Whenever you cut down a tree on your property, you'll be left to decide what to do with the stump. Some homeowners opt to let the stump remain on their property, but that's often not a good idea. Wood-boring pests are attracted to tree stumps, particularly when they start to decay. Some of these wood-boring pests can cause considerable damage to your home and lawn. Having a stump grinding service remove the stump will prevent damaging pests from using it as a nest and food source. To learn more about why you should have tree stumps immediately removed, read on to learn more about three pests commonly attracted to tree stumps and the damage they can cause.
1. Termites
Tree stumps on your property will attract termites, and these pests pose the biggest threat to your home. Subterranean termites are the species capable of causing the most damage — most wood-boring pests only eat dead wood, but subterranean termites are capable of eating wood while it's still alive. They'll start to colonize a tree stump as soon as the tree has been cut, and the stump will provide them with the perfect location to build a very large colony.
Large colonies of subterranean termites can quickly cause damage to your home, since they'll eat its wooden structural framing like your roofing beams and your wall studs. Grinding down the stump on your property will prevent a large colony of subterranean termites from invading it and building a nest there, which protects your home from being damaged by a termite infestation.
2. Carpenter Ants
Once a tree has been cut down, the stump will decay — there are no longer any tree leaves to provide the stump with nutrients. Once it decays, it's open to a carpenter ant infestation. Carpenter ants only eat dead or rotting wood, so they don't pose as much of a danger as subterranean termites. However, they're more mobile than termites, and the damage that they cause to a home is often hidden. If you have any wood in your home that's been damaged by moisture, such as a rotting rafter in your attic caused by a roof leak, carpenter ants will burrow into it and begin to eat it.
Since carpenter ants burrow into rotting wood and eat it from the inside out, it's difficult for homeowners to detect carpenter ant damage until a significant amount of damage has already been done to the wood. You can minimize the risk of a carpenter ant infestation and subsequent damage by having a stump grinding service remove the stump before it has a chance to decay.
3. Tree Grubs
Tree grubs are the larval form of woodboring beetles, and they're another pest that is attracted to decaying wood. Tree grubs eat decaying wood and roots, and woodboring beetles (the adult form) eat dying or stressed trees. An infestation of tree grubs can cause a substantial amount of damage to your landscaping, as they'll eat roots and cause your plants to die off due to a lack of nutrients. Woodboring beetles will attack trees on your property that are dying or stressed after being trimmed, and they'll eventually kill the trees entirely as they eat them. While these pests don't cause damage to your home, they can slowly ruin your landscaping by causing your plants and trees to die off.
If you have a tree stump on your property, you're much more likely to attract damaging pests. Call a stump grinding service in your area and have the stump removed to protect your home and your landscaping. Allowing a stump to sit on your property without removing it opens you up to a serious pest infestation, whether it's termites that can damage your home or tree grubs that can ruin your lawn.
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