The Termite Signs Every Massachusetts Homeowner Should Check Before Listing

By Mike DelRose Jr. | DelRose McShane Team | Coldwell Banker Realty

Quick AnswerBefore you list your home in Belmont, Watertown, or anywhere in Greater Boston, walk your basement and your foundation line. Look for mud tubes running up the concrete, soft or hollow wood near the ground, and any spot where soil meets untreated lumber. Eastern subterranean termites cause nearly all the termite damage in New England, and they work quietly for years before anyone notices.

This is the kind of thing our team walks for on every listing appointment. Four decades in these neighborhoods teaches you where to look.

Why should you check for termites before a buyer’s inspector does?

A surprise on inspection day costs you leverage. When a buyer’s inspector finds active termites or old damage you never disclosed, the conversation shifts from price to trust. You end up negotiating from behind. Catch it first, treat it, document it, and you walk into the deal with the answer already in hand. There’s always another buyer, but there’s only one first impression on an inspection report.

What do termite signs actually look like?

Back in May, GreenHow Pest Control came out to check the bait stations at my own home. The previous owners had found termite damage in the garage and installed the stations years ago. My rep knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to see something. I followed him outside, pulled out my phone, and filmed him opening a station. Live termites, right there in the ground. Little white bugs, moving.

Live termites inside a bait station at my home in May. Footage: GreenHow Pest Control, Newton.

Eastern subterranean termites need moisture, so they build pencil-width mud tubes along foundation walls to carry it. Those tubes are your clearest tell. Other signs include discarded wings near windows after a spring swarm, and wood that sounds hollow when you tap it. According to GreenHow Pest Control in Newton, the damage is often severe by the time it shows.

Where do termites get into a home?

They get in where wood meets dirt. Untreated lumber close to the ground gives them a direct path, and moisture makes it worse. Deck posts, fence sections, buried scrap wood, and old stumps all qualify.

A couple of weeks after my bait station visit, my son was digging in a garden at a friend’s house and exposed what looked like a termite colony. Same little white bugs I had just filmed in my own yard. I told the homeowners to call a pest control company and confirm before assuming anything. That is the right move every time. None of us are pest professionals, and neither is a phone camera. You observe, you compare, you call someone licensed. That is the same standard our whole team holds on every transaction we touch.

What my son uncovered while digging in a friend’s garden. Same little white bugs. We recommended the homeowners call a licensed pro to confirm.

How do you make your home less inviting to termites?

Three steps carry most of the weight. Move untreated wood away from the foundation and off the soil. Trim or pull any vegetation touching the foundation, since it traps moisture and hides activity. Find and fix areas of wood rot, because rotted wood is both a signal and a buffet. Drainage matters too. Water pooling near the foundation is the welcome mat.

Who should you call?

Confirm any suspicion with a licensed professional before you spend a dollar on treatment. We work with GreenHow Pest Control in Newton, and my friend and former college roommate Pat Bozarjian owns B&B Pest Control, which serves the North Shore and Greater Boston. Either one can tell you in one visit whether you have a problem or just peace of mind. A trusted vendor list is one of the quiet advantages of working with a team that has been doing this across three generations.

Catching termites early protects your home and your investment. If you are thinking about listing and want a second set of eyes before you do, reach out. Any one of us on the DelRose McShane Team is happy to walk through it with you.

The DelRose McShane Team, Coldwell Banker Realty.