Does Your Home Have Termites? Of Course It Does If Its Made Out Of Wood!

In Episode 3 , David Olivas from Pyramid Pest Control and John Laforme explain the difference between a Termite Inspection Vs Home Inspection. Wood damage to a home can be general wood damage typically pointed out by a general home inspector, however determining if damage is dry rot or (WDO) Wood Destroying Organisms must be reported by a licensed pest control contractor only. This episode is intended to explain the process in the simplest terms for the home owner, realtor or future buyer.

Termites are very common in most homes in California, being told your home has termites should be expected. The next step is addressing the issues noted in your termite inspectors report. Your termite report may indicate specific areas only or multiple areas of current dry rot or Termite damage. If multiple areas of damage are present and some areas cannot be reached then fumigation may be recommended by your Termite inspector.

A structural pest control specialist is any individual who is licensed by the board to apply a pesticide, rodenticide, or allied chemicals or substances for the purpose of eliminating, exterminating, controlling, or preventing infestation or infections of pests or (WDO) wood destroying organisms included in sections 1-2-3 of a termite Inspection report.

Wood Destroying Organisms (WDO) including termites or any insect, as well as rot or any fungus, that damage wood. Under California law, only an inspector licensed by the Structural Pest Control Board is qualified or authorized to inspect for any rot or termite activity or damage. You are advised to obtain a current WDO report and must rely on that report for any potential rot or termite activity and recommendations for repair.

Contact Information for David Olivas of Pyramid Pest Control 818-298-8939
pyramidpest@aol.com

https://pyramidpests.com/

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Welcome to Home Inspection authority Straight Talk podcast with me, John laforme. Are you a homebuyer, a realtor, or maybe a home inspector? If you are, then this podcast is definitely for you. So let's get right into some straight talk about home inspections. All right, welcome back, everybody to episode three, it's time for some straight talk about termites. With David Olivas from Pyramid pest control, I've got some hard questions for him. To help explain the difference between home inspector reports and termite reports, this is a fine line that should not be crossed by home inspectors are termite inspectors. And it causes a bit of confusion with the buyers and the realtors and anybody else involved. So I want to try to clear that up today. And let's get right into it. As a general home inspector as I am, I'm not allowed to even talk about termites with customers. Realtors, anybody? What I report is, Hey, I saw some wood damage. And the biggest question I get is, is it dry rot? Or is it termite? Well, that's why I was referring to the termite inspector. So for me, it's hard to explain the difference between all that. So what I did was I brought in a termite inspector today. So let me introduce David. Say, Hi, Dave.

David Olivas: 1:39

Hey, what's going on out there?

John Laforme: 1:43

So anyway, tell us a little about yourself and your experience.

David Olivas: 1:47

Well, I've been doing inspections for a few years now.

John Laforme: 1:52

How many years is that? It's only 4040 years.

David Olivas: 1:56

40 years of inspections. But anyways, it's a it's been fun. It's been difficult. A lot of times as I get older, as we get as we get older, it gets a lot harder to gray hair full. Yeah, yeah. Or no hair.

John Laforme: 2:09

Yeah. My first question for you is, have you ever been assaulted or attacked by a termite?

David Olivas: 2:18

Not yet.

John Laforme: 2:20

Okay. So that's one more you can cross off your list there homebuyers. Termites are about this big!

David Olivas: 2:28

They're even smaller than that. Actually. They're pretty small. And they don't chew. They don't bite. They don't even have teeth.

John Laforme: 2:33

Right. Okay. So they just like to eat wood? Yes. Okay. Explain that a little more?

David Olivas: 2:38

Well, actually, the termites when they eat the wood, they actually will kind of put a material on it from their body to break down the wood. And then they will ingest it. Oh, it's not a matter of chewing, it's a matter of it's almost like he called spitting on the wood to soften it up. And then from there, they'll eat it. And then when it actually comes out, when they're done eating it, digesting it, you'll see little tiny pellets, tiny little pellets. And those pellets are absolutely pure wood. And they're very hard. You can't break them down. Right? So that's the difference with people they say is this termite? Well, if you can, if you can break it down. It's not termites. Because termite droppings don't they're solid wood. I say termites don't eat anything. People think the termites are very dirty. They're not. They're extremely clean because they don't eat anything. But wood.

