Spraying the few termites you can see, or the winged ones fluttering around a window, feels like taking action, but it does almost nothing. The insects in the open are a tiny, visible fraction of a colony that can number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, hidden in the soil beside your foundation or deep inside the wood of your walls. Kill the ones on the surface and the colony keeps eating. This is why termites are the one household pest where the honest answer is often “call a licensed professional,” and where the store-shelf sprays sold as a cure are the least likely to fix the problem.
The short answer: first identify which termite you have, because it changes everything. Subterranean termites, the most common and destructive kind in the United States, live in the soil and are treated by a professional with either a continuous liquid barrier around the structure or a colony-eliminating bait system. Drywood termites live inside the wood itself and are handled with fumigation, heat, or targeted spot treatment. For an active infestation, university extension programs are nearly unanimous that do-it-yourself products will seldom wipe out the colony. Your most valuable role as a homeowner is to catch the problem early, control moisture and wood-to-soil contact so it does not start, and bring in a licensed pro to do the actual treatment.
First, Which Termite Do You Have?
Every good termite decision starts with identification, because the three types that matter to homeowners live in completely different places and are killed in completely different ways. Treating the wrong one wastes money: a soil barrier does nothing to drywood termites eating an attic beam, and tenting the whole house does nothing to a subterranean colony living in the ground.
| Termite type | Where it lives | The telltale sign | How it is treated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subterranean (including the aggressive Formosan) | Nests in the soil; needs soil and moisture contact to survive | Pencil-width mud tubes running up foundation walls and piers | Professional liquid soil termiticide barrier and/or an in-ground bait system |
| Drywood | Lives entirely inside dry wood, with no contact with the soil | Small piles of six-sided fecal pellets (frass) pushed out of tiny kick-out holes | Whole-structure fumigation (tenting), heat treatment, or localized spot treatment |
| Dampwood | Needs constantly wet or decaying wood; uncommon in sound homes | Found alongside a chronic leak or rotting wood; larger than the others | Fix the moisture source and remove or replace the decayed wood |
The single most important split is subterranean versus drywood. Subterranean termites are the most common and the most damaging in the country, and the Formosan subterranean termite, well established across the Gulf Coast and the South, is the most destructive of all, with a large colony able to consume wood far faster than a native colony. If you see mud tubes, you are almost certainly dealing with subterranean termites and the colony is in the ground. If you see little piles of hard, ridged pellets and no mud, you are likely dealing with drywood termites living inside the wood. For a closer look at the differences and the insects they get confused with, see our guides on carpenter ants versus termites and whether white ants and termites are the same.
The Signs You Actually Have Termites
Termites are cryptic feeders, so most homeowners never see the insects themselves. You spot the evidence instead. Here is what to look for.
- Mud tubes. Pencil-diameter tubes of hardened soil and saliva running up a foundation wall, a pier, or a basement wall are the classic sign of subterranean termites traveling between the soil and their food. Break one open; if it is repaired within a few days, the colony is active.
- Swarmers and discarded wings. Winged termites (swarmers) appearing indoors, or a scatter of shed wings on a windowsill, almost always means an active infestation in or under the building. Swarmers are drawn to light and gather at windows and doors. Our guide to what termite swarmers mean walks through this in detail.
- Frass (drywood pellets). Small mounds of six-sided pellets the color of the wood, appearing below furniture or trim, are ejected by drywood termites clearing their galleries. Our piece on telling termite droppings from sawdust shows the difference.
- Hollow-sounding or blistered wood. Tap trim, sills, and framing; wood eaten out along the grain sounds hollow or papery. Subterranean galleries are lined with bits of dried mud, while drywood galleries are clean and packed with pellets. See what termite damage looks like for photos of both.
- Sticking doors, sagging floors, and peeling paint. As termites hollow out structural wood, doors and windows bind, floors feel spongy, and paint bubbles over damp, damaged wood. These are also early signs of termites in walls.
Subterranean termites typically swarm in spring, on warm days after rain, while drywood termites swarm in summer and fall. A swarm near or inside your home is nature’s smoke alarm: the swarmers themselves live only about a day and do no damage, but they mean a mature colony is close by. If you are trying to work out whether the winged insects you found are termites at all, our guide on whether termites fly and the difference between baby and adult termites can help you identify what you are seeing.
How to Get Rid of Termites, Step by Step
1. Confirm the type and how far it has spread
Before anyone treats anything, the infestation has to be identified and mapped. A professional inspection, which most companies do for free, establishes whether you have subterranean or drywood termites, where they are entering, and how much of the structure is involved. This step is not optional busywork; the treatment for one type is useless against the other, and hidden damage in load-bearing wood changes the plan entirely.
