Florida Pest Answers
"My neighbor had their house tented for termites—do I really need that, or will a bait system work?"
It depends on what type of termites you have and how far along the infestation is. These aren’t interchangeable treatments—they work very differently and suit different situations.
Tenting, or fumigation, covers your entire home in a sealed tent and fills it with gas that penetrates the wood and kills every termite inside. It’s thorough and fast, and it’s the go-to treatment for drywood termites—the species that live entirely within the wood and can be scattered across hard-to-reach areas of your home. The downside is that you’ll need to vacate for a couple of days and do some prep work before treatment.
Bait systems are a better fit for subterranean termites—the kind that live underground and travel up to feed. Stations are placed in the soil around your home, and termites carry the bait back to the colony, eventually wiping it out. It’s less disruptive and works well as both a treatment and a long-term prevention tool.
The type of termite matters most here, and that’s not always something you can figure out on your own. A professional inspection is the only reliable way to know which treatment is right—and in Florida, where both species are common, it’s not a step worth skipping.
