03-04-2011, 04:17 AM
My first house was built in 1935, I lived in it from 1991 to 2002. It had one spot in the garage where a funky bunch of intersecting rooflines led to a little bit of rainwater leakage, once or twice a year at the start of rainy season, then the wet wood would swell up and the leak would stop. This was in Miami (25 degrees latitude), about 8' above sea level and 100 yards from Biscayne Bay.
Needless to say, the wet spot had termites.
The areas around the wet spot, up to about 6' away had signs of previous termite infestation, including (inactive) subterranean tunnels. I have no idea what the original 1935-1986 owner did about it. The owners before me said they never had a termite problem. I found active termites in 1992. I spot treated them every year or two for 10 years with the "TermOut" spray cans with the injector tube & needle.
Upon sale in 2002, the inspector ranted and raved about how clean the attic was and how the house had lived a "charmed life" to go so long without a major termite infestation.
A few weeks later (honestly, I didn't know beforehand), when we moved all the junk out of the house, I figured out that the periodic swarms of flying ants in the enclosed porch (swarms = 5 to 10 ants noticed once or twice a year) were coming from a termite infestation around one of the windows that had been installed around 1986 - the wood used between the aluminum window and the concrete wall was cheap, untreated, and barely painted. It's amazing it hadn't popped out during a gust of wind. The buyers were replacing the windows anyway, so...
I don't really have a point, other than the fact that that house had (at least) two separate ongoing termite infestations, one periodically treated, one not, for 10+ years, which never erupted into a full-scale infestation. Tenting would have killed the termites around the window without even knowing they were there- but I bet they would have returned within a year.
Caveats: in 1935, a lot of homes in the area were built with old-growth pine, you can't buy wood like that anymore. It's not termite-proof, but it is harder for them to chew. In the 30's and 40's they also used things like DDT, which are very effective long-term, and also no longer used for lots of good reasons. Finally, the outside walls were concrete block and the inside was plaster on wood lath - you can do that today, but you probably wouldn't due to the cost.