Tent or no tent in Miami-Dade: what the termite species on the quote decides

The termite question Miami-Dade homeowners ask most is “do I really need the tent?” The answer depends on what the proposal should already tell you: which termite, how much evidence, and where. Here is how to read a quote so you are comparing treatments as well as prices.

Miami-Dade’s termites, and why the species decides it

Miami-Dade has more kinds of termites working in houses than anywhere else in Florida, and they fall into two groups that do not share a treatment.

Drywood termites live inside the wood. A colony is small, a few thousand insects at most, and there can be several in one house, each in its own window frame, fascia board, or roof truss. They need no contact with soil, so they are everywhere the wood is: the old wood-framed houses of Coral Gables, Shenandoah, and the Grove, the wood soffits and window frames of 1950s ranch houses, and the trim of newer construction. The evidence is frass, the hard six-sided pellets that pile up under a kick-out hole, and spring swarms of winged reproductives inside the house. The one most tied to South Florida is the West Indian drywood termite, which UF/IFAS researchers say swarms here at dusk through mid-June. It also travels in furniture and other wooden items, so an infested dresser or picture frame can start a colony in a house that had none, which is why a good inspection looks at the furniture as well as the frame.

Subterranean termites, including the Formosan colonies established across Kendall, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, and Homestead, live in the ground. Miami is where the Asian subterranean termite was first found in the continental United States, in 1996, and UF/IFAS researchers have since documented Asian and Formosan subterranean termites in Miami and Fort Lauderdale breeding with each other. The colony is under the yard, sometimes millions strong, and the workers come up through mud tubes on the block, the slab edge, or the plumbing to eat the wood above. The evidence is the tubes, damaged wood that is packed with soil, and swarms after spring rain, usually outside near the foundation.

A tent kills everything inside the house at the moment of the fumigation, including every drywood colony. It does nothing to a subterranean colony, because the colony is not in the house. A soil treatment or a bait system reaches the subterranean colony and does nothing for drywood termites in the roof. A proposal that names the treatment without naming the species is missing the part that justifies it.

When the tent is the right answer

Fumigation is the only treatment that reaches drywood colonies you cannot see. If the inspection found evidence in more than one part of the house, or swarmers came from several rooms, or the house has a wood-framed roof and a history of drywood activity, the colonies you know about are not the only ones, and a spot treatment would be treating the ones you found while the rest keep working. That is the case for the tent, and in the older neighborhoods of the county it is the common case.

What a fumigation proposal should include: the volume of the structure (it is priced by cubic feet under the tarps), the days you will be out (two nights is typical), the preparation list (bag or remove opened food and medicine, remove people, pets, and plants, arrange for the gas and the alarm), who handles the roof tiles and the landscaping the tarps rest on, and the warranty. The warranty is the part people skip: the gas leaves nothing behind, so a house tented today can be re-infested by next spring’s swarm. A one-year warranty with an annual inspection and a renewal option is the standard; ask whether it covers retreatment only or also repair of new damage.

For an attached unit, a townhouse or a duplex, the tent covers the whole building. That means your neighbor’s cooperation, and it is a conversation to start before you sign.

When the spot treatment is the right answer

If the inspection found one colony in one accessible place, a window frame, a door jamb, a section of fascia, and the rest of the house is clear, drilling and injecting that wood (or replacing it) treats the problem for a fraction of the fumigation price. Companies do this every day and it is legitimate. It is also the treatment a company sells when the inspection was a quick walk-through, so ask how thorough the inspection was: the attic, every window frame, the garage, the closets. A spot treatment quoted from the driveway is a guess.

Some companies offer a whole-house heat treatment or a borate application to accessible wood as alternatives to the tent. They have their uses; ask what the warranty covers, because that is where the difference shows.

When neither is the answer

If the evidence is mud tubes, soil-packed wood, or swarmers outside near the slab, the termite is subterranean, and the proposal should be a liquid termiticide barrier (a trench around the foundation and drilled holes through the slab and patio, filled with a non-repellent product the workers carry back to the colony) or a bait station system placed around the perimeter and monitored. The barrier is priced by the linear feet of the foundation and lasts several years; the baits are an annual service. Either one comes with a warranty that matters more than the first visit, because the colony is still out there.

A house can have both. A Coral Gables house with drywood in the window frames and a Formosan colony in the yard needs the tent and a soil treatment, and a company that does both will quote both. That is the one time the quote should be larger than you expected.

Comparing two quotes

Put them side by side and check: same species identified, and how (a specimen collected, swarmers identified, frass, tubes)? Same evidence found, in the same places? If one company found activity the other missed, the thorough one is the one to trust. Same treatment? If not, the proposals are answering different questions and one of the inspections was incomplete. Warranty terms, renewal cost, and what “warranty” means (retreat or repair). License number on each, checkable on the FDACS website.

Then price. A tent that is much cheaper than the others is usually a smaller company subcontracting the fumigation; that is normal, but ask who the licensed fumigator is. A spot treatment priced close to a tent deserves a second look at what the inspection found.

Related pages

• Termite inspection and treatment
• Pest control in Coral Gables
• Pest control in Kendall