Frequently Asked Questions
About the Drywood Termite Video
Q. I had a couple of pest control companies come out and inspect. They explained that I can save a lot of money if I just spot treat my drywood termites instead of fumigating. I had another company come out and they told me that I should do a heat treatment instead of fumigating. Still another company told me that fumigation is the only way to totally eliminate drywood termites. Can you tell me who is correct, and can you explain how drywood termites work?
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A. It is important to understand how drywood termites work. They enter through cracks and crevices around windows, doors, eaves, pipe penetrations, and so forth. Most of the time, they enter through several locations. That is because a swarm of them attacked your house at the same time. If there was a crack or a crevice, then they probably found it. After they establish their galleries, which will be inside the wood, it will take four to seven years for them to be able to swarm. Now that they are in your house, the swarmers will use holes that are in your studs to travel through the walls. Those holes in the studs were created by the electricians to run the electrical wiring. Not only are these holes going through the studs, but holes were drilled into the attic for the light switches and to run some of the wiring for the outlets. So, the termites now have easy access throughout the attic and the walls. If you have a basement or crawl space, they have access to that as well. Most of the time, you will have no idea that they are in the walls, because the frass is inside the wall. To make matters worse, if you have drywood termites, then your neighbors have them too. That means you have been getting swarmed for as long as they have existed in the neighborhood. Most likely, we're talking about years, so it's a safe bet that you have these guys in many locations in your home.
This is not what folks really want to hear, but if you have drywood termites, the only sure way to get rid of them is to fumigate. Prices for this can vary wildly in this industry, so you would be wise to watch Guy's video on how to hire a pest controller without getting ripped off. That video may save you a lot of money. You should also know that the gas they use to fumigate has absolutely no residual action whatsoever, so you can get reinfested the moment the tent comes down. Again, if you have drywood termites, then your neighbors have them as well. Since drywood termites swarm every year, it is almost a certainty that you will be reinfested within a year after the fumigation is done. The only way to prevent this is to do a preventive treatment on your house every 60 days. Most pest controllers will not do this, so it is something that you generally need to do yourself. Guy has a video on how to do that and there is a link below. This is a generic video that covers a lot of different pests, but it also works for preventing drywood termites. Just ignore the part about treating your yard. You only need to treat the house for drywood termites. This will not treat the termites that are already there, but it will stop new ones from getting in.
If you absolutely cannot afford to fumigate your house, then you can try spot treating it yourself. It is virtually impossible to find all the termite galleries, but it is way better than doing nothing. You can also hire a pest controller to spot treat as well, but even the best of the best pest controllers cannot find all the galleries. That is because a gallery may be as small as the size of a peanut.
With regard to heat treatments. It is a fact that heat will kill drywood termites. The problem is that you need to heat the termites to a temperature of at least 120° for at least a couple of hours. This is not so easy to do because the termites are typically located in the center of the wood, and wood is a natural insulator. That means it is difficult to heat. This problem is compounded by the fact that there's often insulation surrounding the wood, not to mention drywall. Further, there will often be drywood termites located in the fascia boards, roof rafters, sheathing under the exterior siding, and other difficult places to heat. Some companies will put a tent over the house to contain the heat, but not all companies do it this way. Some companies simply attempt to heat the house from the inside. Obviously, failing to tent the house is going to fail because you are not going to adequately heat the areas just mentioned. Even if you tent the house, it is not enough to raise the temperature to 120°. You need to get the temperature to 120° inside every single piece of wood in the entire house. So, the question becomes, “How do you know if you accomplished this?” There is no practical way to determine if the center of every piece of wood in the house reaches the desired temperature. Therefore, this process is hit and miss at best. It can be successful sometimes, but it is not a sure thing. Also, these high temperatures can cause damage to electronic equipment and that sort of thing, so those things need to be removed from the house before the treatment is performed. Keep in mind that, if you want to reach the desired temperature in the center of all the wood, the actual temperature in the building will need to be much higher than 120°. If any component in that house does not reach the desired temperature, then the process may fail because a gallery was missed. Fumigation on the other hand is a sure thing. The gas goes right through everything and there is no escaping it.
The advantage of using heat instead of fumigating is that the turnaround time is much faster, and the process is going to be much safer. However, the cost of both of these treatments is probably going to be very similar. If you fumigate, Guy always recommends staying out of the house for at least 4 days after they tell you it is safe to go back in. There are accidents that happen every year, and some people have died because they went into the structure too soon after the fumigation was done. If you wait an additional 4 days, then the gas will certainly be gone by that time. So, if you do it right, then fumigation is perfectly safe. Guy always tells people that you should plan a two-week vacation if you're going to do fumigation. If you go with heat, it is pretty much safe to go back in after the process is finished, but it is unlikely that this process will eliminate all the galleries. For that reason, Guy does not recommend using heat. His opinion has always been, and still is, that fumigation is the only sure way to eliminate drywood termites.
Regardless of how you treat it, you should begin the preventive treatment immediately, so that you do not get additional termites paying you a visit.
Video on how to hire a pest controller without getting ripped off: https://youtu.be/y-a8XOqVrlE
Video on how to prevent drywood termites: https://youtu.be/Yozv3s-Qwlw
Video on how to spot treat drywood termites: https://youtu.be/U7ck7zhS0Xo
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Q. I decided to go ahead and fumigate. Can you give me any advice about how to make sure my family is safe?
