Termite protection plans that keep Long Beach homes on a yearly inspection schedule

Sulfuryl fluoride gas reaches every piece of wood under the tarp, which is why fumigation is so effective against drywood termites. Once the tarps come off and the gas clears, though, nothing in the wood keeps new termites out. A swarm that lands on a fascia board the following September faces the same untreated wood it would have found before the tent went up.

New colonies grow slowly. It can take a few years before a young drywood colony produces enough pellets for anyone to notice. A house inspected every year during that window gets caught at the one or two kick-out hole stage, when a single drill-and-inject visit finishes the job. A house nobody checks may not show signs until the colony has spread across several rafters.

That is also why the first two or three years after a tent matter most. The house is clean, the record starts at zero and any new kick-out hole is easy to date.

Calling when you see something is reasonable, and plenty of homeowners do it. The trouble is that most visible drywood signs show up in places people rarely look: the top of attic insulation, the back of a garage shelf, the sill of a window behind a heavy curtain. By the time pellets reach a spot you walk past every day, the colony has usually been working for a while.

A scheduled visit flips that around. We go to the hidden places first, every time, and compare them with the last report. Small changes stand out because there is a record to compare against. Over several years that record also helps if you sell, since it shows the home was watched and treated promptly.

• Attic insulation surfaces under rafters and ridge boards
• Garage sill plates and the base of door jambs
• Crawlspace piers, girders and plumbing penetrations
• Fascia, rafter tails and window trim on sunny exposures

Inspections find problems, but some conditions invite them. Bare attic framing and crawlspace lumber can be sprayed with a borate product while the wood is unpainted, which makes it less attractive to termites and wood decay fungi. When we see a remodel exposing new framing, we often suggest a borate application before drywall goes back up. Borate cannot soak through paint or stain, so it only helps on bare lumber.

Moisture is the other half. Subterranean and dampwood termites need it, and wood decay fungus follows it. Sprinkler heads aimed at siding, a slow drip under a kitchen sink or soil piled against stucco all show up on plan reports as items to correct. Fixing them between visits makes the next inspection quieter and lowers the chance of treatment. We note each of these on the visit report with the location, so they are easy to find and fix.

Read what the plan actually covers. Some plans include only inspections. Others include treatment of new drywood spots within limits, bait station service, or coverage for subterranean activity only. Ask whether whole-structure fumigation is ever included or always quoted separately, and how the plan handles a finding in an area that was listed as inaccessible. Also ask how far apart visits are scheduled and what happens if a visit is missed.

Ask how renewal works, what the yearly cost will be if nothing is found and whether the plan transfers to a buyer if you sell. Ask to see a sample visit report. A plan is only as useful as the records it produces, so a clear diagram and plain notes after each visit matter more than a long list of promises. Plans with vague wording tend to cause disputes later, so clarity up front helps both sides.

Western drywood termites here tend to swarm on warm, sunny afternoons from late summer into fall, often just after the first real heat wave pushes inland air toward the coast. A plan visit scheduled for October or November catches fresh kick-out holes from those swarms while they are still easy to see. Homes in Belmont Heights, Rose Park and the Wrigley district, with 1920s framing and exposed eaves, are where we see that annual pattern most clearly.

Subterranean swarms come in spring after rain, typically February through May. Raised-foundation houses in California Heights and Los Cerritos, where mature landscaping keeps soil damp against stem walls, benefit from a spring crawlspace check. In the 1950s slab tracts of Lakewood Village and Los Altos, one visit a year is usually enough, timed after the fall swarms to look at attic framing, garage sill plates and slab edges where sprinklers keep the soil wet.