Termite Control

Termite damage is slow and quiet, and by the time it shows it has been going on for a while. Say what you have found and a licensed exterminator can come out and inspect before anything is treated.

(888) 217-6291

No obligation for the call.

Subterranean or drywood

Subterranean termites live in the soil and come up into the structure, building mud tubes along a foundation wall or up a pier. They need contact with moisture, which is why the treatment is a soil barrier or a baiting system around the outside of the house.

Drywood termites live inside the wood itself with no soil contact, and they leave small piles of hard pellets below the damage. The treatment is different: local injection, or fumigation where the infestation is spread through the structure.

Activity and damage are two separate questions

An inspection answers whether there are termites in the structure now. It does not tell you how much wood has already been lost — that takes opening things up, and it is a contractor question rather than a pest control one.

Treatment stops the activity. Repair is separate work with a separate invoice, and on an older house it is usually the larger of the two numbers.

What a report is and is not

A wood-destroying insect report records what the inspector could see on the day. Every one of them lists what could not be inspected — behind finished walls, under insulation, inside a crawl space too tight to enter. That sentence is where the risk sits, and it is worth reading before the rest.

If the report is for a sale or a loan, ask what form it is issued on and how long it stays current before you book.

What to say when you call

What you found: mud tubes on a wall, discarded wings on a windowsill, hard pellets on a floor, or wood that sounds hollow.
Where — a foundation wall, a window frame, a crawl space, a deck post.
Whether there is a swarm, and whether it happened indoors.
Whether this is for a sale or a refinance, because the paperwork changes the timing.

What happens after the call

1. Describe what you have seen What it looks like, where in the home it turned up, and when it started. That is usually enough to narrow it down on the phone.

2. A technician inspects the property Inside, around the outside, and in the crawl space or attic where the sign usually starts. Identification comes before treatment.

3. The treatment is quoted before it starts What the pest is, what the treatment involves, how many visits it takes and what it costs — explained before any work begins.

Ready to call

Say what you have found and where in the home it turned up. That is usually enough to narrow it down on the phone.

(888) 217-6291

No obligation for the call.

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