Discover What Pests Can Live In Your Home Because Of Moisture Conditions
There can be many pest related issues that will develop in your home, if your home has moisture problems in any way.
Often times homeowners will not even realize they have moisture problems until they see swarming insects or find evidence noted by a home inspector.
Throughout this article you can see what common insects will invade your home and what it means if they create an infestation.
There are certain forms of powder post beetles that are known as the Anobiid Beetle.
These beetles will commonly create an infestation in timber, such as a support beam, if it has high moisture content.
This timber has to have a moisture content of fifteen percent to thirty percent for the beetles to have an optimal environment to reproduce and lay eggs.
After they have laid eggs on some moist lumber, they will enter into it in their larva form.
When they are in their larva form they will move around in the lumber for about three to five feet and live in this material for three to five years.
Once their metamorphosis has complete and they turn into an adult, they will exit out of the lumber and leave behind a little hole about the size of a poppy seed.
After they exit, they can soon reproduce and grow exponentially if the lumber still has their ideal moisture content.
The Moisture Ant is another insect species that will create colonies in moist lumber.
They are their because the lumber has become moist enough to develop a fungus.
That fungus coming from the moist lumber is their food source.
So they are not there to destroy timber like the Carpenter Ants, they are only there because of the moisture content that has caused the wood to develop their food source.
Many times these ants will appear next to a plumbing leak or the weather side of your home where the rain hit the siding.
In some cases they appear in garages when form boards are still left after the concrete slab was poured.
The long-term treatment for these ants, as well as the beetles mentioned above, would be to correct the moisture problem by replacing the wood, or creating a dry environment.
Often times the beetles will develop in a crawl space area that has improper ventilation.
This could be do to the lack of air flow through vent screens, or by not having a vapor barrier on the ground to keep the moisture in the soil from coming up.
Now that you know about common pests that are drawn to moisture problems, you will have a better understanding of what needs to be done if you were to ever have an issue.
Often times homeowners will not even realize they have moisture problems until they see swarming insects or find evidence noted by a home inspector.
Throughout this article you can see what common insects will invade your home and what it means if they create an infestation.
There are certain forms of powder post beetles that are known as the Anobiid Beetle.
These beetles will commonly create an infestation in timber, such as a support beam, if it has high moisture content.
This timber has to have a moisture content of fifteen percent to thirty percent for the beetles to have an optimal environment to reproduce and lay eggs.
After they have laid eggs on some moist lumber, they will enter into it in their larva form.
When they are in their larva form they will move around in the lumber for about three to five feet and live in this material for three to five years.
Once their metamorphosis has complete and they turn into an adult, they will exit out of the lumber and leave behind a little hole about the size of a poppy seed.
After they exit, they can soon reproduce and grow exponentially if the lumber still has their ideal moisture content.
The Moisture Ant is another insect species that will create colonies in moist lumber.
They are their because the lumber has become moist enough to develop a fungus.
That fungus coming from the moist lumber is their food source.
So they are not there to destroy timber like the Carpenter Ants, they are only there because of the moisture content that has caused the wood to develop their food source.
Many times these ants will appear next to a plumbing leak or the weather side of your home where the rain hit the siding.
In some cases they appear in garages when form boards are still left after the concrete slab was poured.
The long-term treatment for these ants, as well as the beetles mentioned above, would be to correct the moisture problem by replacing the wood, or creating a dry environment.
Often times the beetles will develop in a crawl space area that has improper ventilation.
This could be do to the lack of air flow through vent screens, or by not having a vapor barrier on the ground to keep the moisture in the soil from coming up.
Now that you know about common pests that are drawn to moisture problems, you will have a better understanding of what needs to be done if you were to ever have an issue.
