Should I Panic About the Termite in the Fence Around My House?

While doing some repairs on the decaying cedar fence around my house, I saw a termite between the boards. If there’s one, I assume there are more. Should I be in full panic mode? I don’t want my house to get eaten because I did nothing. —House Dutiful

We don’t hear much about termites in Portland these days, Dutiful. My most recent cultural touchstone on the subject is the Ogden Nash poem: “Some primal termite knocked on wood/And tasted it, and found it good/And that is why your Cousin May/Fell through the parlor floor today.” If you’re thinking that doesn’t sound very recent, you’re not wrong; Nash died before Watergate. These days, termites barely register on our hit parade of horrors, charting somewhere between quicksand and static cling. Could they be one of those bygone plagues, like whooping cough or Joan Rivers, that we no longer have to worry about?

You don’t need to worry too much, but it’s not because termites are obsolete. It’s just that our local species isn’t all that destructive. The pests you’re dealing with, for example, are probably dampwood termites. Plentiful in this area, they thrive on wet, rotting wood—which is probably what your busted-ass fence is made of (no offense). Dampwood termites aren’t big house-eaters, requiring more moisture than most houses can provide, which makes them pretty benign.

What you have could also be subterranean termites. These are more of a concern, since they do sometimes attack houses, but they also require a lot of moisture. To invade, they need places where damp soil meets wet wood, like leaky basements, crawl spaces, or untreated, softening decks and siding.

What your bugs almost certainly aren’t, though, is drywood termites. These live in warmer climates (think Southern California or the Gulf Coast). As their name implies, drywood termites will happily devour your house and wash it down with a big glass of sawdust, moisture be damned. (They’re probably the species responsible for putting Ogden Nash’s friend’s cousin in the basement.)

Fortunately, that’s not something we have to deal with. If you live in Portland and can manage to keep things reasonably dry, you should be able to avoid having your house hollowed out over years by termites. That means it will still be intact and whole when you finally have it destroyed all at once in a giant earthquake, like a real Oregonian.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.