No Vacancy

What would we do without termites? Without termites and other wood destroying organisms, the world would be covered with fallen, diseased trees. Termites are an important part of a healthy ecosystem.

Mankind’s problems with termites have everything to do with termites’ inability to know when to stop, to distinguish between what we want them to eat, and what we want them to stay away from: our homes.

But don’t blame the termite for doing what comes naturally. Consider our contribution to the problem:

We love to plant gardens around the foundations of our homes. To suppress weeds in the garden and retain moisture, folks add various kinds of mulch to the beds, the most popular of which are pine straw and wood chips, pine bark, and shredded cypress.

These decompose over time, and additional mulch material is added. Over time, a thick blanket of decomposed cellulosic thatch forms, which absorbs moisture and chemicals, and provides an insulating blanket of darkness and warmth.

These three elements of cellulosic food source, darkness and moisture are what termite monitors are made from! Folks have unwittingly been turning their most valuable asset – their home – into a giant termite monitor. For more information, please go to http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef639.asp

It’s not just termites that are attracted to this environment, either. Consider this: Roaches, spiders, ants, mold, mildew, fungus… they all thrive in the warm, moist, darkness we create for them. It’s only a matter of time before they cross the threshold into the house and we, taking notice, begin to bomb them with chemicals.

An ounce of Textraw prevention might be worth several pounds of chemical cures. That is why Textraw is partnering with the pest control industry with a new program which we call No Vacancy! Textraw is partnering with pest control companies to provide their customers with Textraw at a discount. Because the green solution to pest control begins right outside your door.

For those who use their own landscape professionals, or choose to install Textraw themselves, the important thing to keep in mind is to strip the beds down to the soil before installing Textraw. And to get the additional advantage of maximum weed suppression, broadcast a pre-emergent such as Preen to eliminate any latent weed seeds in the soil.