John Laforme: 3:35

So what you're describing is what we typically see as termite droppings. Yeah. So when someone says there's droppings, it looks like there's droppings by the windowsill or the wood sill. If you grab it and it's solid and it rolls around. That means it's termite droppings, termite droppings,

David Olivas: 3:51

but it's when you say droppings, it doesn't mean that it's termite debris. It's actually droppings, wood debris.

John Laforme: 3:59

So it's not termite poop, right. It's termite wood droppings?

David Olivas: 4:02

Exactly. It's not dirty. Okay, that's what I have to tell people.

John Laforme: 4:06

All right. Yeah. I see that a lot on during my home inspections on window sills? Well, I pretty much everywhere. Yeah, yeah. You know, you see him on the floor by baseboards. Yeah, you could see him in a lot of different areas in the attic cemetery. Where Yeah, going through attics. When I'm looking down, I'll see it. See it all over the insulation, if there isn't any. Yeah. Or I'll just see it, you know, and I always look up. Here's the funny part. I'll always see it like sometimes I see big piles. Oh, yeah. But I'll look up and I cannot tell where it came from.

David Olivas: 4:36

Sometimes it's not visible.

John Laforme: 4:37

Its not visible where it comes from Right. There's rafters right above the area. Yeah. And I'm looking, here's the rafter and I'm looking like okay, that's pretty much in line with that rafter why? And I see any kind of hold up there, right. And I'm like, it's always a head scratcher for me. So why is that?

David Olivas: 4:52

Well, because sometimes they're actually in between the rafter and the joist on top. I see so they're coming up and dropping down you don't see anything. Got it. Sometimes you have to go up there and tap on the wood. And that's where you see the damage that was not visible and that's where it's coming from.

John Laforme: 5:12

What's the difference between dry rot and termite? That's something we need to explore.

David Olivas: 5:19

Okay, first of all dry rot has to do with moisture so moisture penetrates into the wood causes the wood to break down and causes you know fungus and or dry rot. And that can happen anywhere really there's moisture like in the roof, you know, window trim anywhere like in sub flooring, attic wherever water goes. And that's one of the things we check for. And the difference between the termite damage and or fungus damage is the actual termite itself that's in the wood that you you wouldn't see it until you break it open.

John Laforme: 5:51

Okay, so So what I typically see as far as dry rot would be I see it a lot on facia boards,

David Olivas: 6:00

yes

John Laforme: 6:02

soffit areas that right with right with a roof plank connects to the facia board at the very bottom where all the water goes. Where it's usually the word that's one big area I see it. Old old buildings with old window frames, wood wood window for iforce. A lot of times you'll see people replace the replaced the old window, but they'll keep the old window frame and just put a replacement window in. And you get this nice vinyl window which is great double pane glass and everything but they didn't replace the wood framing all the way around it. And that's I can put my screwdriver through it. It's just it's just all rotted away.

David Olivas: 6:43

Well, yeah, that has a lot to do with the installation. Whoever does it is not sometimes not aware of what's there.

John Laforme: 6:48

So if you have replacement windows understand that you want that whole everything old removed. Just make sure you tell you window guy that bright. Don't just take a shortcut and just use Oh, that looks fine. Just get rid of it. Yeah, it's been there for a long time.

David Olivas: 7:02

And and also very important. If you ever have any worked on on your roof. Try to make sure that you tell the roofing guy to look at the wood under the actual roof. Yeah, because I have seen many many roofs get done. And they didn't replace the damage that was underneath.

John Laforme: 7:22

That is a lazy roofer right there. Yeah. What you just described as a lazy roofer.

David Olivas: 7:27

Well, I don't want to say lazy, I just want to say I'm saying lazy they didn't they didn't look at it properly. That's all look when

John Laforme: 7:34

you're replacing a roof. You rip the entire roof off. If you don't notice damage would then use that you just ignoring it. You're not even looking for it. So any reputable roofing company is going to repair that stuff. That is true. So if you get the lowest bidder doing your roof, you may wind up in a situation that they've just explained

David Olivas: 7:54

us. And I'm telling you, I've seen that more times than not. So yeah, be careful. That's just poor quality work. Right? Yeah,

John Laforme: 8:01

that's all it is. Let's break down the termite difference a little more. Is that able to do that?

David Olivas: 8:07

Yeah, yeah. Termites, again, it's not really an issue. In all areas, it's kind of goes hand in hand with where there's moisture, dry rot, there could be termites. If it's if there's moisture in the wood, they can eat faster, and they're attracted to it. So that's why if you have a leak, you want to try and make sure you fix it before that happens.

