Wood-destroying insects, like termites, carpenter ants, and even certain types of bees, like carpenter bees and honeybees, can cause immense amounts of damage to your home, especially your roof.  Termites and other wood-destroying insects invade areas with rotted wood, mold, mildew, or dry-rotted spots.  These pests will create colonies nearby or within the wood, then continue to expand their colonies, creating an infestation.

 

Insects that can destroy your roof

If wood-destroying insects aren’t treated, they can cause significant structural damage to your home’s roof by creating punctures and holes, exposing the underlying wood to moisture and wood rot.

 

Termites

A termite infestation can make your roof vulnerable to collapse.  These pests can chew through insulation, which decreases your home’s energy efficiency by causing energy leaks and forcing your HVAC system to work overtime to keep it comfortable.  Roofing contractors caution against termites, who are usually drawn to areas of your roof that contain mold, mildew, or dry-rotted spots.  They build colonies within these soft, compromised materials, making your roof more vulnerable to collapse.  These critters also tend to chew through insulation, making your home less comfortable and energy efficient.

To determine if you’re facing a termite infestation, call a professional to inspect the roof. If they say that the termite infestation is limited, then it’s possible to spot-treat the affected areas with chemical or non-chemical treatments, like insecticide, silica, liquid nitrogen or borate dust. While it’s possible for you to conduct the treatment on your own, this is a task that’s always best left to a professional exterminator.  If the issue is severe yet contained, on the other hand, you can always have your Deegan roofer remove the ruined wood and replace it with pressure-treated lumber, which is equipped with insect repellents that can prevent future infestations.

 

Carpenter ants

Carpenter ants are wood destroying insects, and they love wet wood.  These areas of wet wood are plentiful in homes where roofs are at the end of their life.  If you think logically that vast majority of homeowners are not itching to get a new roof.  It’s done normally because there is a need.  That need is usually precipitated by finding a leak.  Some of the areas that are most likely to have water damage and leaks are also the hardest areas to access.  One such area would be skylights.  At least a few times per season we’ll have a homeowner call and say that they see ants inside that are falling from the ceiling.  More often than not the home has a cathedral ceiling, and the culprit is either the roof peak or a skylight.

 

Carpenter bees

Carpenter bees do not live in colonies like honeybees or bumblebees.  The adults overwinter individually, often in previously constructed brood tunnels.  Those that survive the winter emerge and mate the following spring.  Fertilized female carpenter bees then bore into wood, excavating a tunnel to lay their eggs.  The entrance hole in the wood surface is perfectly round and about the diameter of your little finger.  Coarse sawdust may be present below the opening, and tunneling sounds are sometimes heard within the wood.  After drilling in a short distance, the bee makes a right angle turn and continues to tunnel parallel to the wood surface.  Inside the tunnel, about five or six cells are constructed for housing individual eggs.  Working back to front, the bee provisions each cell with pollen collected from spring-flowering plants and a single egg, sealing each successive chamber with regurgitated wood pulp.  Hatching and maturation occurs over several weeks, with the pollen serving as a food source for the developing larvae.  Later in the summer, the new generation of adult bees emerge and forage on flowers, returning to wood in the fall for hibernation.

During the spring, people often notice large, black bees hovering around the outside of their homes.  These are likely to be carpenter bees, named for their habit of excavating holes in wood, in order to rear their young.  Carpenter bees prefer unpainted, weathered wood, especially softer varieties such as redwood, cedar, cypress and pine.  Painted or pressure-treated wood is much less susceptible to attack.  Common carpenter bee nesting sites include eaves, rafters, fascia boards, siding, wooden shake roofs, decks and outdoor furniture.  Carpenter bees create tunnels through the boards and beams of your roof, which weakens the structure.  To make matters worse, woodpeckers feast on carpenter bee larvae, and they may peck through the wood to find their food source.  As a result, you may notice punctures or sagging in your roof.

 

Honeybees

A very common place to find bees around your home is actually inside an eave or roof.  Do not attempt to remove the bees yourself or spray them with pesticides or water.  This will only anger the bees and they will be likely to attack you.  Since, there could be as many as 40 to 60 thousand bees in your eave, they will need to vacuum up or sprayed if inside the attic, the honeycomb should be removed as well.  It’s best to hire a professional bee removal service to handle this type of situation.  Things can get really messy and sticky quickly if not done right.

Bees often go inside attics or parapet walls on the roof because of the elevated location and protection against predators.  They prefer being inside as opposed to being outside, nonetheless bees can build on the outside but it’s not nearly as common.  Inside bees have protection from the rain & sun.  They love to build honeycombs inside of structures, this way they can attach the comb to the walls.  To clean out honeycomb from an attic or parapet wall the roof or wall must be cut open.  This allows access to the hive.  The comb is then carefully removed.  It’s not uncommon to remove honey and comb that weighs up around 150 pounds or more.

The honeycomb must be cleaned out and wiped down then inside the roof sprayed out with deodorizing sealer.  Next the void is packed with insulation to occupy the area, then framed, re-roofed and placed tile back or patch a foam roof or Stucco wall.  Honeycomb left in walls or roofs should be removed to prevent meltdown of honey. In the summer months it’s common to have honey leaking out of the walls and roofs.  This always attracts more bees.  Unborn larva can often have foul orders that can permeate through the walls.  It also prevents future infestations as well as other insects that may be attracted to the sweet honey.

If bees infest your house by climbing inside your roof or walls, they can leave a stream of destruction in their wake.  The weight of the honeycomb they build and the honey itself can cause structural damage to your house.  Honey and honeycomb can also stain, or even ruin, your shingles and the tar or felt paper underneath them.  Honeybees don’t simply burrow through a hole in your house and make a nest to fit the space.  Rather, the bees will chew up and remove almost anything in their way.  This means the bees can attack insulation, chew it up, and take it outside to make room for their nest.  You could peel back a section of your roof only to find it full of honeycomb underneath.

 

Contact us

Insects that can destroy your roof

Deegan Roofing can perform an inspection of your roof and repair any damage. Don’t wait for the uninvited guests to move in, call Deegan Roofing for a well-designed roofer’s control program.  We can advise you if you need to remove your shingles or not.  We are family-owned and operated, Deegan Roofing Company has been installing and servicing residential and commercial roofing customers in the New Jersey area for over 30 years.  If you are concerned about your roof surviving the upcoming winter weather or are currently experiencing roofing problems, it’s never too late to contact Deegan Roofing to get your roof inspected before winter.  Website https://www.deeganroofing.com/  Address345 Terrill Rd, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 HoursOpen 8:30 AM ⋅ Closes 5:30 PM

Phone(908) 322-6405

 

Animals That Can Ruin your Roof Bergen County

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