Nobody thinks about a pest inspection until something shows up. Maybe it’s a trail of ants on the counter, droppings in a drawer or a swarm of winged bugs at the back door. By then the pests have usually had a head start. An inspection flips that around. Someone who knows what to look for goes through the places you don’t, like the crawl space, the attic and the foundation, and tells you what’s going on before it turns into a repair bill.
Here are seven good reasons to schedule one.
1. Termites work where you can’t see them
Subterranean termites can feed inside the framing of a house for a long time before anything shows. They come up from the soil, often in a crawl space, behind a porch or at a slab joint, and they can get through a crack as small as 1/64 of an inch. Swarmers in spring are often the first thing people notice, and by the time a colony is big enough to swarm, it’s been around for a while. Looking for termites on purpose is the only reliable way to catch them early, and our termite inspections are free.
2. Small problems are cheaper problems
A few ants or a single mouse is an easy fix. A colony living in the wall or a family of rats in the attic is a bigger job, with more cleanup and sometimes repairs to insulation, wiring or wood. Mice breed fast, so a couple that slip in during the fall can turn into a real problem by spring. And with termites, the sooner they’re found, the less wood they’ve had time to eat.
3. Nobody goes in the crawl space
A lot of Eastern North Carolina homes sit on crawl spaces, and they’re just about perfect for pests. They’re dark, damp, right next to the soil and almost never visited. Mud tubes on the piers, damp or soft framing, a torn vapor barrier and rodent nests in the insulation can all sit there unnoticed for years. The attic is the same story. An inspection gets eyes on both.
4. It finds the conditions before the pests
A good inspection isn’t only about bugs. It looks for the things that draw them in, like moisture under the house, wood touching soil, gutters dumping water at the foundation, gaps around pipes and shrubs growing against the siding. Fixing those is usually simple, and it heads off problems before they start instead of treating them after.
5. You’re buying or selling a house
Termite damage is an expensive thing to find out about after you’ve closed, which is one reason lenders often ask for a wood-destroying insect report first. Sellers who check ahead of time avoid last-minute repair negotiations that can stall a closing, and they get to fix things on their own schedule instead of a buyer’s deadline.
We do both home inspections and wood-destroying insect reports, and the report is $30 off when you book them together.
6. It protects your family’s health
Rodents leave droppings and urine on counters, in pantries and in insulation. Cockroach droppings and shed skins are known triggers for allergies and asthma, especially in kids. Knowing what you’re dealing with means you can clean up safely and treat it properly instead of guessing.
7. You get a plan instead of a guess
Store shelves are full of sprays, baits and foggers, and most of them are made for a specific pest. Some ant baits work on one kind of ant and do nothing for another, and repellent sprays can scatter a colony into several. An inspection tells you what you have, how big the problem is and where it’s getting in, so the treatment actually fits.
And it’s a lot easier to sleep when you know what’s in your walls and what isn’t.
What happens next
If the inspection finds a problem, we’ll explain it in plain language and give you options. For rodents, our rodent control service closes up the ways in and deals with the ones already inside. For general pests, we treat the inside, outside, crawl space and attic on every visit. For termites, we use the Trelona bait system and Termidor.
Same-day or next-day service is available, and a real person answers the phone. Call us or use the form below to set up a time.
