Live termites in your Officer home: what to do in the first hour
Do not spray them. Do not break the mud tube or pull the skirting off any further. Cover the spot loosely with a sheet of plastic or the piece of timber you just lifted, turn off any dripping tap, leaking hot water relief line or air conditioner drain within a few metres of it, take six photos, and call us. Termites scatter through the wall frame when they are disturbed and then feed somewhere you cannot see. A first response foam and dust at the activity site is $350 to $700, the colony treatment behind it is $2,000 to $8,000, and both get harder and dearer the moment the workings are broken open.
The first hour
- Stop touching it. Put the screwdriver down. Every minute of poking pushes the foraging party further back into the frame.
- Cover it loosely. Tape a sheet of plastic, cardboard or the removed skirting back over the opening. You want the humidity and the darkness held in so they stay put until we arrive.
- Kill the water. Turn off a dripping garden tap, isolate a leaking cistern or hot water relief line, and redirect a downpipe or split system condensate line discharging into the garden bed against that wall. Moisture is what is holding them there.
- Photograph it. One wide shot, one close shot with a coin for scale, one short video of movement, plus the outside wall behind that spot and the garden bed at its base.
- Mark the spot. A pencil circle or a strip of masking tape. In a full house inspection the exact location matters more than you would think.
- Move stored goods back. Clear a metre of working space along that wall and out of the garage or cupboard, but do not move the infested timber itself.
- Leave the mulch, sleepers and firewood where they are for now. Disturbing a satellite nest in the garden scatters it. We deal with conducive conditions after the inspection, not before it.
- Call 0485 813 822. Tell us the suburb, the build year, whether it is slab or stumps, and what you can see. We will tell you honestly whether it is a today job or a Thursday job.
If the workings are inside a meter box, around the switchboard, or wrapped around cabling in the roof space, do not open anything. Subterranean termites use the warmth and the cable penetrations, and the first person in there should be an electrician, not you and not us.
What you are looking at, how urgent it is, and what it costs
Officer, Cardinia Lakes and Heritage Springs are mostly slab-on-ground homes built since about 2010, so the classic subfloor evidence is rare here and almost everything shows up at the slab edge, in the weepholes or inside the wall lining. Older Beaconsfield, Pakenham and Pakenham Upper houses on stumps show it in the subfloor first.
| What you are seeing | What it usually means | How urgent | Typical cost to put right |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live termites in a skirting, architrave or door jamb you have just opened | An active foraging party inside the building fabric. The colony is normally 18 to 36 months old by this point. | Now | $350 to $700 first response, then $2,000 to $8,000 for the colony |
| A mud tube up a foundation wall, pier or slab edge | A runway from soil to timber, active or recently active. Very common where a garden bed has been built up over the slab edge. | This week | $350 to $550 inspection, treatment quoted from the findings |
| Hollow or papery sound when you tap a skirting board | Timber eaten from the inside with the paint film left intact. Pine studs go first because they are soft. | This week | $350 to $550 to confirm, then $2,000 to $25,000 if framing is involved |
| A blistered or rippled patch of paint on plaster, usually near a wet area | Moisture and workings behind the sheet. Thermal imaging and a moisture meter read it without opening the wall. | This week | $350 to $550. Do not cut it open first. |
| Swarming winged insects indoors on a warm humid evening, November to March | Alates leaving a mature nest, usually within 50 to 100 metres. They shed their wings on the windowsill. | This week | $350 to $550. Keep a dozen in a sealed jar for identification. |
| Mud or fine soil packed into a weephole | Termites bridging the slab edge behind render or a raised garden bed. The single most common finding in the newer Officer estates. | This week | $350 to $550, plus $0 to $600 to cut the garden back off the slab |
| Workings inside a meter box or around the switchboard | A colony using the warmth and the cable entry. Chewed insulation is a genuine fire risk. | Now | $350 to $700, plus an electrician commonly $150 to $300 for the callout |
| European wasp nest in a wall cavity or beside a door, February to April | A colony of thousands at peak aggression. Unlike a bee, one wasp can sting repeatedly. | Now if anyone reacts to stings | $280 to $580 per nest |
| Rats in the roof, chewing at night | Cable insulation and water pipe damage. Common in first and second year estate homes where the eaves are not sealed. | This week | $280 to $580 for baiting plus entry point proofing |
| Old, dry, grey mud tubes with nothing alive in them | A historical attack, possibly already treated by a previous owner. It still tells you the pressure on the block is real. | Can wait | $350 to $550 at your next annual inspection |
| A door or window that has suddenly dropped or jammed | Either loss of timber section in the jamb, or, far more often in Cardinia, reactive clay moving the slab after a wet spell. | This week | $350 to $550 to rule termites out, $0 if it is only clay movement |
| A few winged insects at a window in spring with a pinched waist | Flying ants, not termites. Ants have a narrow waist, elbowed antennae and two pairs of unequal wings. Termites have none of that. | Can wait | $0. Send us a photo and we will tell you which it is. |
Indicative Officer and Cardinia Shire figures for 2026. A fixed price always needs someone on site. Call 0485 813 822.
