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I have “check for termites” as a recurring event in my calendar, and so once a month I walk around the house examining the ceiling and walls for signs of termite tunnels. (We’ve had trouble with subterranean termites in the past, so I check for them regularly so the pest control company can come out if need be.)

As usual, I did my monthly inspection this month. I didn’t find any termite tunnels, but I did find some odd little round things behind the blinds on the windowsill in the kitchen. They looked kind of like little peppercorns, but I couldn’t figure out how peppercorns could have gotten on the windowsill, so I investigated further.

Turns out that the paint and drywall covering at the top of the windowsill had peeled down a little. I poked at it, and more stuff fell out along with stuff that looked like sawdust.

And it probably was sawdust, because we now have dry wood termites. Ugh! They are in at least four small spots around the house. Having them spot treated is almost the same price as having the whole house tented, so we’re going to have to have the house tented. At about $2000! Plus stay in a hotel with our pets for a few days, etc. At least we have the money, but there are a lot more fun things I’d rather be doing with $2000. Still, we can’t have bugs eating our house. That would be bad.

On the plus side, they said we caught them early. I guess monthly pokes around the house pays off, as I’m sure it would be much more expensive to replace wood & drywall around our house if they had been eating away for months or years.

I hope we can at least stay in a hotel with a swimming pool. May as well get some fun out of our stay.