How do You Kill Termites Without Killing Plants? Three Natural Options
Trying to get rid of the termites near your home without destroying the flora you've worked so hard to cultivate? By following these steps, you can try preventing termites without harming your plants or your yard.
Looking to exterminate termites without killing plants in your home? Even though termites don’t eat live plants, their nesting and foraging habits make it difficult for your Daisies, Marigolds, and bamboo plants to thrive.
Yes, you can get rid of these insects, but a lot of pest control options only offer chemical treatments that can absolutely kill your garden. So what do you do? Are there other ways to kill termites without killing plants?
Fortunately, there are. Once you’ve identified the telltale signs of a termite infestation, you can get rid of termites without having to sacrifice the greens in your home. Here are the best ways to do it.
Use Termite Baits
The first treatment we’re recommending is baiting. It doesn’t use a flood of chemicals, so it gets the job done without killing plants.
If you haven’t heard about it yet and as you can guess from its name, this contraption baits termites and kills them. It’s a good tool to exterminate termites as well as to keep track of their feeding grounds.
Baits are classified into how they’re installed, below ground and above ground. To state the obvious, below ground baits are borrowed into the soil while above ground baits are positioned into termite-active areas that are located on the ground.
Here’s how you should use baits:
- Lure termites with prebaiting. Place stations with untreated wood or inspection cartridges in the soil, and just let termites get to them.
- Monitor how regularly termites feed in your stations.
- Make sure a lot of them are now regularly feasting in your wood monitors.
- Replace the monitor wood with the active bait, the one with the toxicant (a toxic substance that sticks to the termites and spreads into others to kill them).
These toxicants can eradicate colonies without killing plants. A lot of pest control services and homeowners have turned to baiting to get rid of termite problems without using harmful chemicals.
Use Orange Oil
Orange oil is famous for naturally exterminating termites. It comes from a plant itself, so it makes sense it wouldn’t be able to kill other members of the leafy kind.
Collected from orange rind, this natural termite treatment is sold for being chemical-free. It has D-limonene, a pest-control substance that melts insect’s exoskeletons. What it does is that it kills termites by destroying their exoskeletons and cell membranes. It also removes water and protein from their bodies and keeps them from feeding.
Orange oil works wonders without killing plants. Use it as a spray for termite-infested places, or bore holes into infested wood and pump orange oil into it. You can also pump the oil into termite infested trees as it won’t do anything to those tress.
Remember this though. For humans, orange oil can be dangerous. You should handle it carefully because it can irritate your skin and your eyes, and it can also cause an upset stomach if ingested.
Use Aloe Vera
Save your plants with another plant. Use Aloe Vera.
Sure, this one is a bit of a long shot, but it’s guaranteed to be harmless to your yard. Aloe Vera can exterminate termites without killing plants.
There are no special plant species to buy or unique treatments that you have to do. Just take an Aloe Vera from your garden, and cut off its leaves. Cut the leaves into little pieces and crush them with a pestle. Combine the leaves with a little bit of water following a 1:5 ratio. Put the mixture in a spray bottle, and spritz termite infested areas in your yard.
Because this natural treatment isn’t immediately potent, you have to repeat the spraying for several days.
Other Things You Can Do
Aside from these treatments, you can also play defense and prevent termites from entering plant-rich places in your yard. Here are some tips to keep termites from messing with your plants.
- Fix plumbing issues outside your house. Garden hoses, pipes and faucets should not leak and make puddles that soak into your soil.
- With that said, keep a close eye on your garden soil’s moisture level.
- Don’t over water your plants.
- Remove dead trees, rotting branches and any other dead wood in the yard.
- Don’t use termite friendly mulch. Use something like pine straw, which is termite resistant.
There aren’t many options out there to get rid termites without killing plants. As you’ve most likely noticed, a lot of the methods we mentioned are natural and can be done without help from professionals. But those are what make these treatments amazing because they’re harmless to nature and very doable.
Share this post
Save time and money on pest control
Subscribe to expert DIY pest control tips, pest control product reviews and information.