soil. Some termites are blind and I've heard the majority of others hate light.

If you look at a termite close-up they are very very small and white, or light tan in color. Termites are known to be very weak and fragile insects. They are very easy to kill and will crumble between your fingertips. I don't recommend you put them directly in your hands though because that is disgusting to me - unless you have a strong stomach. If you break one of their tunnels in your hand, it will easily crumble too and you will find several termites inside. When you remove the tunnel where it first starts at the base of the ceiling, or the wall you'll see the termites entered the house through an extremely tiny pin-hole they made. I had read that termites build these tunnels to protect themselves since they are so weak and fragile.

If you look at a termite magnified, that magnified size equals the damage they do.

I have heard that people in the southwest have lost the entire structure of their home to extensive termite damage. If you remember the actor, Lee Marvin, he is one of those people I heard had lost his home to termite damage here in Tucson, Arizona. I know like me, when you see those little termites and their little tunnels you can't imagine that something so small can be very damaging, but it is so very true.

Termites make their way up from the ground - usually starting under a home and form tunnels all the way up the timbers and beams and/or up the inside of the wall and into your home. I often wonder how they know exactly what route to take to get to your indoor object which they set out to get to and damage. It seems they know exactly where their destination is.

Our last experience with termites here in Tucson, Arizona was about 5 years ago. I happened to notice their tunnels in a corner of a room hanging from the ceiling and a few along the wall. After having a previous experience with them shortly after we moved here many years before, I knew I couldn't just let them be. I knew the only way to get rid of them was to call an exterminator and I did. I did quickly too because I feared the non-visible damage they could be doing. I knew the treatment was going to be expensive, but I didn't have a choice.

I researched different termite treatments online and I choose the effective barrier treatment, which was much more expensive, but 5 years later I can say, very well worth it.

With the barrier treatment, the exterminator drills holes around the entire concrete base of the outside foundation of the house and then pesticide is injected through a tube into the soil beneath the concrete slab. The holes are about a foot apart from each other. Included in this barrier treatment, the exterminator made trenches a few feet away from around the entire house and filled those trenches with pesticide also.

The exterminator I chose was Truly Nolen and after 5 years I still have not had a recurrence of termites. Thank goodness. I also took out their extended protection plan every year for the first few years afterwards. With the protection plan an exterminator come out every year to make sure you haven't had a recurrence of termites and if you call because you have, treatment cost is covered under the plan.

During those 5 free-and-clear years of not having a recurrence of termites I thought I knew about all the damage the termites had done, when I last saw them inside my home. That is, as I said at the beginning of this article, until yesterday - the day I decided to look for my old yearbooks.

I'll sum it up by saying that last bout of termites destroyed my collection - a collection of books and record holders which for some were 100 years old. The damage I found was so depressing to me and at the same time, very disgusting. I wasn't able to save any of it. The books I enjoyed as a young teen were totally destroyed. Three volumes of Italian bibles and old record holder albums were destroyed. My hobby collector's book and a few college textbooks were totally destroyed too. To briefly try to explain the destruction, if you are familiar with a little storage case that looks like a book on the outside but when you open it is totally hallow to store things in it, that's what all of these items looked like after the termites had gotten to them. Nothing to almost nothing left on the inside and most of the front and back covers destroyed too. Whatever little paper was left totally crumbled in my hand and onto the floor. For the paper I could still see, the pages were filled with burrowing holes and marks of mud. All of the items actually looked like they were in a fire.

Please look at my 5 photos to see the horrific book damage done by the termites.

It took me all day to clean up everything. I had to vacuum the shelf and wall where the books. I couldn't get all the dirt off, but I did the best I could. I can't tell you how many times I had to sweep the floor where I went through everything to look at the damage and throw everything away. Afterwards I was even left with allergies I guess from the dust from the dried dirt and the destroyed dried paper. I actually had allergy pains in my chest and stuffiness in my nose.

I'd love to say if only.... If only we had stored useless magazines in that corner of the closet shelf instead of collectibles. I have to realize that no matter how many years ago I would have decided to look in this hard-to-reach area of the closet- since the termites were noticed inside and treated, I would have still found the same damage. I did always glance up there and from the exterior everything looked fine. There's nothing I can do about the damage now. What's done is done. There isn't any point in getting upset about it and all I can do is take future precautions. To stay positive, I did find my yearbooks in another location and I'm very grateful they weren't in that closet - where I thought they were.

Oh well...it could have been a lot worse. Even though all I lost were collectibles, they were only paper.

Lately, as they build homes they are now using pretreated beams. If you are building a home now, make sure the beams are pretreated against termites. You can also ask and verify that it is with the builder. Even if pretreated beams are used, I would still always watch out for termites here in the southwest.

At the first sign of termites inside and/or around the outside of your home call an exterminator immediately to get rid of them. Keep a close eye from the inside of your home on cracks in the foundation and water line areas. How can you see them around the outside of your home? You might notice tunnels along logs, tree stumps, or tree parts on the ground. Also keep a close eye on plumping leaks and lines. When treatment is necessary, especially have those areas inside and out treated.

If you are interested in using Truly Nolen as I have, their toll-free telephone number is: 1-800-468-7859 (1-800-GO-TRULY). You can find discount coupons on their website at: www.trulynolen.com.