Drywood Termites

Tenting is the answer when drywood termites are in areas you simply can't reach with local treatment — inside inaccessible framing, spread through the attic, or showing up in several different spots around the home. Local/spot treatments (foam, Bora-Care, drill-and-inject) only work when we can physically reach each infested piece of wood. Once the activity is widespread or hidden inside the structure, whole-structure fumigation is the only method that penetrates all the wood at once and reaches every colony. A thorough inspection tells us which situation you're in.

This is the part most homeowners aren't told: a standard tent fumigation has NO residual protection. The gas kills every termite inside the wood at the time of treatment, but the moment the tent comes off, nothing stops a new drywood swarmer from flying in and starting a fresh colony — literally the very next day. Fumigation is a reset, not a shield. That's exactly why we recommend our Prevent-the-Tent options, which add ongoing protection so you're not left wide open the day after treatment.

Prevent the Tent™ is our program built around the gap that fumigation leaves behind. Instead of (or alongside) a one-time tent with zero residual, we use targeted no-tent treatments and ongoing protection so drywood termites can't simply re-infest after treatment. It's designed to keep you protected long-term — not just clear for a single day. See our Prevent the Tent page for how it works.

Not always. When the activity is limited to accessible wood, we can often treat it directly with no-tent methods — foam and dust injected into the galleries, Bora-Care wood treatment, or heat — and skip the tent entirely. Tenting becomes necessary when the infestation is widespread or in wood we can't reach. We recommend the least invasive method that will actually solve your specific situation.

Frass is the single most recognizable sign. Drywood termites push their droppings out of tiny 'kick-out' holes, leaving small piles of hard, six-sided pellets that look like coffee grounds, sawdust, or coarse sand — often on a windowsill, baseboard, or floor beneath infested wood. If you're sweeping up little piles that keep coming back, that's drywood termites.

Over time, yes. Colonies grow slowly but throw off swarmers that start new colonies in other pieces of wood around the home — which is how a problem in one window frame becomes activity in the attic, doors, and furniture. That spread is exactly what pushes a home from spot-treatable to needing a tent, so catching it early matters.