Fumigation in Hollister, CA

Local Context

A Tent Answers a Scope Problem, and in Hollister That Problem Lives in the Oldest Framing

Fumigation is a scope decision, not a severity one. Hollister's dominant termite is subterranean, and those colonies live in soil and get treated in soil — a tent does nothing for them. What sends a Hollister house to fumigation is western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor) established in several separate places in the framing at once. They live entirely inside the wood, need no soil contact, and a colony in a ridge beam sits beyond the reach of any drill-and-inject.

The older core is where we find that pattern. The Queen Annes, Italianates, and Craftsman bungalows around Dunne Park, San Benito Street, and the Monterey Street Historic District have been added onto, re-roofed, and re-sided repeatedly since the 1890s. Each layer buried framing the next owner could not see. When we open one eave and find frass, then find it again at a window header on the far side of the house, the galleries running between them are the argument for tenting.

Hollister makes the logistics easier than most of our territory. Lots here are generally wide, setbacks are real, and detached garages and shops are common, so there is room to tent without touching a neighbor's roofline. The thing to plan around is wind — afternoon air coming in through the Pajaro gap will push a crew off a roof, so tarp work here goes up in the morning.