Termite Control in Ben Lomond, CA

Local Context

In Ben Lomond the Termites Come Up Out of the Ground, Not Down From the Rafters

Ben Lomond sits on the San Lorenzo River under second-growth redwood, and the ground here almost never dries out. Close to fifty inches of rain falls in an average year, nearly all of it between November and April, and the marine layer that fills the valley most summer mornings keeps what is left damp past breakfast. Western subterranean termites (Reticulitermes hesperus) need that soil moisture to forage, and on the river-adjacent parcels below Highway 9 they get it twelve months a year instead of six.

The housing stock hands them a route in. Much of Ben Lomond was framed between the 1940s and the 1970s as mountain cabins and ranch homes, and the rustic lumber cabins around the Village and Glen Arbor are older still. Redwood decks, stair stringers, skirt boards, and post bases sit close to grade because the lots are steep and the grade moves. Pacific dampwood termites (Zootermopsis angusticollis) take the wood the subterraneans leave: anything that stays wet, which on a shaded north slope off Alba Road is most of the exterior trim.

That changes what a termite inspection has to cover. Drywood termites drop frass you can spot on a windowsill. Subterranean and dampwood colonies work from below and leave mud tubes, blistered paint, and wood that only gives itself up under a probe. In a Ben Lomond crawl space the evidence is usually on the pier blocks and the mudsill, not in the attic — which is why houses that were only ever looked at from the eaves have been missing it for years.