Termite and Pest Control Questions, Answered Straight.

Yes. What you need is a whole house treatment, not a spot job. We treat as much bare wood as we can reach. The attic, the crawl space, inside the walls. That does two things. It kills what's in there now, and it protects that wood from them coming back. There are reasons we'd tell you to fumigate instead. But if you'd rather not tent, we can still do it your way. It may just take us longer to get everything under control.

Tenting means tarps over your house and poison gas pumped inside, along with chloropicrin. It kills what's in there. The problem is what happens next. The moment that tent comes off and you can go back in, the termites can go back in too. There's no residual. Nothing left behind. When we treat a piece of bare wood, the borate soaks into the wood and stays. Nothing is known to take it back out. So the first difference is longevity. The second is you never leave. Your family and your pets stay in the house the whole time. You don't pull the screens off your pool cage. You don't cut down the shrubs against your house so the tarps don't kill them. And you don't have a two hundred pound man dragging a two hundred pound tarp across your roof.

Depends on what you've got. If your house is loaded with colonies, I'd take the tent all day long. Not because it's more effective. Because it's quicker. If you've got three colonies, tentless kills them and protects that wood for years after. And they will come back. They always do. That's why we back it with a warranty you can carry for life, so we keep coming back and checking. How your home is built matters too, and how many separate colonies you're dealing with.

When that's what you want. Nothing else matters if that's the call you've made, and we'll say so plainly. There are times we'll tell you ourselves that you need to fumigate. We've got no problem with that. But we don't know which one your house is until we come out and look. That's the honest answer. We simply don't know until we get there.

No. We've treated homes with a customer on oxygen. Homes with a fish tank in the room. Pets, kids, everybody stays. We'd rather you step out of whatever room we're working in, but that's it. You're not packing up your family for three days at your mother-in-law's.

It comes down to the size of the house. We go by square footage under roof, not just the heated and cooled part, so your porch and your garage count. A few things move the number. A crawl space. A wood frame home. A big attic instead of a normal one. Once in a while a house has colonies in so many different spots that it changes things, but we don't see that often. Once we get out and look, we can tell you exactly.

Here's something most people don't know. Very few companies do their own fumigations. They hire a fumigation company and mark it up, same as any contractor would. So a job the fumigation company prices at three thousand can land on your quote at five or six by the time it gets to you. That's not a knock on anybody. That's just how the work moves. Ask who's actually doing your fumigation before you sign it.

Two different reasons, depending on which treatment. On fumigation, it's usually the markup from subbing the work out. On tentless, it's that very few people treat the entire house. Most do a spot treatment. They hit the hotspots where you found something instead of protecting the whole home. That's a lot less product and a lot less time, so of course it's cheaper. It's also a different job than the one we're doing.

There is, and that's true at any company. The treatment is the big piece up front. After that there's a yearly renewal that keeps the warranty alive. Think of it like the warranty on a television more than insurance. You're paying to keep coverage in force. In our case you can carry it for life, and that part is optional. It's your call.

Drywood costs more. That surprises people, and it surprised me. When I started in 1986 it was the other way around. Different bug, different work, different way of measuring it. Subterranean gets priced on linear footage around your foundation. Drywood gets priced on the space inside your house. Different state requirements on top of that.

Usually it means you caught them early, and that's good news. If you're seeing pellets but you haven't seen them swarm, that colony is probably less than five years old. That's likely under five hundred termites. Now, that's one colony, not every colony in your house. But finding pellets before a swarm means you're ahead of it, and it's a whole lot easier to handle from here.

People describe them a few different ways. Salt and pepper. Coffee grounds. Sawdust. A little pile of sand. Under magnification each one is a six-sided pellet. They can be any color, and here's where folks get it wrong. I hear all the time that dark ones must be old. Color has nothing to do with age.

The pile that comes back is the big one. You brush it away, it's there again. Brush it away, back again. Wings are another. Little wispy things with nobody attached, usually near a light. A window, a computer screen, the clock on your stove. Then there's paint that blisters or bubbles, and wood that sounds hollow when you press on it. For subterranean termites you're looking for mud tubes about the width of your pinky running up the foundation.

More than likely. I can't think of another insect that drops its wings like that. They swarm, they pair off, they shed the wings, and they go try to start a new colony. What's left is those little translucent things on your windowsill or wherever your lights are. Bag a few and we'll tell you what you've got.

