However Treviso themselves boast a three-match winning streak having followed up victory over Newport Gwent Dragons on December 1 with consecutive wins over fellow Italian outfit Zebre.
The Warriors gave away 18 penalties at Murrayfield last time out while Tom Ryder and Byron McGuigan were sent to the sin bin in their narrow 10-8 Heineken Cup defeat at Castres last month.
And Townsend knows if his side want to remain in the top four they cannot afford to keep gifting their opponents such opportunities.
"Our penalty count has been too high in recent games," said Townsend.
"We know we can't play with 14 men and we can't give the opposition easy opportunities to get in the game.
"Against Edinburgh at Murrayfield it was 18 penalties against us - and we had two yellow cards in our Heineken Cup game two weeks ago.
"I think, with Ulster running away with it just now, the target for a number of teams is getting second place and a home semi-final.
"Just now there's three points separating second from sixth, so five teams really in the mix.
"Treviso are the next team down. So if they were to pick up another couple of wins they would be in the top six as well.
"Our aim is to make sure they don't do that."
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