What actually makes the damage worse
Four things turn a contained problem into an expensive one, and three of them are things people do in the first hour. Spraying is the worst: a repellent surface product does not reach the nest, it teaches the colony to route around that wall, and six months later the damage is in the next room. Breaking the mud lead is second, because the workings are how we trace the entry point back to a slab penetration or a bridged garden bed. Third is opening the wall up wide before an inspection, which lets the humidity out and sends the foragers home. Fourth, and the only one that runs on its own clock, is water. Coptotermes acinaciformis, the destructive subterranean termite right across the Cardinia Shire, needs moisture to keep the nest humid. A dripping tap, a split system draining into the garden bed against the slab, a blocked downpipe or a shower leaking into a wall is what invited them and what is keeping them fed. Turning that water off costs nothing and is the one thing you can do in the first hour that genuinely helps.
Safe to do yourself
- Turning off taps, isolating a leaking cistern, redirecting a downpipe or condensate line.
- Photographing, measuring and writing down what you saw and when.
- Moving furniture and stored goods away from the wall.
- Opening windows in the affected room. Termites hate airflow and dry air.
- Collecting a few insects in a sealed jar for identification.
Genuinely dangerous, leave it
- Anything electrical. Workings in a meter box, around a switchboard or on cabling means an electrician first.
- Cutting into a wall frame, bearer, lintel or post to see how bad it is. If the section is gone, you become the load path.
- Crawling into a subfloor with under 400mm clearance, live wiring or any chance of asbestos sheeting, which is common in Cardinia houses built before 1990.
- Roof voids in summer. A Victorian roof space sits well past 50° by mid afternoon.
- Kerosene, diesel, bleach, boiling water or petrol near a frame. People still try it. It does not kill a colony and it does create a fire and a health problem.
Not sure whether it is a today job?
Send a photo or describe it on the phone. We will tell you straight, and there is no charge for the call.
After hours versus Monday morning: the honest numbers
Our normal hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm. Inside those hours a same-day or next-day inspection is the standard $350 to $550 for a single-storey home and $500 to $800 for a double-storey. Outside them, on a Sunday or on a public holiday, expect a callout premium of roughly $180 to $350 on top, or an emergency hourly rate in the $150 to $220 range plus travel. That premium is fair when the work genuinely cannot wait. For termites it almost never is.
Here is the honest line, and it costs us money to say it. If you found termites at 8pm on a Friday and you have followed the eight steps above, waiting until Monday changes nothing. The colony has been feeding for a year and a half or more. Two more days of undisturbed feeding is a rounding error against that, and you save the $180 to $350 premium. More importantly you get a technician who is not rushing between jobs and can spend the full 90 to 120 minutes on the whole house rather than the one wall, which is where the second and third entry points usually turn up.
The jobs where paying the premium is the right call are different in kind: a European wasp nest at a doorway or in a wall cavity where somebody in the house reacts badly to stings, a rodent problem in a food business the day before a council health inspection, a bee swarm in a public place, or a burst pipe flooding a subfloor. Those are risk-to-people or risk-to-business situations. See our wasp nest removal page and our commercial pest programs for what those look like.
What we do not do
We are pest technicians, not carpenters. We foam and dust the activity, install the barrier or the baiting system, and write the scope of the damage with photos and measurements so a builder can price the repair. We do not replace framing, re-sheet walls or repaint, and we will not quote work we cannot do. If your damage needs structural repair we say so in writing and hand you the scope to take to a builder, which is also the document your assessor or your bank will ask for.
What happens when we get there
Confirm the species
Coptotermes, Nasutitermes and Heterotermes all occur in Victoria and they are not treated the same way. Five minutes with a hand lens decides the whole treatment plan.
Knock down the activity
Foam and dust into the workings so foragers carry the product back to the nest. $350 to $700, usually done on the same visit.
Inspect the whole property
AS 3660.2 inspection of every internal wall, the roof void, the slab perimeter, outbuildings, fences and any timber retaining walls. Thermal, moisture meter and borescope at every anomaly.
Written report inside 24 hours
Photos of the activity, the entry point, every conducive condition, and a plain scope of any damage found.
Treatment options with prices
A Termidor barrier or a Sentricon program, or both. Fixed price, and we tell you which one your build type actually suits.
Costs in detail are on our termite treatment cost page and our full price list. If the house is a newer build, read the barrier recharge page first, because a chemical reticulation system installed with the slab may simply be due for a top up. Once this is dealt with, our maintenance schedule is what keeps it from happening again.
Send us the photos and we will tell you if it is a today job
We read every enquiry the same business day, and if what you describe is genuinely urgent we phone you back rather than email.
Questions we get on the emergency line
Should I spray termites I have just found?
Are termites a genuine after-hours emergency in Officer?
How much does it cost to deal with active termites in a Cardinia Shire home?
What should I photograph before you arrive?
Is it safe to go into the subfloor or roof void myself to look?
What if I have already sprayed or broken the mud tube?
More reading for your suburb: Officer, Pakenham, Cardinia Lakes and the wider Cardinia Shire. Buying rather than living in it? Start with the pre-purchase inspection page. Renting it out? See who pays in a Victorian rental.