Some Silicon Valley homeowners spruce up their yards and gardens in spring and summer with tanbark or mulch. While this is a very common practice, it can be a bad idea if too close to the home’s foundation. Tanbark is simply small bits of wood, and mulch is often no more than shredded wood (sometimes it’s peat moss). Why is that bad?  Wood is the food for termites and piles of tanbark or mulch can hide them as well!

If you have tanbark or wood mulch close to your house now, it’s suggested that you scrape it back away from the house a foot or so. (Check for the mud tubes when you do so.) Otherwise you are inviting subterranean termites to have a feast!

Ask your landscape expert what you might use in lieu of these products in your garden.  Perhaps a peat moss or mushroom mulch, pavers, clean compost topsoil or river rocks can clean up the area closest to your house in stead.

I’ve been selling real estate for 18 years, full time, in Silicon Valley. Until recently I had never seen a dampwood termite in this area but a few months ago I caught sight of  a dead one at the Almaden Winery neighborhood (on the Cambrian and Almaden border) when our pest inspector, Miguel Torres from Thrasher Termite, noticed it.  Luckily there were no live dampwoods to be found! I thought it was a weird fluke.

Fast forward a few months, and  again this week I saw first the much smaller,  immature dampwoods (so I didn’t recognize them, but suspected that they were termites of some kind as they were coming out of rotting wood) and a few days later saw the large and now mature dampwood termites swarming in the same location in Belgatos Park, Los Gatos, close to where my family and I live. Initially I thought they were strange moths as there was a lot of flapping motion, but on closer look I could see that they were indeed termites and they were big!!!

We normally don’t see the dampwood type of termite on the Santa Clara Valley floor (usually subterranean and drywood 0nly).  Normally the dampwoods tend to live  in the Santa Cruz Mountain communities (and places where it’s much damper), so I hope that this isn’t a new trend to be concerned about – either way, though, I thought you’d like to see what they look like and to be aware of the fact that it is possible to have them in San Jose or Los Gatos real estate.  I know, I’ve seen them myself!


Related reading:

Would You Recognize Signs of Subterranean Termites If You Saw Them?

What Is Cellulose Debris (in a pest or termite report)?

How Often Should You Get A Termite Inspection?

This afternoon I was driving along Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos, with my destination being the salad bar at Whole Foods, when my cell phone rang.  A woman who did not identify herself or her location said to me, after noting that she called the number from the blog/site, “a house was termited four years ago. Do we really need to do it again?“  She needed professional, unbiased real estate advice, and figured that since I had nothing to gain either way, I’d tell her the truth.

I asked her what she meant by “termiting”.  Was it an inspection, a fumigation, or some other treatment that was done 4 years ago?  She elaborated that the house was tented for (drywood) termites four years ago.  She didn’t want to waste her money “termiting” again (to use her words).

“Are you buying a house?” I asked her.  “Yes” she confirmed.  I continued, “then you probably should get a termite inspection from a licensed and reputable company because drywood termites can come right back after the treatment.  Not only that, but the inspector will look for other things, like subterranean termites, dry rot, fungus, boring beatles, and more.” (I did explain that you don’t just tent for drywoods – they may or may not be a problem. What you want is an inspection to see if there’s anything that does need treating. The inspector might find cellulose debris, for instance, and will note whether it’s infected or not.)

“Do you have a Realtor assisting you?”  “Sort of” was the confused sounding response.

I suggested that she go to her Realtor and ask for help in finding a good, licensed pest control operator to inspect the house.  “Do not just pick one out of the phone book – they are not all the same”.  Like everything else, reputation matters.”  I explained one story where a national chain had missed $10,000 worth of work on a Cambrian area home that could only have been seen in the crawl space, so it was pretty evident that the first inspector didn’t go in there as he’d claimed.

I don’t know her name, I don’t know where she lives except that it’s in California but I do know that it’s a good idea to have your house inspected for termites every 3-5 years.  If you are purchasing a house, townhouse or condo, it’s one of the biggest expenses you’ll ever have. It is reasonable to try to fully understand the condition of the property, and if there are big issues (such as termites or other “section 1 items”), to fix them.

For further reading:

How often should you get a termite or pest inspection? (Guest post on my Live in Los Gatos blog by Janet Thrasher of Thrasher Termite & Pest Control in Los Gatos)

What happens when inspectors disagree about the property? (Post on this blog site.)

Free report: your role in the home inspection (as well as other reports – all on Sereno website)

Recently I was showing a buyer of mine a San Jose house which was vacant.  Often a home is occupied and the garage, in particular, is full of stuff so it’s hard to see the walls very well.  In this case, though, we could easily view where the walls in the garage meet the floor.  And this is what we saw:

Only a qualified, licensed Pest Control Operator can diagnose termites and pests, but this looks a lot like subterranean termite tubes to me.  When you see “mud tubes” such as this, it is time to call a good termite and pest control company for diagnosis and treatment.

Why do termite & pest companies insist that the garage be largely free of personal possessions when they inspect? It is so that they don’t miss things exactly like this. 

When buying or selling a home, understand that the inspectors arent being difficult if they won’t warrantee a garage as free of pests when they cannot view the walls or floor.  Bookshelves and personal storage can obstruct the view of things like this.  If you’re selling, be ready for the inspectors – have all your items away from the walls or even better, entirely out of the garage. If they have to call a packed garage as an “unknown further inspection”, it’s likely to cause you problems later, when there’s a time pressure.  Best to know upfront, for everyone’s sake, what the score is.