John Laforme: 8:28

Okay, so going back to what you mentioned earlier about how the termite breaks down the wood. Yeah, so if the woods wet, it's softer, which means they can it can break it down,

David Olivas: 8:38

Break it down a lot faster. Eat it faster.

John Laforme: 8:41

Totally makes sense. Yeah. Okay.

David Olivas: 8:43

Another thing I was going to explain as far as termites themselves, is that Termites will, you will you can see termites in the springtime in the summer. Springtime is subterranean termites, little tiny black termites with wings, they come out, they swarm sometimes you see 1000s of coming out. Yeah. And then in the summertime, September, when it's like 110 degrees. Those are the dry wood termites, those are a reddish color. And though as you can see also inside the house warming.

John Laforme: 9:16

Another question I get asked a lot when I'm on my home inspections is should the termite guy do a section one or section two? So can you explain that?

David Olivas: 9:29

Yeah, whenever you're doing an inspection, termite inspection, normally you do include section one, and section two and there is a section three, but I'll explain that in a minute. And what it is, is that section one has to do with any, like termite or fungus damage and or evidence of, that's a section one item, okay? Okay, so that goes on the list. First is the most important as far as that goes and then the section two items are listings of possible debris or wood under the house, which hasn't caused a problem. But it needs to be noted on the report. And or let's say if there's a leak somewhere that hasn't caused the problem. It's a pipe, it's dripping. It's causing moisture, these things can attract termites. So it has to be listed and listed as a section two item.

John Laforme: 10:23

I hope you getting all this because what we're trying to do is break this down and the simplest of layman's terms as to what a home inspector looks for, and what a termite inspector looks for. And that would be a section two for Dave. And that would just be a typical home inspection. observation from me. So tell me about section three that you mentioned.

David Olivas: 10:45

Okay, Section three is an area where you find something that doesn't relate to one or two. And it could be where you see rodent droppings, which means there could be a rodent problem, occurrence. Yeah, current or prior, okay, but you, you need to bring that to the attention of the of the owner or somebody whoever is calling for the report, because that's something they need to know. And that's, that's where it's listed, because it's not really something that termite deals with what is something that should be noted?

John Laforme: 11:14

Right? So as a home inspector, looking under a house, for example, if I see rodent droppings, I definitely let my client know that right. And I also let them know if I see evidence of rodent damage. Exact, for example, eating a hole through HVAC ducting, yes, I see that a lot. And that tells me you know what, that duck may be contaminated? So do you point that out as well, if you saw damage ducting? Are you only looking for the droppings,

David Olivas: 11:42

I normally only look for the droppings because I can only recommend something to be done with the rodents themselves, as opposed to damage to the H back system or screens or anything on the house. That's a separate person that would be dealing with that. Okay, and so you make those notations too, because you have to tell them somebody is going to deal with that also.

John Laforme: 12:04

Yes, so to be clear on the home inspection side of it, if I see droppings on the ground, whether it could be from I don't know if it's from mice, or rats or to be possums could be possums could be raccoons, right? Could be skunks, dogs, I've seen all kinds of stuff under houses as you seen in my other videos. So just to be clear, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for evidence of pest damage, which could be HVAC ducting gets damaged, chewing on insulation wrapped around pipes in the house, wires, wires, chewing on wires, there's all kinds of things that I'm looking for. So at that point, I recommend you know, you need electrician out here to fix this chewed up wiring, or you need an HVAC contractor to repair and further evaluate all this ducting that looks like it might be contaminated. Because if a rodent gets in your duct, you got to replace it because they just pee and poop everywhere. And it just contaminates everything. And every time you turn it on, you're breathing it to be clear, as you're doing your section one and two, you may come across the section three because you just happen to see that is true. It does not really you're not focused on section three, many of you see it your reported

David Olivas: 13:21

Yes, exactly. It's not something that you you're actually looking for, but you run across

John Laforme: 13:25

people ain't gonna call you and say oh, by the way, I only need a section three today, right?

David Olivas: 13:29

No, when you do a report normally, the report always includes one, two and three. Okay? So it's not really up to the person ordering the report. It's up to the person doing the inspection. You try to give them as much information as you can.

John Laforme: 13:45

How do you simplify your findings to your client?