No, and I tell people this all the time. A dozen wings doesn't mean it either. Each termite carries four wings, so a dozen wings is three bugs. Three termites that wandered in with no other evidence anywhere in the house is probably just three termites that wandered in. Half a dozen, I'd still say don't lose sleep. Past that, something's going on.

Honestly, you need to see a picture, because the only thing that looks close is an ant. Ants swarm too. They have colonies, they reproduce the same way, so you've got two swarming insects that look about the same. Here's the tell. An ant has a waist, which gives you three segments. A termite has two. Easiest thing you can do is take a picture and send it to us, or have us come look. We'd rather tell you for sure, and hopefully tell you it's not termites.

More than most people would guess. There are several species of drywood, including the powderpost, and several of subterranean. Eastern subterranean is what we see most. Formosan is here too, and I'll tell you, they've never been in Pinellas County like they've been this year. Conehead is around. Dampwood is here but doesn't usually do the damage, and you'd treat for it anyway. For your house it comes down to two. Subterranean lives in the ground. Drywood nests in dry wood, whether that's your framing, a tree, a bush, firewood, or an old fence.

Same thing. That's the reproductive form, and their whole job is to leave, pair off, and start a new colony somewhere else. They're drawn to light, so that's where you'll find them. Subterranean swarmers look like little black flying ants and usually hang onto their wings. Drywood swarmers drop theirs and leave the wings behind.

Formosan is a subterranean termite on crack. Bigger, meaner, and the colonies run far larger than our native ones. Depending on what you read, a single colony can run into the millions. I've never counted them myself. What I can tell you is they demand a lot more diligence to handle, and we've seen more of them in Pinellas County this year than I ever have.

Depends entirely on which treatment. Fumigation, absolutely not. Nothing living stays in that house. Not pets, not fish, not plants, not people. Subterranean work is different because we're treating the ground outside with liquid or bait. For tentless, we're up in the attic, under the house if there's a crawl space, and injecting inside the walls. There's nothing sitting out where an animal gets into it. The products are low odor too. Usually all you smell is a little pine or fir coming off wood that's been dry a long time and finally got wet.

Same answer as pets. The label is the law and we follow it, and it's safe once it's dry to the touch. But think about where the product actually goes. Up in the attic where nobody's going after we leave, and inside the walls. It isn't out and about where a kid is going to get into it.

With fumigation it's three days, and nobody goes back in until two people have cleared the house with instruments. With tentless, most folks don't leave at all. You step out of whatever room we're working in and that's the extent of it. You're not going back in because you never left.

If the bugs come back, so do we. You see something that concerns you, you call. If it's an active termite infestation, we treat it at no additional cost. Keep the warranty current and we'll keep protecting your home, and you can carry that for life.

In most cases I don't think you should tent at all. But if you're going to, the right time isn't about the calendar. It's about when you can actually be gone three days. When you've got time to prep your food and your medicines. When the family has somewhere to be and the kids aren't missing school. That's what sets the timing. Your convenience, not the treatment's.

Yes, and there are two parts to that. I'm a certified operator in the state of Florida for pest control and for wood destroying organisms. I held fumigation and lawn certifications at one time and let them go because I don't use them. Separately, the business itself has to carry a license, and it does. Ask any company you call for both.

In most cases, yes. It depends what you've got. Palmetto bugs and German roaches are two different animals. Fire ants, ghost ants, and pharaoh ants all behave differently and get handled differently. That's what determines how long it takes and how often we need to come. About ninety five percent of the time, the initial treatment gets rid of what's there and the regular service keeps it that way.

Three to seven days is what my customers have told me over the years. We usually use bait for ants, because the point isn't killing the ones on your counter. It's them carrying it back to the colony. Here's the part I want you to hear. If they're not gone in seven days, call me. Don't sit there for thirty days wondering.

Depends which roach. With palmetto bugs, figure a week to ten days. They don't come out of hiding on their own, so it happens as they make contact with the treatment. German roaches start dropping right away, but a bad German roach infestation is a long project. Thirty to forty five days is typical, and a heavy one can run three months or more. That one takes work on your end too. Cabinets emptied, things cleaned out and moved around, and us back once a month until it's done.

You're supposed to. It's like a cold. You start feeling better and you've still got the sniffles. What you're seeing is bugs moving around because they're not comfortable, and they're dying. That's the treatment working. On drywood termites I ask people to give it sixty days before calling. Subterranean, ninety. It takes that long to get through the colony.

