Termite Questions & Answers

Look for seven things: mud tubes on the foundation, pepper-like pellets that pile up again after sweeping, wood that sounds hollow when tapped, winged swarmers, piles of shed wings, blistered paint, and doors that suddenly stick. Any one of them is worth a professional look.

Drywood termites live entirely inside the wood and leave pellet piles below small kick-out holes. Subterranean termites live in the soil and commute up mud tubes to feed. Bakersfield has both, and each needs a completely different treatment.

Check three features. Termite swarmers have straight antennae, four equal-length wings, and a thick straight waist. Ants have elbowed antennae, mismatched wing pairs, and a pinched waist. A close photo is usually enough to settle it.

An inspector works through the attic, crawl space or slab edges, garage, eaves, and exterior wood looking for live termites, damage, and the conditions that invite them. A homeowner inspection is free and ends with a written report, not a pitch.

For homeowners checking their own house, yes. Inspections tied to a home sale are different: those produce a formal WDO report for escrow and are a paid professional service.

An escrow inspection produces a formal wood-destroying organism report that becomes part of the transaction, with findings split into California's Section 1 and Section 2 categories. It runs on the closing timeline and is billed as a professional service.

No. Tenting is for drywood infestations that are widespread or unreachable. Confined, accessible drywood activity can be spot-treated without a tent, and subterranean termites are treated at the soil, where a tent accomplishes nothing.

Spot work usually finishes in a few hours, a liquid soil treatment in about a day, and whole-house fumigation around three days. The treatment overview page on this site compares all the methods side by side.

They can. Treatment kills the colony that's active, but new swarmers fly every year, and nothing makes a house permanently invisible to them. Periodic re-inspection is how treated homes stay protected.

No. The colony lives in the soil outside the tent, so the gas never reaches it. Subterranean termites are controlled with liquid soil barriers or baiting systems at the ground.

About three days: tenting on day one, aeration on day two, and clearance testing on day three. Plan for two nights away with pets and plants.

No. The fumigant is a gas that dissipates completely during aeration and leaves no residue on surfaces or fabric. Bagging food and medicine beforehand is the only protection the job needs.

It kills everything in the structure at the time, but it leaves no lasting barrier. A new colony can start years later, which is why periodic inspections remain standard after any treatment.

Convention, not law, sets the shelf life. California escrows typically work from reports under 90 days old, and a deal that drags past that should expect a re-inspection before closing.

Findings are routine in Kern County and escrow has a standard path for them: negotiate the items, complete the work, document it with a completion certificate, and close. Deals get hurt by late surprises, not by findings themselves.

Almost never. Policies classify termite damage as preventable maintenance rather than a sudden loss, so it's excluded. Early detection through regular inspections is the realistic protection.

Usually, yes. Sound-enough wood can be reinforced, and spent wood gets cut out and replaced, from fascia boards to subfloor sections. The order matters: treat the termites first, then rebuild, or you'll buy the same repair twice.

Skip the spray. Collect a few swarmers in a bag or take a sharp photo, note exactly where they came out, and book an inspection while the evidence is fresh. The emergence point tells an inspector where the colony is.