Termite infestation: what to do (and what not to do)

If you think you have termites, the priorities are simple: don't disturb them, don't spray them, and book a professional inspection quickly. Disturbing an active colony makes it retreat and spread to other parts of the house — which makes the problem harder and more expensive to fix.

How to tell if it's actually termites

The common signs are mud tubes (pencil-width mud trails on walls, piers or in the subfloor), timber that sounds hollow or papery when tapped, paint that looks rippled or bubbling, doors and windows that suddenly stick, and small piles of what look like sawdust or discarded wings near windowsills.

In the Sutherland Shire, homes backing onto bushland — Menai, Engadine, and the bush-fringe streets of Sutherland — carry the highest risk, because subterranean colonies move from leaf litter and dead timber straight into nearby houses.

What NOT to do

Don't spray surface insecticide on them, don't knock down the mud tubes, and don't keep poking at the area. It feels productive, but all it does is scatter the colony deeper into your home and destroy the evidence a technician needs to trace the nest. Plenty of serious infestations got worse because someone hit them with a can of bug spray first.

What to do right now

Note where you saw the activity, keep everyone away from it, and book a professional timber-pest inspection. If there's an easy moisture source nearby (a leaking tap, blocked drain, damp subfloor), reducing it helps — but the main job is getting it inspected fast, because termite damage compounds month on month.

What a professional does

A technician inspects the whole property, locates the colony, then treats it at the source — either direct colony treatment plus a chemical barrier, or a baiting system — and sets up monitoring so it can't quietly return. The point is to eliminate the nest, not just the termites you happened to see.