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A. Guy recommends that you stay out of the house for several days after they tell you that it is safe to go back in. They will often tell you that it is safe just a couple of days after the tent comes down, but there are accidents every year. They have equipment to tell if the gas is gone but it doesn't always work. A good rule of thumb is to wait an extra 4 days after they tell you it is safe to re-enter.
Also, purchase bed bug mattress covers from Amazon and put them on the beds before the fumigation is done. These covers will prevent the gas from entering your mattresses. It is unlikely that you have termites in the mattresses. You may have them in the box springs, but not the mattresses. So do not bag the box springs. The gas they use will penetrate mattresses, and sometimes that gas gets trapped in the mattress and an accident can happen while you are sleeping.
They are supposed to put an agent in the gas that will make you sick before you get seriously ill. So, if you feel like you are getting nauseous, or you feel any irritation in your eyes, airways, or your skin, that is probably not your imagination. You need to get out of the house. They usually add chloropicrin, which does have an odor to it. So, if you think you smell something, then it would also be wise to get out of the house. The fumigation gas is typically sulfuryl fluoride and that is odorless. The bottom line is, if you smell anything or feel sick in any way, then get out. Ask the company to check one more time and tell them that you became ill, or you smelled the gas when you were in the house. You do not need to be frightened by the gas, but you should respect it. Fumigation is perfectly fine to do, and it is perfectly safe, as long as you take the proper precautions. Staying in a hotel room for an extra 4 days is a very good investment, and it will just about ensure that you will not have any unfortunate problems.
Tented homes are also a target for burglars. So, I suggest that you purchase a Blink camera from Amazon. Keep it turned off until the fumigation is finished and then turn it on. You can do that from your cell phone. The crooks always go for the bedrooms first, so place the camera near your bed. The camera will notify you if anyone goes in the room and it will record it as well. You can see on your phone if someone is in there and you can then call the police.
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Q. I live in a townhouse, and we have an infestation of drywood termites. The other owners are not willing to do a fumigation. Is there any way for me to treat this infestation myself?
A. This is a question that I get a lot. I am always somewhat reluctant to answer it because my answer is usually not what people want to hear.
The truth is that there really is nothing you can do to eliminate an infestation in the situation. You can hire somebody to do a spot treatment, or you can do this yourself. I will give you a link to my video on how to do a spot treatment yourself. Part of that treatment needs to be treating all wood surfaces in the attic with Bora-Care. This is also covered in the video. If you have a crawl space, all the wood under the building needs to be treated with Bora-Care as well. This is going to significantly slow down and reduce the amount of damage that is being done, but it will not completely stop it.
Assuming that you do a good job treating the attic and the crawl space, you will render those parts of the building termite proof. However, it is virtually impossible to find all the galleries that are in the walls because some of them can be the size of a peanut. They will get larger overtime, so you will need to routinely be inspecting to try to find them. This is also true if you have a finished basement or a two-story home. It is very difficult to find galleries above the ceiling. That space is entirely enclosed, so there's no way to effectively apply Bora-Care. So, you need to use similar tactics that you use for the walls to try to locate galleries in the ceiling. It's much harder though because you cannot even listen for frass falling. You need to rely on tapping on the ceiling and listening for hollow sounds. The fact is that you are just not going to hear that with small galleries. Therefore, this will be an ongoing and challenging thing for you to do, and you need to do it at least once a year.
The only good news about drywood termites is that they are very slow eaters, and it takes a long time for them to do structural damage. Sooner or later though, if left unchecked, structural damage is most likely going to occur. Even if you do a perfect job with the spot treatment and the Bora-Care application, your neighbors probably will not do the same thing. Therefore, there will probably come a day when your neighbors experience some sort of structural failure. Depending upon where that happens, it is possible for that structural failure to affect your unit as well. While I think this may be a worst-case scenario, a structural failure in an adjoining unit has the potential to make your unit unlivable. It all depends upon a variety of factors that are unpredictable.
Even if every one of the owners agrees to do a fumigation, you are all going to be reinfested within a year. So, the problem will start all over again. There is a way to prevent this from happening, but it is unlikely that every single owner is going to do it. Preventing drywood termites requires a treatment to the outside of the entire building every 60 to 90 days. Pest controllers will almost never agree to do this treatment. Therefore, you would be relying on all your neighbors to pull it together. I don't think I like the odds of that actually happening.
This brings me to my recommendation and the part that most people don't really want to hear. Owning a townhouse in an area where there are drywood termites is not a good idea. In my opinion, you are basically living in a building that has the potential for a structural failure. Not only is this unsafe, but it can be financially devastating as well. Again, this can take years to happen, but I think eventually the termites are going to win. For that reason, if you live in a townhouse that is primarily constructed of wood, then my advice would be to sell your unit and seek to buy a single-family home. Since you probably do have the luxury of time, now would be a good time to start saving to do that and look into arranging the financing. As soon as you feel that you are in a financial position that will allow you to sell your unit and purchase a single-family home, I would advise you to do that.
I am so sorry that you are dealing with this problem, and I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but this is exactly what I would do if I were in your situation.
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How to Spot Treat a Drywood Termite Infestation Yourself. A MUST see if you have Drywood termites.