For most visits, no. German roaches are the exception, and there it matters a lot. Cabinets emptied, things cleaned out. Beyond that, if you've got a lot of dog hair or clutter, picking up off the floor helps, especially where you're seeing bugs. Let me see the house and I'll tell you what actually needs doing instead of guessing.

The label is the law, and every product has one. If the label says out of the house three hours, that's what you do. If it says until it's dry to the touch, that's the rule. If your fish tank needs to be turned off, we'll tell you. Three things make it safe. The right product, an inspection that tells us what we're dealing with, and the application done properly.

Same answer as pets. The label sets the requirements, the inspection tells us what we're using, and doing the application right is what makes it safe. Tell us there are kids in the house when we come out and we'll go through exactly what that means for your day.

For most of what we do, yes. Fumigation is the obvious exception. Beyond that it comes down to what the label says for whatever we're using. We try to pick products that don't put you out of your own house, but sometimes the problem calls for something that does. We'll tell you before we start, not after.

Everything we use is EPA registered, and I'll tell you exactly what's going on your house if you ask. Let me be straight about green products though. The oil-based ones might kill something on contact and make you feel good about it, but in my experience they don't hold up over time. Is what we use a natural product? No. The environmental part isn't the bottle. It's applying it where you're supposed to, when you're supposed to, the way the label says. Do that and it's not getting into your garden or your pond.

Hardly ever. German roaches are the exception. If we're treating your cabinets, then yes, food and dishes come out. Otherwise you're not clearing your pantry or your garage. This isn't fumigation. If your situation turns out to need more, we'll tell you, but that's rare.

A maintenance treatment runs the perimeter of your house. We treat the eaves where things get in, then put a barrier two to three feet up the wall and two to three feet out on the ground. That gives you a four to six foot band they have to cross. Mulch beds get treated because that's where things hide, same with short palms and shrubs. Seeing spiders around the pool cage, we treat there. Every visit includes looking, not just spraying, so what we find might send us back to the truck for something else. Your first treatment also goes inside, mostly kitchens and bathrooms.

We offer them. I'll tell you honestly, the only reason I'd recommend one is affordability. If regular service isn't in the budget right now, I get it. This isn't cheap. But a one-time treatment doesn't keep them away long term, and I'd rather say that than sell you something and let you find out. The exception is the borate work on termites, which stays in the wood for years, though things can still find their way in.

Bed bugs, rats and mice, and other wildlife. It's not that we don't handle them. They're just not part of the regular service because they're different work, so they carry their own charge. Ask any company you're considering what's in their standard service and what isn't, before you sign.

Yes, though it's been rare lately. Same as with termites, if I get in there and see something that really calls for a heat treatment, I'll tell you that and point you to somebody who does them.

Yes. We've got Africanized bees in the Tampa Bay area, and I'm not willing to let a kid or a pet get hurt while somebody figures out which kind they are. If we're positive they're honeybees and you can get a beekeeper out, that's the better answer and I'll tell you so. But most people calling us are calling because something's aggressive, and aggressive usually means Africanized. Hornets are their own kind of nasty.

It depends on your house and your tolerance. Florida pressure doesn't take a season off, so a single treatment in March isn't doing much for you in September. Most homes do best on a regular schedule. Some need us monthly. When we come look, we'll tell you what yours actually needs instead of putting you on whatever's easiest to sell.

Sometimes. It comes down to when you call and where you are. If I'm down the street from you, I'll do everything I can to get to you right then. We try to stay in one area rather than running the county end to end, so next day often depends on where we're already headed. If it's urgent, say so when you call and we'll work it out.

No. Roaches, ants, general household pests, anywhere in Pinellas County or out to Oldsmar, the price is the price. Termite work is the same. What sets your number is your house, not your zip code.

We do. Offices, rentals, property managers with more than one building. We tend to stay away from restaurants, and I'll tell you why. A restaurant needs treating at night after close and after cleaning, and that's really a job for somebody running a night route. Tell us what kind of business you've got and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right fit.

You call and we come back out. That's the guarantee. If you've hired us and at the end of thirty days you're not one hundred percent happy, we come retreat your home for free, and we keep treating it until you tell us you're happy. And honestly, if they keep coming back, that's telling me something. It usually means there's a source we haven't found yet, and I'd rather go find it.