Watch Hoarding on Sundays @ 9pm! For more information, visit http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/hoarding-buried-alive.

But take a closer look. Do you see them now? Swarms of termites infesting this tree on a college campus!

Billy Tesh went to visit his daughter, a senior at the University of Alabama, for a fun and relaxing weekend. What he didn't expect was to encounter the most destructive wood-destroying pest in the United States during his stay.

The President of PMi Pest Management Systems, Inc., a full-service pest control company that has been serving the Piedmont Triad area since 1984, spotted hundreds of bugs flying around while parking his car to go to the school's football game. He decided to follow these bugs to find out the source, a base of a tree adjacent to the Bryant Denny Football stadium where he observed them feeding on the wood. He identified these distinctive creamy brown bugs as Eastern Subterranean Termites.

While there is no report of the infestation being treated, Billy Tesh's encounter is a good reminder that termites can often be found in unexpected places and may cause serious destruction. Subterranean termites can collapse a building entirely, destroy plastic plumbing pipes and even damage swimming pool liners. Their hard, saw-toothed jaws work like shears and are able to bite off extremely small fragments of wood, one piece at a time.

Termites are known to cause financial ruin for homeowners, as most insurance policies do not cover damage created by this pest. In fact, termites generate more than $5 billion in property damage every year. As a result, prevention is key in avoiding an infestation in and around your home.

To help prevent termites, it is important to prevent water from accumulating around the foundation of a home or building by diverting it away with properly functioning downspouts, gutters and splash blocks. In addition, it is recommended to reduce humidity in crawl spaces with proper ventilation. However, the most essential step is to eliminate wood contact with the soil by maintaining a one-inch gap between the soil and wood portions of the building.

* Subterranean termites live in underground colonies or in moist secluded areas above ground that can contain up to 2 million members. They build distinctive "mud tubes" to gain access to food sources and to protect themselves from open air. For more information on termites, please visit PestWorld.org.

Thank you to Billy Tesh of PMi Pest Management Systems, Inc. for sharing this Extreme Infestation story.

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 veneer.

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 source.

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 story.

This photo depicts a severe case of bed bug droppings found on the mattress.

This photo depicts a metal box found under the bed covered with bed bugs.

*Bed bugs received their common name from their habit of feeding on humans while they sleep in their beds. They are an extremely difficult pest to control and require the help of a qualified pest professional. For more information and prevention tips, please visit AllThingsBedBugs.org.

Thank you to Rose Pest Solutions for sharing this Extreme Infestation story.

If you think it is dirt...then think again.

The thick brown perimeter along the home is actually a massive colony of Caribbean Crazy Ants* extending eight inches wide and three inches deep.

This population of Caribbean Crazy Ants infested a Jacksonville, Florida mobile home in August 2010. They were found by following multiple trails of the foraging workers from a nearby wooded area.

Massey Services, a company with more than 75 years of experience providing residential and commercial pest control services, was called in to round up the troops. The pest professionals controlled the area for several weeks using a customized treatment plan, which included the use of professional grade products around the perimeter of both the structure and the lot.

Luckily, the ants are rarely known to sting or bite and did not cause any permanent damage to the home or fence. However, they did prove to be a heavy nuisance to the homeowner with an infestation that rapidly grew out of control.

*Crazy ants get their name because they are known to run in an erratic, jerky manner when searching for food. The colonies tend to be small, composed of up to 2,000 workers with 8 to 40 queens.

Thank you to Massey Services, Inc. for sharing this Extreme Infestation story.