Total termite protection — are we being scammed?

[Melisande]

For those of us who live in termite-prone areas, do you pay inordinate annual sums ($300 to $400) for on-going “total coverage baiting total protection” programs? If not, do you just get your house inspected once in a while?

Every year this bill is a point of contention between DH and myself. I feel like we are paying for nothing. A guy comes out for an inspection every quarter or so and never finds anything, then we pay an additional $90 for each of those visits. The $300 to $400 annually is just to maintain the baiting stuff they have set up. My DH feels that even if we are paying for nothing, that’s not so bad because if we ever sell the house, we can say that we had continuous total termite protection. And that will look good.

Unfortunately, if we decide to cancel our “service” and change our minds, they will literally charge us over $1000 and I think quite a bit more, just to set up the baiting stations again, or whatever it is that they do.

[reeshau]

That seems like a lot; maybe it's justified...

We are new to Texas, but just got a $900 full house treatment, after discovering termites coming out of our doorbell.  (after having an all-clear inspection last summer)  Our maintenance program is $90 per year for 10 years; if they find something, they treat it.  There is no baiting.

We had a small infestation--happy we caught it early, even if accidentally.  I certainly imagine letting it go untreated will cost more.  But my point is that there are less intense programs that still keep someone engaged regularly.

[Fishindude]

We live in an old country home that has had termites a few times over it's lifetime.   yes, we pay for the ongoing upkeep of the bait stations and have not had any issues since doing so.  I think it's pretty cheap insurance when you consider what kind of damage those vermin can do in pretty short order, before you detect their presence.

The Terminix crews have been working on my neighbors home across the road now for about the last week, doing extermination and repairs.  They currently have a big excavation at back side of the house to access the crawl space.    I'll bet they wish they'd have paid a $3-400 annual fee.

[hooplady]

In my area a termite bond seems to run about $250-400. That covers an annual inspection, no bait stations but a full re-treat (tent/fumigation) if termites are found. If you don't have a bond, tenting costs about $2000-3000 depending on the size of the house. My neighborhood may be unique because I'm in a historic section and houses are very close together; I don't know of anyone who bothers with bait stations.

[Melisande]

Yeah, I did more research and see why it is needed (sigh). I found out that what we are paying is partially insurance. Not only will the company protect our house from termites, but if they fail they will pay for the clean up.

[ChpBstrd]

I pay $200/year for an annual inspection/spray and an insurance policy specifically for termite damage.

Shop around. There are tons of small businesses doing this service.

[lutorm]

Hawaii has a lot of termites (as I'm sitting here typing this they're swarming outside the windows) but I've never heard of anyone having a "baiting plan". Is this for subterranean or drywood termites? Drywood is most common here and everyone just seems to get their houses tented every few years. Supposedly the tenting comes with a warranty that they'll come and treat any infestations found for 2 or 3 years, but since you're very unlikely to find a small infestation unless they start dropping pellets out in to the living spaces, I'm not sure that's worth anything.