What people actually notice
Wings get the attention, but they're the least common clue. In a CSIRO survey of Australian homes with termites, interviews from 1996 to 1998, 86% of owners noticed them through damaged wood, 34% through mud tubes and only 8% through wings.
Damage often turns up in skirting boards, architraves, timber flooring and wall linings, and CSIRO says termites will even eat the paper backing on plasterboard. Consumer Affairs Victoria adds that blisters or bubbles in paintwork can be a sign of termites working underneath.
If you find them, hands off
Resist the urge to spray them or rip out the soft timber. WA's Building and Energy says not to disturb termites with household sprays or by removing infested wood, and CSIRO says several control options rely on finding the termites still active. Leave the area as it is, take a photo, and get an inspector in.
Central Coast specifics
Under the house in funnel-web country
The Central Coast is the northern end of the Sydney funnel-web's main range, and funnel-webs shelter in cool, damp, sheltered spots. If you're clearing stored timber and rubbish from under the house before an inspection, wear gloves and closed shoes and don't reach blindly into gaps.
Bush on the boundary
Subterranean termites usually forage within 30 m of their nest, CSIRO says, and occasionally 100 m or more. On a block that backs onto bush, the nest may be in a tree, a stump or the reserve behind, which is why a good inspector looks well past the house.
The NSW licence for treatment
Termite treatment in NSW needs the timber pest management technician licence for anyone licensed or renewed after 17 December 2021. The licence belongs to the person, so ask to see the photo card of whoever does the work.
Warning signs in a termite quote
- Pressure to sign on the day, before you've had time to read the report.
- A treatment quoted before anyone has looked in the roof void and under the floor.
- No written inspection report, or no product name on the quote.
- Talk of the house never getting termites again.
- No mention of follow-up visits or what happens if activity continues.
Our take on termite inspections and treatment on the Central Coast
Walk around the outside once a season and look where timber meets the ground, and book an inspection if you can't remember the last one. Found damage or mud? Leave it exactly as it is and tap Termites with your postcode.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