David Olivas: 13:52

What I try to explain to the client is that what I find and try to show them what it is because it's when you see it on the report. It sometimes looks much worse than it is but if I show them try to show them what it is. Sometimes the dry rot the termites are only a certain areas doesn't mean the whole house is infested. Right doesn't mean the house is gonna fall down. It just means that this is you need to proceed with this part first, then this part.

John Laforme: 14:20

All right. Let me point out one thing Dave just said it doesn't mean the house is gonna fall down. Okay, so new homebuyers. Sometimes, you know, seasoned buyers have very panicked about that I have I myself, very rarely see a house that is not stable. And what is the odds of a house being made of wood and not having termites? Probably 1% trying to make you guys understand that this is normal to have you You just need to address it. Right. And that's what Dave is there for when he does your termite inspection, as he's letting you know you have a couple specific areas that may need local treatments, or there may be a lot of issues that may need

David Olivas: 15:15

may need. Yeah, additional work to be like, well, like a lot of repairs, fumigation, tenting. That kind of thing. So yeah, just it can get pretty bad. But at least if you know what there you can see how you're going to take care of it. And when,

John Laforme: 15:32

right now, the reason why some homes may be way worse than others is because the homeowners that were there prior may never have taken the time to have a termite inspection done. That is true. So yeah, that's, that can be a big shocker. When clients are buying like 100 year old house. It's like, Oh, my God, I have termites or Yeah, the house has been here like 100 something years, it's gonna have a few termites. Right. So that's the reality of, you know, buying a home, especially a much older home much older wood structure, right? Where is the most problematic problem inside a house?

David Olivas: 16:11

Well, it's not inside is going to be under the house right area where nobody ever goes except us. Right? And that's where we see everything that's kind of been done and not done to them.

John Laforme: 16:22

Right or ignored. Yeah, totally ignored. So, you know, we can't get into every crawlspace. Because there are limitations, right? Just too low. Someone just closed off. That house might have been remodeled, they might have sealed off the entrance from inside the house and like a closet floor, or they may have sealed off the outside. It happens all the time. So is it true? Here's the old. Here's the old standard that I hear. If the house is over three years old, it needs a termite. Is that about

David Olivas: 16:56

right? Well, the house should be inspected every three years, just to make sure there hasn't been any problems that have, you know, right, that could have caused something. So that's the thing every couple of years, have it inspected? And that way you will find the problem. I mean, eventually doesn't mean you're not going to have anything, it means having a check you should be able to take care of for your dad. Yeah.

John Laforme: 17:19

So I'm glad we just solved that myth, because it was explained to me wrong years ago. I had termite guys tell me Oh, if the house is the house is over three years old, it should be inspected for termites? Well, he just explained it in a whole different way. What are you saying? There's every three years, you should get your house looked at a termite? Yeah, there you go. What I want to show you now is a video of what I caught under a house. Alright, so here's a video of what I found. Wow. And a crawlspace. With my crawl bot. Yeah. So as you can see, they're over here, too. We get? Yeah, you get those. And those are called subterranean termites, right?

David Olivas: 18:00

Those are tubes. Those are the migration tubes that they used to travel, because they have to be inside of a controlled environment to survive. And that's what the tubes are for eyes, so that they can actually enter an exit on a daily basis to eat the wood and then take it down to the nest. And in essence underground. It the bit. Yeah, but the nest is going to be maybe 30 or 40 feet underground. Whoa, not two feet underground. Wow. Yeah, that's why Yeah, it's it's really unusual. For to see that kind of problem. They don't have an elevator for that. Well, yeah, the this looks like an elevator. Yeah, inside. There it is. It's not a very straight. We're just climbing on each other to get up there. But yeah,

John Laforme: 18:41

that to me sometimes. You know, I'll have a little fun. And I'll and I'll run right to my crawl. But

David Olivas: 18:47

no, no, that's fine. I'm helping everybody out. Yeah, you are.

John Laforme: 18:50

How long does it take? You think how many we days, weeks or years for that to get to their? To their?

David Olivas: 18:55

That's 18 inches? Yeah, that could happen actually, in a matter of days. Wow. Because the if they find a source that they really, you know, really want to get to just remember there's millions of termites in the nest. Wow. So if they want to, they'll just bring a few million and Bill that in a couple days to get to get it out. Wow, that's good. That's got to be at least 18 to 24 inches, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was a pretty good sized crawlspace. So yeah, and just think if there was some moisture in that area, right. They could have eaten that entire floor out.

