ATP: Termite inspections / treatment

Our house hasn't been inspected or treated for termites in many years. I have a company coming tomorrow to inspect our crawlspace and garage. I am expecting them to tell me I need expensive treatment(s) and/or that I have extensive damage that needs expensive repairs. I am cynical like that.

What experiences have others had - what advice can you give me - how do I tell if they are feeding me a line and selling me stuff I don't need? If they quote me things that cost a lot of money I guess I will get another company out to give me a second opinion...

I think there are at least two kinds of contracts. One is a guarantee that they'll repair or pay for any future damages. That's usually very expensive. Another is just a guarantee that if termites are detected while under contract, they'll retreat for no additional charge. That's a lot less expensive.

...When we lived in the sandhills we had the first type, now we have the second.


I'm happy with the second. They treated when we bought the house and come out once a year for a fairly small fee and do an inspection.

Termites aren’t real.

BiffTannen said:

Termites aren’t real.

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However, they will eat any wood parts of your house. Quite possibly while inside it and unseen. And furniture. Had a picnic table they attacked. If they can access water from it, they will attack anything made of wood. And that includes treated wood.

You can look for mud tubes yourself. If you find them. You have a problem. Professional inspectors are better st finding termites inside various wooden parts of your house. Termites are sneaky that way, until spring mating season drives them to head into the air for mating flights.

I've had drywood termites twice and subterraneans once. With the drywoods you will usually notice "coffee grinds" and wings on something like a windowsill. Both times we had to have the house (actually two houses) tented/fumigated. That's a real pain. With the subs, all of a sudden thousands of dead bugs with wings (swarmers) were on or around a window/wall. A pest control company put down Termidor and then did bait stations around the perimeter of the house.

For drywoods, you can't prevent them. They fly and/or get blown to the house and then you have to fumigate to kill them. Technically another swarm can show up the next day. Normally the company that fumigates will give you a warrantly/bond that you can renew each year for a couple of hundred bucks or so that will cover another fumigation, if you get them again. Allegedly drywoods are far less damaging than subs, as they eat slower and have smaller colonies.

For subs, the key is prevention. They come through the ground and create mud tubes on walls and such. They can be more damaging than drywoods. You can either do bait stations around the entire perimeter or have a chemical barrier put down. It seems there are pros and cons of both. I would do some net research to learn more about both options. Which is best probably depends on where you live and what type of foundation you have. Technically you can DIY for both options. If you don't have any now, buying and doing the bait stations is probably not too hard. Personally, I'll let the pros put down chemicals, if that is what is needed - especially since I have a crawlspace that I have no desire to crawl around in.

One last thing. You would probably already know if you have drywoods. Like I said, there will usually be a bunch of clear wings and what looks like coffee grinds on window sills. If a company claims you have them, make them show you that sort of evidence. If they claim you have subs, then they should be able to show you the mud tubes, or at least pictures of them, if they are someplace like under your house. If they say you are clear, there is nothing you can do for drywoods. For the subs, they will probably either try to sell you on the chemical barrier or the bait stations. You can probably look at the website for the company that is doing the inspection to see which they promote, and then do some research on that method.

well, from my experience they are two different things. terminix will come out and do an inspection under those contracts but not treat unless/until they see signs of infestation and then they will treat. i can't remember if that is an extra cost or not. i did the terminix thing when i was younger and found it to be an epic waste of money.

Just get a sentricon type system and pay $20 a month for it. It’s a good peace of mind vs termites.

Interestingly, the guy found no evidence of termites - even though we have moisture in our crawlspace and it hasn't been treated in over 20 years... Lucky I guess.

Otherwise our crawlspace is a shit show and need lots of other work. Drainage improvement, moisture barrier replacement, insulation replacement (squirrels are getting in a tearing it down), new window wells, etc. The squirrels are recent - I have been down there in the last year and the insulation wasn't down.

I will probably let them do some of the recommended work and do some myself. Their total estimate was over $8k...

We had a flea problem in our crawl space that was horrible to deal with. Some raccoons were able to break into the space, have babies and a few died as they couldn't get out (the ones that did were killed by our dog). With the raccoons came the fleas. So we sealed the crawl space to prevent breaks ins, and had to fumigate 4-5 times over a 2-3 month period to get rid of them.

The good news was the bug service we used covered everything, even the entomologist who they had to bring in for a consult. It was bad when he said "this is as bad as I've seen it"....

We use the annual service check for $100 and never had any issues on termites....When they handled the whole flea thing for no extra $, I was really happy.

CHDeac said:

We had a flea problem in our crawl space that was horrible to deal with. Some raccoons were able to break into the space, have babies and a few died as they couldn't get out (the ones that did were killed by our dog). With the raccoons came the fleas. So we sealed the crawl space to prevent breaks ins, and had to fumigate 4-5 times over a 2-3 month period to get rid of them.

The good news was the bug service we used covered everything, even the entomologist who they had to bring in for a consult. It was bad when he said "this is as bad as I've seen it"....

We use the annual service check for $100 and never had any issues on termites....When they handled the whole flea thing for no extra $, I was really happy.

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I bet that smelled nice. I had some animal die under the house several years ago. Talk about a gnarly couple of days. I don't recall it smelling inside the house, but it certainly did outside.