Fumigation

Fumigation costs more than localized pest treatment because it's a whole-structure job — pricing depends on the size of the home, the extent of the infestation, and requirements like permits or neighbor notifications in your area. It's priced as a distinct project rather than a standard visit, and we only recommend it after confirming through inspection that the infestation is genuinely widespread enough to need it.

Fumigation requires everyone, including pets and plants, to be out of the structure for the length of the treatment and until clearance testing confirms it's safe to re-enter. We handle permits, notifications where required, and monitored exposure throughout, and nobody goes back inside until aeration and testing confirm the air is clear. It's the one service on our list that isn't natural-first by nature of what it treats, which is why it's a last resort, not a default recommendation.

Sometimes, yes. Spot treatment, heat, or targeted wood injection can handle an infestation that's contained to one accessible area, and we always look at those options first. Fumigation becomes necessary when activity has spread through structural wood in multiple areas we can't reach any other way, like inside wall studs, rafters, or subflooring, where localized treatment can't reach every gallery.

The full process, from tenting and sealing to fumigant exposure, aeration, and clearance testing, typically takes a few days from start to finish, most of which is the structure being tented rather than anyone actively working on it. Because fumigation reaches pests deep inside wood that surface treatments can't touch, results are thorough and long-lasting, and any post-treatment activity is covered under the same no-charge guarantee as every other service.

Small six-sided pellets, drywood termite frass, collecting on windowsills, in attic corners, or under furniture, often pushed through pinhole-sized kick-out holes, are a strong indicator. Tiny round exit holes with fine, talc-like powder underneath point to powderpost beetles. If those signs show up in more than one room, or in framing that's hard to access, that's usually the point where an inspection is used to check whether fumigation is actually warranted.

Regular termite treatment targets a colony in a specific, accessible location using barrier or bait methods without needing to leave the home. Fumigation is reserved for infestations that have spread through the structural wood itself in ways surface treatment can't reach, and it requires tenting the entire structure and vacating it for the length of treatment. One is a spray-and-monitor process; the other is a full-structure event only recommended once inspection confirms it's necessary.