2. Treat subterranean termites at the colony
Because the colony lives in the soil, subterranean control means treating the soil, not the insects you can see. There are two professional approaches:
- Liquid soil termiticides. A technician trenches, rods, and often drills through concrete to lay down a continuous, unbroken treated zone of a modern non-repellent product such as fipronil, imidacloprid, or chlorantraniliprole. Termites cannot detect these chemicals, so they walk through the treated soil and carry a lethal dose back to nestmates. The barrier acts fast and leaves lasting residual protection, but it demands an unbroken perimeter and the drills, high-capacity tanks, and long rods that make this a professional job.
- Bait systems. In-ground stations placed around the home hold cellulose laced with a slow-acting insect growth regulator such as hexaflumuron or noviflumuron. Foraging termites feed and share it colony-wide, and the colony collapses as they fail to molt. Baits use a tiny amount of pesticide, need no drilling, and are safe to use near wells and ponds, but they are slower, sometimes taking several months to over a year, and they depend on an ongoing annual monitoring agreement because they leave no residual barrier in the soil.
Which is better depends on your site, and there is no one right answer. This is also the treatment behind our detailed guide to getting rid of subterranean termites. If the colony is feeding on a tree or stump in the yard rather than the house, see how to handle termites in trees.
3. Treat drywood termites in the wood
Drywood termites live sealed inside the wood with no link to the soil, so soil barriers and bait stations do not reach them. For a widespread or hidden drywood infestation, whole-structure fumigation (tenting the house and releasing sulfuryl fluoride gas) is the standard, since the gas penetrates every gallery; residents leave for a few days and the treatment leaves no residue and no lasting protection. Heat treatment raises the whole structure above about 120 degrees Fahrenheit as a chemical-free alternative. For a single, accessible, clearly isolated gallery, a professional may use a localized spot treatment, but that only works when the infestation is truly limited and visible; hidden colonies get missed.
4. Handle the moisture and wood-to-soil problems yourself
This is where do-it-yourself effort genuinely pays off. Fixing the conditions that attract and feed termites, covered in full in the prevention section below, makes any professional treatment last longer and helps stop a new colony from moving in. On bare, raw, untreated wood such as crawlspace joists or new-construction framing, a borate wood treatment (for example Bora-Care or Tim-bor) soaks in and makes the wood unpalatable to termites. Its limits are real, though: borate will not penetrate painted, stained, or sealed wood, and it is not a soil treatment, so it prevents and supplements rather than curing an active colony in the ground.
5. Verify it worked and keep the warranty
Termites are hidden, so “we stopped seeing them” is not proof the colony is dead. A reputable treatment comes with a warranty or bond and a schedule of follow-up inspections. Keep it current by paying the annual renewal, which preserves both the residual protection and the company’s obligation to come back and re-treat if termites return. Lapse it, especially with a bait system, and you are left with no protection in the soil at all.
Do DIY Termite Treatments Actually Work?
The internet is full of cheap termite cures. A few have a narrow, honest use, but most range from “temporary at best” to flatly debunked. Here is a straight read on the popular ones.
| Method | What to expect | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Store-bought sprays and foams | Kill the individual termites they directly touch, but never reach the colony in the soil or deep in the wood, so the colony keeps feeding | Knockdown only, not a cure |
| Over-the-counter bait stakes | Whether homeowner-installed consumer baits reliably eliminate a colony is unproven in published research; extension programs treat baiting as a professional job | Unreliable on your own |
| Orange oil / d-limonene | University lab and field tests question its effectiveness; it may kill termites in a spot it directly contacts but is not a validated whole-house cure | Not a whole-house fix |
| Beneficial nematodes | Results in trials are inconsistent and variable; not a dependable standalone treatment for a home infestation | Unreliable |
| Ultrasonic and electronic repellers | The FTC has warned and taken action against makers of these devices for unsupported claims; sound does not penetrate wood or walls | Do not work |
| Borate treatment on bare wood | A real, useful preventive that soaks into raw, unfinished wood, but it will not penetrate paint or sealant and is not a soil treatment | Works for prevention only |
The pattern is the same one that runs through all termite control: anything that only touches the surface leaves the colony intact. Real elimination means reaching the whole colony in the soil or the whole infestation in the wood, and that is why the effective methods are professional ones.
How Much Does Termite Treatment Cost?
