Termite Control

Nasty Pests

Termites are a fact of life and often go undetected. It is common for homeowners to go unaware that they have been sharing their homes with termites for years until they see evidence of damage. A regular inspection is a critical part of your home’s maintenance that can help protect your investment and avoid losing thousands of dollars in deferred maintenance costs.

Our Anti-termite Team

Accurate Termite and Pest Control has licensed structural inspectors that will perform a thorough inspection of your home’s interior and exterior—not just for the presence of termites, but for all wood-destroying organisms and subsequent damage that may be present throughout your home. More information on termites can be found in this informational flyer published by California’s Structural Pest Control Board.

Inspection

When scheduling your inspection, a friendly Accurate representative will provide a one- to two-hour time window in which you can expect your inspector to arrive. If you request it, the inspector can be instructed to call when he/she is on route to your home to provide a more concise estimated time of arrival. Depending on the size of your home, a Wood-Destroying Organism (WDO) inspection of your home may take roughly an hour to an hour and a half.

Pre-inspection Prepping

In order to provide a thorough inspection, the inspector should have open access to:

• Front and back yards
• Attics
• Crawl spaces
• All rooms
• Window sills (interior and exterior)
• As much of the baseboards and garage(s) as possible.

Opening or drilling into any non-wood materials such as stucco or drywall is not likely to be necessary during a WDO inspection.

What We’ll Do

The inspector will focus largely on assessing wood members throughout your home, including posts, fascia, rafters, trims, wood siding, exposed wood framing, base boards and floor boards. Issues that could potentially lead to the presence of termites or other WDO’s, such as excessive moisture, in non-wood materials will also be noted by the inspector and included in the final report for your information and review.

When inspecting exterior wood members, especially roofline wood members, the inspector may use a blunt probe to assess the presence of WDO’s in the wood and test its structural integrity. Your inspector will check in with you upon completing the inspection to inform you that he/she is done. The inspector then uses his/her field notes to produce a detailed report back at the Accurate office.

The Inspection Report

Your inspection report will include details of your home’s inspection including findings of termite evidence; findings of fungus or dry rot; findings of other WDO’s such as wood-boring beetles, carpenter ants, carpenter bees and also findings of structural damage throughout your home. Other findings of concern that could lead to future infestations or compromise structural integrity of wood members will also be noted in your inspection report. You can see a sample home inspection report.   (video explaining a report)

Inspection Proposal

Your report will also include a sheet with an itemized proposal to remedy the issues discovered during inspection. Pricing may include a price for treatment, repairs or replacement of infected wood members as necessary.

Your report will be submitted to you by email and is available online (?). Accurate staff is available during office hours to address any questions or concerns you may have regarding your inspection report.

Treatment

Most of termite control in California is done by local treatment. Local treatment refers to any treatment for termite control done to a specific area(s) of a structure designed to target specific areas of evidence of infestation. This is contrary to whole-structure approaches to termite control including fumigation (aka “tenting”), or whole-structure heat treatments. When a structure is well maintained and infestation levels are within reach, local treatments can and have proven to provide sufficient control of infestation levels as well as protect the structure from suffering incremental damage from them.

Products Used in Treatment

There are a variety of products available for termite control by way of local treatment. Some products, such as those that are boron based (aka “borates”), work well as topical applications to lumber to help prevent WDO infections; others containing the active ingredient Fipronil, such as Termidor®, work well to control a live and active termite infestation.

Some companies purchase and use only certain products on every home they treat; however, Accurate inspectors base their recommendation of which products to be used based on your home’s individual needs.

Tailoring Our Product Use to Your Home

Some areas of your home may require preventative products, while others may require good live colony control. Whatever the need, an Accurate inspector is sure to take into consideration your home’s specific needs.

A number of entomologists, including some in UC-Berkley and UC Riverside, performed an independent study to measure the performance and efficacy of all local treatment products available to all termite control operators in California. Their research (click here to read the full report) found that different products can vary drastically in their level of efficacy and success in achieving control of live termite infestations. Accurate Termite and Pest only uses those products that are approved for use in residential, commercial and health care settings that have also been proven to have excellent success rate levels.

Our Application of Products Get the Pests – Not the Pets

When treating for drywood termite infestations, the application of products is most commonly done by drilling and treating directly into the infested wood members. However, different needs may present the need to apply products in the form of foams or dusts. In any case, Accurate always applies products per each products specific label instructions and in such a way that they reach only the intended pest and not your family or pets. Termite control applications when performed professionally and as directed do not expose your pets and family members to pesticides.

All treatments performed by Accurate Termite and Pest Control always come with a satisfaction and service warranty.

Repairs

Once your home has been compromised by wood-destroying organisms, it is important to remediate any resultant damage in order to protect the structural integrity of your home. Provided the areas are made accessible for inspection, all of Accurate’s structural inspectors are able to find damage caused by WDOs, assess the extent of said damage, and provide a comprehensive scope of work to remediate the damage as may be necessary.

Our Experts

Accurate Termite and Pest Control has experienced and licensed contractors who specialize in repair and replacement of wood damaged by wood-destroying organisms. All repair work to damaged wood is performed in-house by Accurate’s experienced employees. Repair work is always completed in such a way that takes into consideration the structural and aesthetic integrity you wish to maintain for your home.

Accurate Termite and Pest Control’s repair work is always backed by our craftsmanship, satisfaction and service warranties.

Fumigation

Fumigation, also known as tenting, refers to covering an entire structure under a tarp and releasing a fumigant into the tarp for the eradication of a certain target pest. Most fumigations in California are performed for the eradication of drywood termites, though fumigations can be done for most general pests. Accurate Termite and Pest Control has successfully performed fumigations and achieved the eradication of drywood termites, in addition to roaches, bed bugs and other unwanted pests’ homes and structures with severe pest infestations.

Why it Works

The reason fumigation is still a popular method of termite control and eradication is that at some point a structure’s termite infestation may reach lumber material, such as framing and studs, which are not practically accessible for inspection and local treatment. When an infestation has reached the point where it cannot be reasonably and practically found or treated by normal local treatment methods, a whole structure eradication approach may be recommended.

California recognizes only two methods of treatment as fully effective at full-structure eradication: heat treatment and fumigation. The reason fumigation is considered a fully effective full-structure eradication is that the fumigant is designed to reach all spaces within the tent, thereby reaching all of the lumber within a structure and eradicating any and all infestations found therein.

Fully Regulation-Compliant

All fumigations performed in California are regulated by multiple local and state agencies; therefore, all fumigators must follow the same procedures and perform fumigations in the same way. When done properly, a fumigation targeting drywood termites of any structure in California will require that the structure be vacated for a minimum of three days and two nights. Perishable food and most consumable items will be required to be stored in special bags or removed from the property prior to fumigation. Furthermore, regulations require that the respective gas utility company servicing the structure shut off the gas into the structure before the fumigation.

Given the level of inconvenience of fumigation occasions, Accurate Termite and Pest Control always provides a personal project manager for your home’s service that will:

• Help you prepare for your fumigation by meeting with you one-on-one to provide all necessary preparatory instructions
• Provide as many specialized food storage bags to help you preserve the food and liquids left behind in your home during fumigation
• Arrange on your behalf the gas shut-off and on as necessary for your home’s fumigation
• Receive and return keys for access at your schedule’s disposal and convenience
• Provide you with an honest anticipatory report of what adverse effects a fumigation may have on your foliage or roof if any

Accurate Termite and Pest Control prides itself in offering the industry’s best customer support when performing fumigations. All of our fumigations are backed by our service and satisfaction warranty.