Termites

Spectracide’s 15 detection stakes go in the ground around the house and get checked yearly, with an 8-pack of replacements for upkeep. Bora-Care is for bare interior wood, usually at the new-construction stage. Termidor foam goes into one located crack, void or gallery.

What Consumer Products Cannot Do

Four more sources say it in their own words:

• University of Florida IFAS Extension: “Controlling existing infestations is generally not a do-it-yourself project.”
• Mississippi State University Extension: “Do-it-yourself termite control is not a good idea!”
• UC IPM, on subterranean termites: “It is unlikely that homeowners will be able to execute subterranean termite control on their own.”
• UC IPM, on drywood termites: “do-it-yourself treatments are not recommended.”

There is one narrow exception in the material, and it is narrow. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System states that “A possible exception would be termite infestations in a mailbox, sandbox, or other small wooden object not attached to the house.” A detached wooden object is the whole of the exception. It does not extend to a porch, a deck, a subfloor or anything else that is part of the building.

One further statement belongs here, and its scope is part of the fact. UC IPM states that “There are no reliable over-the-counter termite control products available for the public in California”. That sentence is about California. It is quoted here as written and is not extended to the rest of the country, because the source did not extend it.

The Signs

The hardest thing about termites is when they become visible. Mississippi State University Extension states that “Infestations rarely become evident until populations have grown large enough to cause some visible damage or produce swarmers.” By the time there is something to look at, there has usually been something to find for a while.

Two signs are described as diagnostic, and they belong to different animals. UC IPM states that “Shelter tubes (sometimes called mud tubes) are the most commonly seen evidence” of subterranean termites. These are the earth-colored tubes run up a foundation wall, a pier or a joist, connecting soil to wood.

For drywood termites the sign is the droppings rather than the tubes. UC IPM states that “These fecal pellets have six hexagonal sides and are diagnostic for drywood termites.” Six flat sides on a pellet is a specific thing to look for, and the source calls it diagnostic rather than suggestive.

And if the sign is powder rather than pellets or tubes, the animal may not be a termite at all. Small round holes with a fine, flour-like powder beneath them are the classic sign of a wood-boring beetle, and the two problems are routinely confused because the damage looks similar from a distance. Our powderpost beetles page carries the frass comparison that separates them, on its own sources, together with the separate question of whether such an infestation is still active. None of that is repeated here.

Swarmers are the third sign, and Mississippi State University Extension names them alongside visible damage as one of the two things that finally make an infestation evident.

Subterranean or Drywood

The distinction is not academic, because it changes what any treatment has to reach. A subterranean colony is connected to the soil. That connection is why University of Florida IFAS Extension states that “Application of liquid soil termiticides is still the most common method” — the treatment goes into the ground because that is where the colony is.

A drywood infestation is inside the wood and is not connected to soil, which is why the soil approach does not apply to it and why the evidence it leaves is pellets rather than tubes. UC IPM addresses drywood termites separately and reaches the same conclusion it reaches for subterranean ones: “do-it-yourself treatments are not recommended.” That is a statement about the approach, not about any one product.

Prevention, Monitoring and Spot Treatment

These four products are for prevention, for monitoring, and for treating a spot. None of them is a cure for an active infestation in a structure, and none is presented as one. The statement at the top of this page applies to every one of them: consumer products seldom eradicate an existing termite problem, and a structural infestation is a professional job.

They are in no order of preference and none is called better than another, because no source consulted compares any two termite products on any measure. Each card carries the limitation its own sources state. What is written under each product is what that class of product is for, not an assessment of how well the product performs, which is not something this page has a source for.

Monitoring and baiting

Each product below is named because a source cited on this page describes that class of product for termites, and each card states the limitation its own source attaches to it.

Borate treatment for bare interior wood

Spot treatment

Four products appear above and there is no fifth. Two further classes were looked for and are deliberately absent: no consumer liquid soil termiticide concentrate is listed, even though University of Florida IFAS Extension calls that the most common method, and no standalone monitoring-only device is listed because the detection function here belongs to the stakes already shown. Where a product could not be listed honestly, nothing is listed in its place.

The Formosan Termite

University of Georgia Extension describes the Formosan subterranean termite separately from native subterranean termites, and gives three differences a person can actually observe.

Two extension services publish different soldier proportions, and both rows are given above rather than one being chosen. The Formosan ranges overlap at 15 percent and nowhere else. Neither is corrected here and neither is averaged, because both are published figures from extension services and this page has no basis for preferring one.

Beyond the characters in that table, this page carries nothing further on the Formosan termite. Its range, its colony size, its swarm season and what the sources say a householder can and cannot do about it are set out on our Formosan termites page.

Getting Rid of Them

The honest answer for an active infestation in a building is the one at the top of this page: it is a professional job, and the sources are unanimous about that. What follows is what the sources say the professional methods are, so that a reader knows what is being proposed to them and on what basis.

Liquid soil termiticide. University of Florida IFAS Extension states that application of liquid soil termiticides is still the most common method. It is applied to the soil around and under a structure, which is why it is not something that comes out of a bottle bought for the afternoon.

Baiting. Mississippi State University Extension states that “bait stations must be inspected and maintained on at least an annual basis.” Baiting is a program with a maintenance schedule rather than a one-off application, and the same source states in the same place that do-it-yourself termite control is not a good idea.

Borate wood treatment. University of Florida IFAS Extension states that “Borate treatments for termites are usually only done during the new construction phase.” The Alabama Cooperative Extension System adds the constraint that decides where it can go: “All borate-based products are water soluble, thus borate-treated wood should be used only interiorly”. Borate is a way of treating bare interior wood, most usefully before a building is closed up, rather than a remedy for a house that already has termites in it.

Treating a drywood infestation. UC IPM states that do-it-yourself treatments are not recommended. That applies to any spot treatment a homeowner might reach for, including the foam product listed further down, and it is the reason nothing on this page is offered as a whole-structure remedy.

Prevention

Two prevention specifications appear in the sources, and both are about separating wood from ground.

• University of Florida IFAS Extension: “Eliminate wood-to-ground contact.”
• UC IPM: “Keep a 12-inch barrier of smooth concrete, coarse sand” between soil and wood.

Prevention is the part of this subject where a homeowner genuinely can act, and the twelve inches is a measurable figure rather than general advice. It is also the reason the products further down are scoped the way they are: the sources support acting before there is an infestation far more strongly than they support acting after.

What Treatment Costs

One source consulted publishes a cost figure, and it qualifies the figure itself. Mississippi State University Extension states: “As a very rough estimate, initial treatment cost for most single-family homes will be in the range of $1,000 to $2,000 and the annual contract renewal fee will be around $200 to $300 per year.”

The words as a very rough estimate are the source’s own and are kept here because removing them would make the range sound firmer than the people who published it intended. The same source states that some companies have buildings retreated approximately every 10 years.

That is the only cost figure on this page. University of Florida IFAS Extension publication IN1277 was checked for cost figures specifically and publishes none, so none is quoted from it.

Questions

Sources

Every factual statement on this page traces to one of the nine extension service publications below. Where a source qualified its own statement, the qualification is kept. The product names above were read from each product’s own listing on 23 August 2026 and are recorded rather than assessed; the listings read were B00AA8WVLI, B00EORPBQI, B01HDYAOY2 and B00B5WI5VI. Each is reachable from its own card above, where the disclosure sits directly beside the link, and they are named here rather than linked again so that every link to a product on this page carries its disclosure. Framing and ordering are our own judgment and are not a finding of any source.