# Termite Monitoring: Scam or Great Idea?



## DrivewayDude (Dec 29, 2014)

My house is in Northern Florida on a rural property with a lot of woods. The woods don't come up to the house, but they are within about 70 feet. I have a termite warranty I sort of inherited from the last owner.

The termite people put poisoned bait out in little stations around the buildings, and they come by and look at them every so often. For this, I am paying about $750 per year. They claim I'm getting a discounted price from $1100, but you wouldn't really expect a salesperson to say you were paying full price for anything.

Is this a valuable service at a reasonable price, or am I being ripped off? They also tried to sell me some kind of roach and ant gas they pump into my house through a preinstalled system, but I thought that was silly, and I have not many bugs. The system is locked up, and only the pest control people have the key, which seems somewhat coercive.

Is there a cheaper, smarter alternative to paying $750 per year?


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## Half-fast eddie (Sep 19, 2020)

I think if you read the contract, it does mot include any warranty for repairs if termites are found. All they do is give you another treatment. If termites eat away part of the house … too bad … repairs on you. So IMHO it's a very expensive contract for annual spraying and looking.


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## ChuckTin (Nov 17, 2014)

What happened to me (East central Florida) was that the pest control company claimed that the termite damage was there previous to the contract. So 100% came out of my pocket. But I kept a pest control contract on that house and the subsequent homes because it is an attraction at sale.
Make sure, certain, absolutely sure you do not have any water leaks and inspect the slab-to-wall area for tubes religiously.
And in north Florida you'd be well advised to bone up on the Korean Termite. Nasty.

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## DrivewayDude (Dec 29, 2014)

The company is Hometeam. They claim the warranty is good for a million dollars, so I assume that's not the cost of a tent job. Whether they ever pay off is another question. The BBB has some very unfavorable reviews up.

I thought I would get my own bait stations and do all this myself, since it's nearly no work. The bait stations I found were so expensive, it didn't seem like much of a bargain.

They wanted over $600 to pump poison into the house for roaches and ants, every year. That seemed insane to me. It probably costs them about $20 in chemicals, and the service call would be pretty short.


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## JIMMIEM (Nov 17, 2016)

I have the termite bait stations and pay $325 annually. They show up in the late Spring. If I damage a bait station with a lawn mower they will come again at no additional cost. I'm in Massachusetts....less bugs than you have.
I saw a termite tunnel years ago but am hesitant to stop the monitoring.......better safe than sorry.


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## Texican57 (11 mo ago)

The biggest problem with termites is they fly.

Termites fly from building to building and may never even touch the ground.

Then there are the ones that live underground, these are the most damaging.

The ones that live under ground can often be detected by looking at the exposed slab on the house.

They don't like sun light, so they build tubes of mud from underground, up the side of the slab, to their entry point.

Look for these tubes, if you find tubes, you have termites.

They can also enter a home through gaps between pipes that go down through the slab..

Their favorite wood is pine.

Learned that after Hurricane Harvey flooded the house.

Pulled all the wall sheetrock out and the wood around the front window was pretty much gone.

Except for a few studs.

Neighbor is a cabinlet builder so I asked him to take a look.

He explained termites like pine but not fir, the ones that they passed over were fir.

Didn't find any live termites, neighbor then told me the house and a few around mine had been tented prior to me buying my home.

Found a few other areas where there was signs of termite damage but no live termites.

Plenty of do it yourself termite control sites, you just have to remember to do it.


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## Half-fast eddie (Sep 19, 2020)

DrivewayDude said:


> They claim the warranty is good for a million dollars, . The BBB has some very unfavorable reviews up.


I would want to read the warranty language, and the bbb comments don’t sound good.


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## ChuckTin (Nov 17, 2014)

A million dollar limit on coverage? Pure BS.

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