Loudoun County Termite Control

What Homeowners Notice First

The most common first sighting is a swarm. On a warm afternoon in March, April, or May, usually a day or two after rain, winged termites show up at a basement window, a sliding door, or a light fixture. Then you find a pile of shed wings on the sill. That is not a colony passing through. Swarmers inside mean a colony is already established in or under the house. Our guide to termite swarmers covers how to tell them apart from the flying ants that swarm at the same time of year.

The second sign is mud. Eastern subterranean termites will not cross open air. They build pencil-width tubes of soil and saliva up foundation walls, block piers, and crawl space joists. Look along the inside face of the foundation, behind stored boxes in the basement, and up the piers in a crawl space. Our breakdown of termite mud tubes shows what an active tube looks like versus an abandoned one.

The Quieter Clues

Tap door casings, window trim, baseboards, and garage framing with a screwdriver handle. A hollow or papery sound means the wood has been eaten from the inside. Watch for paint that bubbles or ripples on trim, floors that feel soft near an outside wall, and doors that suddenly stick. Many Loudoun homes have been renovated or added onto. Pay close attention to the seam where the original house meets the addition, because that joint is where protection is most often broken. The eastern subterranean termite profile walks through the biology behind all of it.

Leesburg, Waterford, Hamilton, and the Historic Stock

In Leesburg's historic district and the old village cores at Waterford, Hamilton, Middleburg, and Purcellville, the weak point is the foundation itself. Fieldstone and rubble walls, mortar joints that have been freezing and thawing since the 1800s, dirt-floor cellars, hand-dug crawl spaces, and original heart-pine sills close to the ground give termites a dozen ways up into the framing. Firewood stacked against the wall for a wood stove makes it worse. Our guide to termites in firewood explains why that pile belongs well away from the house. If your home is in or near downtown, we go deeper on those old foundations on our termite treatment in Leesburg page.

Sterling, Ashburn, Brambleton, and the Newer Builds

Sterling Park's 1960s homes have had six decades to settle. Cracked block, worn crawl vents, and failed vapor barriers are routine there. Newer construction in Ashburn, Broadlands, Brambleton, South Riding, and Aldie fails in a different way. The builder's soil pretreatment breaks down, the slab develops hairline cracks at the expansion joints, and heavy mulch beds get piled against the siding. Mulch holds water right at the foundation and gives a colony a bridge over the treated soil. See termites in mulch for how deep is too deep. In townhome rows, the foundation and footing run the length of the building, so one unit's infestation is the whole building's problem. That is why we inspect the whole run, not just the address.