Fumigation in Monte Sereno, CA

Local Context

Tenting a Custom House on Two Acres Is a Different Job From Tenting a Tract Home

Fumigation becomes the right call in Monte Sereno for a structural reason. The custom homes here — mid-century ranch, Spanish and Mediterranean Revival, and later architect-built houses — were framed with long spans, cathedral ceilings, open beam work and several roof planes. When Incisitermes minor establishes in three or four separate members across that framing, drilling and injecting each one still leaves the galleries nobody can see. Sulfuryl fluoride is a gas. It moves through every void, joint and beam inside the envelope at once, which is the only way to reach a colony sealed in a closed cavity.

The lots change how the job is staged rather than whether it works. A tarp needs clearance, and on a half-acre to two-acre Monte Sereno parcel there is usually ground for it. The same lots also carry mature oaks overhanging the roof, dense ornamental beds tight against the foundation, pools, and long private drives that a fumigation truck has to reach. Twin Creeks is the harder access: curving lanes with no curbs, no gutters and heavy canopy, where a crew has to work out staging before the day of the tenting. Overhanging limbs often have to be tied back before a tarp will seat properly.

The outbuildings need a decision of their own. A detached garage or pool house that shares the infestation is tented as its own structure or treated locally, depending on what the inspection found. It is not automatically included under the house tarp, and owners here are often surprised by that. We tell you which buildings are in scope before anything is scheduled.