Do termites go away on their own?

Because your house is a stable food source next to a stable nest. Subterranean termites nest in the soil, where the moisture and temperature suit them, and they build the earth-colored tubes Penn State describes to reach wood above ground without drying out. UC IPM notes a mature colony can contain hundreds of thousands of individuals, and Penn State notes individual workers can live up to five years. A colony that size, with that much labor, working from a nest that is never disturbed, has no reason to abandon a sill plate it has already reached. Swarm season comes and goes each spring, but the workers never leave.

It turns a local repair into a structural one. University of Kentucky's extension notes that termites are cryptic creatures and infestations can go undetected for years, which is the real danger: by the time a homeowner sees a swarm or a soft spot, the colony has often been feeding for a while. Penn State describes what extensive feeding looks like: wood largely hollowed out with passages and rotten in appearance. A colony left alone spreads along the sill, up into studs and into subfloor, and every season it goes untreated is more framing to replace along with the treatment.

Treatment that reaches the colony. Penn State describes two professional approaches: a soil treatment that establishes a treated barrier between the wood in the building and the colony, and baits that use cellulose attractants to carry a slow-acting product back to the nest. Both are professional jobs; UC IPM's position is that it is unlikely homeowners will be able to execute subterranean termite control on their own, and Penn State does not recommend that homeowners attempt to treat their own homes. Fixing the moisture that drew them, grading and gutters and leaks, keeps the next colony from finding the same spot.

The houses that keep us busiest are the ones where someone saw swarmers a few springs ago and decided to wait. In a Levittown ranch or a Massapequa high-ranch on a slab, that wait usually costs a run of sill plate and the bottom of several studs behind the kitchen or a bathroom. In older Huntington and Oyster Bay houses with damp basements and wood posts on dirt, it can be worse. Termite treatment on Long Island from Bobby Bugs carries a written guarantee, 1 year on a partial treatment and 2 years on a full one, and the estimate is free.