John Laforme: 19:30

Yeah. And there was a whole bunch of them by the way. Yeah, there was at least probably six or seven right in that area. Yeah. So from the dirt all the way up to the wood. So here's and here's I wanted to see what your opinion was on this here.

David Olivas: 19:44

Wow, that is dry wood termite damage. And that's that could be 10 to 15 years of eating because it takes them a long, long time to eat the dry wood termites, because they have to infest it before they can eat it. The subterranean can Come up. Like I said, bring a million guys up in one day, right? That's been years and years. And it looks like they forgot to repair a portion of

John Laforme: 20:10

that. Yeah, sure does, doesn't it? Yeah. And then they got the new wood nailed right to that damage piece right

David Olivas: 20:15

there. Right. So, yeah, that's how I used to frame houses. So, so you know that that's, you know, way way off.

John Laforme: 20:22

Yeah, they definitely did some work, but they get a lot more work to do on to this house here. This by the way, this house was 1920s. Yeah. Well, that's not bad then. 1921 or so. Yeah. And here's another one. This this framing here is from a 1906. Really? Yeah. As you can see, that's pretty well rotted away. It is

David Olivas: 20:47

rotting away, but most and

John Laforme: 20:48

the support is missing. So they had there was something else here. Yeah. And I'm looking at going okay, so this is sagging. So I go inside the house, and I could see it sagging. So all that damage was just ignored. Yeah. All these years. Yeah. But

David Olivas: 21:03

normally when we see whatever damage we see. Normally it's it can be repaired.

John Laforme: 21:09

Yes. Just wood. Yeah, that's that's a good topic. I want to point that out to the viewers. So most of Dave's work that he has to repair is just two by fours, two by eights, yeah, two by sixes, maybe some four by four floor supports stuff like that. This is just stuff you can go get at Lowe's or Home Depot. Is it just a matter of literally just cutting out and removing damaged wood and just replacing it? Alright, Dave. So you've just put some really nasty pieces of wood on my desk. What's going on with this wood.

David Olivas: 21:44

The one in the center here, this is dry rot or fungus damage from moisture penetrating the wood. And what you see the wood is starting to kind of shrink. Because when it gets fungus damaged, it starts to remove the structure part of the wood so it gets kind of soft. And it'll start falling

John Laforme: 22:03

apart kind of caves in right yeah caves in.

David Olivas: 22:06

But it's it's kind of still in one piece. It's not like a cavities, it's just gets very soft and starts caving in. And that's the difference between termite damage, where Termites will actually eat the wood and hollow it out. So they'll just be like paint on the top. And it will just be completely gone inside.

John Laforme: 22:31

Interesting. Yeah. So yeah, you can see what they doing here. Yeah, they left this little

David Olivas: 22:36

piece, but it's not it because he works really hard. They won't eat it. So they're lazy termites, well, they're very careful.

John Laforme: 22:44

Okay. And this big behemoth right here, what's going on? Same thing here, right? Yeah,

David Olivas: 22:50

this is actually from from a fence. And what happens at the very bottom where it's where it's touching the ground, ground, termites will start eating it up from the bottom. Yeah. And then right here was painted. So it's been a while that they were here. And then on the other side here up is the dry termite that kind of leaves a little droppings because if you were to open this up here, you're going to see all the droppings can Oh, yeah, yeah, you can see him there. Yeah. And that's what this is. All these droppings. And the same thing with this is that the would actually get that. Wow. Yeah, it actually looks fine. But you see what's left of it is nothing. It's just a Wow, just the paint itself.

John Laforme: 23:35

It's full looks only Yeah.

David Olivas: 23:37

Because they know that they can eat up to the paint and they won't get noticed. That's usually what it is. They need to be like I said, look at that control arm. Oh, yeah,

John Laforme: 23:48

I get all that. So I was hoping one would fall out. Not from here. A dead one. dead one. Yes, but not dead termite.

David Olivas: 23:57

Nothing there.

John Laforme: 23:59

Wow. Very interesting. So these are like you mentioned before these are hard.

David Olivas: 24:03

These are hard. These are the actual droppings but there's there's they're solid shore wood. There's nothing else in it. That's pure wood. Yeah. And it will not break down. Solid.

