The two termites Texas homeowners actually deal with
Texas A&M narrows a long list down to two species that matter economically: the eastern subterranean termite and the Formosan subterranean termite. Both are soil dwellers, which is the single most useful fact about them, because it means treatment aims at the ground rather than at the wood. The native eastern subterranean is the one most Fort Worth homeowners meet. Its swarmers are dark, fly during daylight hours, and tend to appear indoors against a bright window, which is why so many people first notice a pile of wings rather than an insect. The Formosan is the aggressive one, and it behaves differently at swarm time, flying in the evening and gathering around lights. It also builds larger colonies, which is why identification changes the urgency of a proposal even when the treatment method is the same. Ask your inspector to name the species in writing or to state that identification is pending. Even for two species treated similarly, the finding shapes how wide the treated zone should be and how closely you monitor afterward.
How termites get past a Fort Worth foundation
There are only two doorways, and Texas A&M names both. The first is wood in direct contact with soil: a deck post set in dirt, a fence rail meeting the slab, landscape timbers, siding buried by years of added mulch. termites simply walk from their normal food into your structure with no tube required. The second is a shelter tube built over or through cracks in a foundation. Workers dry out quickly in open air, so they build a covered highway of soil and saliva up the concrete to reach framing above. That is why the useful inspection is done low and slow, with a flashlight, behind the shrubs. Both routes are inspectable without any equipment. Once a month during the warm half of the year, walk the perimeter and look at the bottom eight inches of wall, the plumbing penetrations, and any place concrete meets wood. The payoff is timing. A tube found on the outside of a stem wall is a treatment. The same colony found two years later inside a wall is a treatment plus a carpenter.
A North Texas termite calendar
Late winter is when the phones start ringing. Texas A&M notes swarming begins in South Texas in January and February, and while Fort Worth runs later than the coast, warm spells in February can bring early daytime flights from native colonies. February through April is the main native window. University of Georgia material puts eastern subterranean swarms in that range, flying during the day, often after a warm rain. Wings on an interior sill in March is the single most common way a Fort Worth homeowner finds out. April into summer shifts toward evening activity, which is when Formosan swarms are reported in the states that have them, from dusk into the night. Outdoor lights become the place to look rather than windows. Summer is quiet above ground and busy below it. Highs near 96 degrees dry the surface, but soil moisture under slabs and in shaded beds keeps colonies working. Fall and winter are the easiest months to book an unhurried inspection, before the spring rush fills every schedule.
What moves the price of a termite job in this city
Measurement first. A liquid soil treatment is priced by linear feet of foundation, and the share of those feet buried under driveways, patios, and walkways decides how much of the day goes to drilling and patching. Two houses of identical square footage can differ substantially just on hardscape. Foundation type is the second lever. A slab job and a crawlspace job are different work, with the crawlspace adding access difficulty and the slab adding drilling. Ask the inspector which of the two your house is and how that shaped the number. Drainage and grading come third. If soil is piled against the siding or a downspout is soaking a corner, most careful companies will require correction, and that either becomes a line on the proposal or a job you handle yourself first. Finally, look at the multi-year picture. In a market where the median Fort Worth home value sits near $300,000, the difference between a one-time liquid job and a bait agreement with annual renewals is worth calculating across five years rather than comparing first invoices.
What a thorough first inspection includes
Expect the inspector to spend most of the visit outside and underneath. The exterior walk covers every foot of foundation, the plumbing penetrations, the hose bibs, the air conditioning condensate line, and every point where wood, soil, and concrete meet. If there is a crawlspace, they should go in. Piers, sill plates, floor joists, and standing moisture are all findings that never show up from the yard, and a report written without crawlspace access is incomplete. Ask them to state on the report which areas they could not reach. Indoors, they will probe baseboards, door and window casings, and any wood that sounds different, paying particular attention to bathrooms, kitchens, and the wall behind the water heater where leaks concentrate. You should end up with a written report that names the species or says identification is pending, includes a diagram marking where evidence was found, states the recommended method, and separates the chemical work from any carpentry. If any of those four pieces is missing, ask before you sign anything.
Comparing two proposals without a background in pest control
Line the documents up and look for the same four items on each: what was found, what method is proposed, how the scope is measured, and what happens after the crew leaves. Differences in price almost always trace to one of those four rather than to markup. Scope is where vagueness hides. A liquid proposal should tell you feet trenched, holes to be drilled, and product applied. A bait proposal should tell you how many stations and how often they are serviced. Anything softer than that cannot be compared against a competitor's number. Then ask about the tail end. What is the coverage period, what triggers a re-treatment subject to written provider terms, what does the annual renewal cost, and does the agreement transfer if you sell. Texas A&M's roughly five year expectation for modern termiticides gives you a benchmark, so a much shorter guarantee deserves an explanation. Last, ask what is excluded. Inaccessible areas, detached buildings, and repair carpentry are the three items most commonly left off the price and most commonly assumed to be included.