Fumigation in Los Altos Hills, CA

Local Context

Tenting a Sprawling Hillside House Is a Different Job Than Tenting a Tract Home

The shape of Los Altos Hills housing decides when fumigation becomes the answer. Mid-Century Modern and Modern Ranch homes here spread horizontally across an acre instead of stacking, which produces a large roof area, long runs of concealed framing, and additions built in different decades that meet at hidden junctions. Western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor) settle into those junctions. When frass turns up at four or five separated locations, spot treatment is only treating the parts we can see.

The setting adds real logistics. Lots step down toward Adobe, Matadero and Purissima creeks, private driveways off Page Mill Road, Moody Road and Robleda Road are long and narrow, and mature oaks lean over the roof on most properties. Tarps have to clear that canopy without abrading, seal to a foundation whose elevation changes across the footprint, and stay anchored on a slope. We plan the crew and the equipment approach around all of it before a date goes on the calendar.

Much of the town falls inside the Town's adopted Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area, where hazardous vegetation and fuel management around structures is required. That works in our favor, because the defensible-space clearance owners already maintain makes a tent seal easier to achieve. Detached stables, guest cottages and pool houses are separate structures, and they are inspected and tented separately when they are infested.