Termite Control in Berkeley, CA

Local Context

Century-Old Douglas Fir, a 1,700-Foot Slope, and Two Different Termites

Berkeley's housing stock is among the oldest in the East Bay. Most of the Craftsman bungalows, brown shingles, and Edwardian flats in Northbrae, Thousand Oaks, and the Claremont blocks went up between 1900 and 1930, and the wood behind the siding is old-growth Douglas fir and redwood. That framing is tight-grained, still structurally sound, and it has fed western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor) for a hundred years. In the brown shingles of North Berkeley and the Craftsman bungalows of Elmwood, the colony lives entirely inside the member. The first thing most owners notice is a small cone of six-sided frass pellets on a windowsill under a pinhole in the trim.

The slope decides the species. Berkeley runs from sea level at the Marina to roughly 1,700 feet at the Tilden ridge, and that gradient splits the city into two termite problems. Down in the flats along San Pablo Avenue and Fourth Street, marine fog pulled through the Golden Gate gap keeps soil moisture high, and subterranean termites (Reticulitermes) forage year-round and build mud tubes up foundation walls. Above campus — Cragmont, Thousand Oaks, the Claremont blocks off Tunnel Road — it runs warmer and drier, and drywood flights come on warm evenings from August through October.

A third species shows up where water does not drain. Hillside houses with runoff crossing the lot, and fog-belt homes with damp sub-areas, hold enough moisture for dampwood termites in sill plates, deck posts, and the ends of joists. Because so much of this stock has never been treated, a Berkeley inspection is usually reading a hundred years of accumulated history at once, not a single active pocket.