Subterranean Termites come from nests in the soil and find their way into your home through earth to wood contacts, cracks in the foundation or by building mud tubes over concrete footings to reach their food source. Most structural attack is from one colony. The colony will forage through the soil up to 100 yards from the nest site. Infestation of your structure generally starts near the ground level and progresses to upper wood members. Infestation is often attracted by moisture leaks and heat. Infestations may be found in areas adjacent to plumbing or where water heaters, wall heaters, floor heaters or fireplaces raise the temperature of adjacent soil. Infestation will often go unnoticed for long periods of time. As a result, significant damage may have already occurred before the infestation is discovered.

Drywood Termites colonies directly infest the wood members of your structure and do not require contact with the soil to survive. Most construction lumber is susceptible to attack by Drywood Termites (see table below). Infestations are commonly found in attic, wall and floor framing. Infestation is often first notice by "frass" or fecal droppings which begin to appear after 2 to 4 years of infestation. Drywood Termites will make a hole in the surface of the wood and push these fecal pellets out one by one until a pile of hundreds or even thousands form. After approximately 5 years of infestation, the colony will begin to produce reproductives (kings and queens) which will swarm out and infest adjacent wood members. An infestation is usually not discovered for 5 to 10 years and multiple colonies have already infested. This makes any kind of localized treatment a constant battle as undiscovered colonies continue to emerge.

Subterranean Termites nest in the ground and usually feed on wood sources in the ground or in contact with the ground. Generally, the colony is located between 3 and 30 feet below the soil surface. Western Subterranean Termite colonies are fairly large. These colonies average over 200,000 termites, some colonies counting into the millions. Their behavior is similar to ants in that when they locate a food source, they will lay down a pheromone trail straight back to the colony to communicate where the food source is located. Due to this behavior and large colony sizes, when a Subterranean Termite colony attacks a significant amount of infestation and damage can occur in a short period of time.

Drywood Termites nest above the ground and feed on any dead wood. They are naturally found in dead wood of Pine and Almond trees in our area. The milder and more humid coastal climates support Drywood Termite colonies best, but are also found throughout the inland areas. Colonies are fairly small in comparison to Subterranean Termites and usually reach an average of 2500 termites in a well established colony. Their biology is slow when compared to the Subterranean Termite. Significant structural damage will often take 10 to 20 years. However, we have discovered significant structural damage in some 30 to 50 year old homes. Damage is often first noticed in door frames, window frames and eave overhangs.

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