Water-Conducting Fungus Infestation
When most people think of a pest infestation, they probably
think of creepy crawlers or stinging insects. But, fungi are
considered pests too.
Four years ago, Lloyd Pest Control, a family-owned business
serving Southern California for more than 80 years, inspected a
house and found a drywood termite infestation. Four years later,
the company was called again because the house went up for sale and
it required an escrow termite inspection.
When the pest control team arrived to perform the inspection, they
determined that *poria incrassata, a water-conducting fungus that
feeds on dead wood, was present along the corner of the house since
the exposed surfaces of damaged wood had wavy grain in the thin
Unfortunately, the owners already had a construction crew working
to repair the existing termite damage and they inadvertently ruined
the ability to track the rhizomorph, a dense mass of filaments
forming root-like structures, to the ground in order to find the
Lloyd Pest Control filed a report and recommended that the
homeowners contact a poria expert because the fungi can spread and
cause significant damage to the home if left untreated. Usually,
infestations occur near areas of excessive moisture. Typically, an
infestation will begin in dirt filled porches, damp crawl spaces
and basements where wood is in contact with the soil.
*Poria is not the most common type of wood decay, but it's the
most destructive. The fungus is a special brown rot that occurs in
the Pacific coast, northeastern and southeastern states.
Thank you to Jamie Ogle and
Lloyd Pest Control for sharing this Extreme Infestation
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