John Laforme: 24:12

Wow. So as really, really

David Olivas: 24:16

that's where they get the moisture out of the wood for themselves is when they squeeze it out. Right and this is what's left.

John Laforme: 24:22

So right here you really take a good look at that. You can see all the jagged edges. So like they're just making little tunnels everywhere. Yeah, I get that.

David Olivas: 24:32

But this is my favorite part. is just the paint. Yeah, that's all it's left on here. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's just yeah, this is normal for a fence and for been eaten and it's outside it'll get like this

John Laforme: 24:49

so they can sense where the paint starts. Exactly. They

David Olivas: 24:53

Okay. Anyways, the reason I brought this piece of wood is because this is a piece of cedar that you can buy at Home Depot and You know, good lumber and everything like that. But some people think that's because it's cedar or redwood, it's not going to get termites, which is not true. If you put this kind of wood in the right place, it will get termites. Because termites don't care. Right. So in other words, just make sure that you have that in, in, in your mind as far as buying lumber that's very expensive like cedar, you still have to seal it, you still have to keep it off the ground, you still have to make sure that you install it properly. To make

John Laforme: 25:28

it simple. Yeah, wood and moisture don't mix. The ground has moisture, grass has moisture, dirt has moisture,

David Olivas: 25:36

dirt has termites. So true. It's either way it's gonna get to it.

John Laforme: 25:40

And if your sprinklers and spraying all over your wood, and it's touching the ground, you make matters even worse, right? Okay, so Dave, what do we got here? We got a can here, we got a can Here we get a Master, what's this all about?

David Olivas: 25:52

Okay, first of all, this is treatment if you wanted to treat it yourself. So this is a do it yourself, do it yourself over the counter. But I want to make sure you understand that it requires a same type of safety as the stuff we use, because it's used for the same thing treating for termites in a in a spot spa treatment. You always want to wear a mask. You always want to wear gloves, hopefully some rubber gloves, okay? Because even though this is over the counter is very strong. And it's it smells and it works very good. But you want to make sure you got a mask and gloves says anything.

John Laforme: 26:32

What about having kids around and stuff like that you

David Olivas: 26:35

really should have nobody around while you're using this, okay yourself or whoever's using it, okay, for a time, maybe a couple of hours in that area, just to make sure. Okay, because that's what we do. And we do treatment. This is what we use. This requires a licensed individual to purchase into use it such as such as myself, and we use the mask and the gloves all the time. And then we require everybody to be out of the room also for at least two hours. It's very safe, as long as you do it that way. Yeah, you're following follow procedure, follow the procedure and you'll be fine.

John Laforme: 27:07

Okay, so give me an example of a local treatment with like, a window sill.

David Olivas: 27:12

Yeah, like it's a window sale. I mean, obviously, not this bunch of damage. But if there's termites in a window sill, okay, and you see some evidence coming out of the window sill, you would drill a small hole in that area where you see the problem. And then you would insert the tip of that into the hole, spray it and be very careful again, with the mask and the gloves. And make sure that because it's under pressure. Yeah. So you want to make sure it doesn't come back in your face. So make sure you're right. You know, you're thinking about it. Because it's supposed to spread inside where the termites are. Yeah, well, what it is when the termites get into the wall, if they've only you know, just started, and they're just pushing out a little bit of debris, sometimes the the infestation is very large. And you can spray it and get rid of it. It depends if you have several holes in the wall. Read it. You don't always know if it's gone, but at least you can check it, read it and go from there.

John Laforme: 28:05

Okay, got it. Okay. So just so you know, you can do some of this stuff yourself. You don't have to hire Dave,

David Olivas: 28:12

but be careful. Yeah. And use the mask the gloves every

John Laforme: 28:17

now is this an N? 95? Right? Yes. And 95. So that's the that's the size masscue. And the mascot? Yes. Required. Okay, so that's an n 95. So definitely make sure you don't just, you know, put on some cheap little masks. Right. Have a good one. But make sure it is a good one. Yeah. And you know, nowadays we live in a mask world. So shouldn't be Have you shouldn't have no problem finding an N 95 masks anywhere at this point. Okay, great. When it comes to the discussion about tenting a house, how does that come about?