Cost depends heavily on your region, the size and construction of your home, the termite type, and how far the infestation has spread, so treat these as ballpark ranges from industry cost surveys rather than firm quotes. Nationally, termite treatment averages somewhere around fifteen hundred dollars, with most jobs landing between about five hundred and three thousand dollars. A liquid soil barrier tends to run roughly three to sixteen dollars per linear foot of foundation, with a modest annual renewal. A full bait system often costs somewhere in the low thousands to install plus a few hundred dollars a year to monitor. Drywood fumigation is usually priced by the size of the house, on the order of one to four dollars per square foot. Inspections are frequently free, so the sensible move is to get two or three quotes and compare the treatment method, the warranty, and the renewal terms, not just the sticker price. Our dedicated guide breaks down how much termite treatment costs in more detail.
When to Call a Professional
With most pests, calling a pro is optional. With termites it usually is not, and there is no shame in that; it is the standard advice from entomologists. Bring in a licensed termite professional when:
- You have an active infestation, especially subterranean, where the colony sits in the soil and needs a whole-structure barrier or bait program.
- Structural wood is involved, such as sills, joists, or studs, where getting it wrong risks the integrity of the building.
- You are buying or selling a home and need a Wood Destroying Insect report on the standard NPMA-33 form, which is required for many FHA and VA loans and completed by a licensed inspector.
- You want a warranty or bond and lasting residual protection rather than a one-time knockdown.
- The job needs restricted-use products or specialized equipment, such as structural fumigant gas or sub-slab injection, that are legally limited to trained, licensed applicators.
How to Keep Termites From Coming Back
Termites follow three things: wood, moisture, and a path from the soil. Deny them and you make your home a far harder target, whether you are protecting a treated house or trying to avoid the problem in the first place.
- Control moisture. Fix leaking pipes, faucets, and air conditioners promptly, and keep gutters, downspouts, and splash blocks moving roof water well away from the foundation.
- Grade the soil away from the house so rainwater drains away rather than pooling against the foundation.
- Dry out the crawlspace. Ventilate it and lay a polyethylene vapor barrier over the soil to cut the humidity termites depend on.
- Break wood-to-soil contact. Keep wood siding and framing several inches clear of the ground, and never let porch posts, deck stairs, or trellises bridge soil straight to the house.
- Keep wood away from the foundation. Store firewood, lumber, and cardboard off the ground and away from the house, pull mulch back a couple of inches from the siding, and remove old stumps and buried form boards.
- Seal foundation cracks and expansion joints to close off hidden entry routes termites use to reach the wood unseen.
- Use treated wood in new work and schedule a professional inspection once a year, since a colony caught early is far cheaper to deal with than one found after the damage is done.
Related Termite Guides
- How to get rid of subterranean termites
- How much does termite treatment cost?
- What does termite damage look like?
- Early signs of termites in walls
- Do termite swarmers mean you have termites?
- Termite droppings vs. sawdust
- How to get rid of termites in trees
- What do termite larvae look like?
- Do termites fly?
- Baby termites vs. adult termites
- Are white ants and termites the same?
- Carpenter ants vs. termites
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get rid of termites myself?
For an active infestation, especially subterranean termites, realistically no. University extension programs are clear that do-it-yourself products will seldom eradicate a colony that lives in the soil or deep in the wood, and effective treatment needs a continuous barrier, a bait program, or fumigation applied by a licensed professional. What you can and should do yourself is prevention: control moisture, keep wood off the soil, watch for the signs, and call a pro at the first evidence.
How much does termite treatment cost?
Most termite jobs run somewhere between about five hundred and three thousand dollars, with a national average near fifteen hundred, though it varies widely with your region, home size, termite type, and how far the infestation has spread. Liquid barriers are often priced per linear foot of foundation and bait systems by install plus annual monitoring. Because inspections are usually free, the smart move is to get two or three quotes and compare warranties, not just the price.
How long does it take to get rid of termites?
It depends on the method. A liquid soil barrier acts quickly, over days to a couple of weeks. A bait system works more slowly by design, often taking several months to more than a year to eliminate the colony, and then requires ongoing monitoring. Drywood fumigation kills the termites present during the treatment itself, but leaves no lasting protection against a future infestation.
Do I have termites or flying ants?
Look at three things. A termite swarmer has straight antennae, a thick, uniform waist, and two pairs of wings that are equal in length. A flying ant has elbowed antennae, a narrow pinched waist, and front wings longer than its back wings. If the insect has a defined waist and bent antennae, it is an ant, not a termite.
Are termites covered by homeowners insurance?
Almost never. Insurers treat termite damage as a preventable maintenance problem rather than sudden accidental damage, so standard homeowners policies typically exclude it. That is exactly why prevention and yearly inspections matter so much: the cost of both the treatment and the repairs usually falls on you.