David Olivas: 28:49

Normally, it comes about when you see this kind of damage, drywood termite damage, and you see how much damage is on the house, assess the amount and see if it can actually be treated locally in those areas. And then sometimes you even treat it locally. And then you see the progress with the termites. And maybe a year later you find termites in another area. Then you bring it to the attention of the owner. And sometimes they want to fumigate to make sure all the termites are gone. So it's not necessary to panic and assume you have to do it right away. That takes time. You can see what's going on, then you can determine when you want to do it. And if it needs to be done. Yeah, the type of termite you're killing when you fumigate. It's a dry wood termites that's the one that has the little droppings that they leave behind. So that's that's why you do it because those can live anywhere in the house doesn't matter. Sub training of the ground termites, those usually will come up on the bottom, like under the house or around the edges. So that's where you treat the actual soil or foundation, not a tent. So two different treatments, two different kinds of termites.

John Laforme: 29:54

How long does it process take?

David Olivas: 29:55

Well, it's a three day process goes up one day comes off the third day like Monday On Day 2010 to 12, it goes up and then Wednesday 10 to 12, it comes down. And what happens is all the food in the house has to be sealed in the bags that we give, we supply to you, the termite come out, okay, they're designed for that only everything in the house in the house, normally it's fine with regards to pictures, paintings, computer, clothing, everything is fine, because the guest doesn't leave any residual. And that's the thing a lot of people are not aware of and are terrified, right. But it's pretty safe with regards to that, believe it or not, okay. And, but the worst thing of it is other than the cost of the job is being out of the house, three days, two nights

John Laforme: 30:44

and time it properly you can have that done before you leave your current house to move into that one. And it's all done right now. No, no, just no displacement at all right on that one. So another question I have regarding the tenting is, what else does that fumigation kill in the house.

David Olivas: 31:02

It's designed to kill termites, but it will kill pretty much anything in the house like roaches,

John Laforme: 31:08

you know, ants, fleas, whatever about rats and mice, well

David Olivas: 31:11

kill rats and mice. And the way you're going to know that is because when you come back to the house, if there's any dead rats, it's going to smell.

John Laforme: 31:18

I think that wraps it up for Dave here helping us out with explaining the termite process and all that good stuff. And a difference, I hope I was able to establish the difference between a home inspector and a termite inspector, that was the point of doing this video. So where my job ends, his job starts, so to speak, right? And it's not to be combined in any way. And that's something we have to struggle with with customers every day is explaining that, well, why can't you tell me what it is because I'm not qualified to tell you what it is. According to California state law, I'm not allowed to tell you his job. So a lot of times what happens at the end of the inspections? Let's say another termite guys there even you sometimes I've actually asked you not to save stuff before, right? That's true. I think I'm in the other room finishing my home inspection while he's in the living room giving his overview of his termite because he's done. And then I'll hear him say, oh, yeah, John found some wood stuff, too. He'll tell you all about it. And I'm like, No, Dave, I won't. So I've corrected him a couple of times only because I don't want to be thrown under the bus like that. Right? And then how he Well, he shouldn't have told you that. So. But if that's the fine line that we have to know, no, that's what it be. It happens. So it does happen. It's all about, you know, some things get lost in translation. Yeah. And oftentimes, you know, inspections take a long time. And by the, by the time we're both at the end of the inspections, the homeowner or the buyer is not listening to us completely. And they're only hearing certain words like termite or water damage, and they freak out. So don't freak out. It's can all be fixed. Just buy the house if you really want the house and just deal with the repairs. Thanks, Dave.

David Olivas: 33:06

Just get all the info. Okay, so

John Laforme: 33:08

the takeaway here is don't panic over termites, it's very normal for any home to have some type of a termite issue. Some are minor, some are major, it's just a matter of knowing where those areas are addressing those areas, and then that's it, you know, it's just part of owning a house. So, I want to thank again, David, for giving us all that information. You can reach David to leave us at Pyramid pest control. At 818-298-8939. You can call or text him if you're in the Los Angeles area, need a termite inspection. You can also email him at Pyramid pest@aol.com. So, I want to also put it out there that if you look for a home inspection, or a sewer camera inspection, or a swimming pool inspection, indoor air quality testing or a mold inspection and testing, you can give me a call at 800-950-8184. Or you can email me directly at John at home inspection authority calm and if you have a chance to check out the YouTube channel. That's home inspection of thority on YouTube. Got a lot of great videos on there. And also, you can find me on Instagram at authority inspector and tick tock ad authority inspector. So thanks again for listening and we'll keep on bringing you some new episodes. Take care