Termite entry points: which ones you can close
Every house has entry points. The useful question is not how many, but which of yours are the ones you created and could take away tomorrow.
What counts as a termite entry point?
An entry point is any place where timber, or a route to timber, can be reached from the soil without the termites having to cross open air where they would be seen. That is the whole definition, and it is why the list is not the same as a list of holes. A 3 mm slab joint is an entry point. So is a garden bed heaped against the wall, because it hands them a covered approach to a joint that was previously in plain sight.
It follows that entry points come in three very different kinds, and they need three different responses. Some you created and can remove. Some are part of how the building was made and can only be kept serviceable and visible. And one of them (the ground your house sits on) is permanent and was never yours to close. Sorting your own house into those three piles is far more useful than trying to seal everything.
1. The entry points you made, and can take away
These are the ones worth your weekend, because removing them genuinely changes the odds. Almost all of them are the result of something being built up, stacked up or planted against the building after it was finished.
- Soil, mulch or turf above the slab edge. The exposed strip of the slab is there so a mud tube crossing it can be seen. Bury it and the inspection strip stops existing.
- Paths, paving and concrete poured against the wall above the slab line, which does the same thing permanently.
- Timber decks, steps, planter boxes and pergola posts built hard against the building, especially where a post goes straight into the ground.
- Firewood, offcuts, fence palings and stored cardboard resting on soil beside a wall.
- Stumps, buried form-work and old sleepers that let numbers build up right beside the house.
- Cladding, render or foam taken down past the line it was meant to stop at, which turns a wall finish into a covered ramp.
- Anything blocking a subfloor vent, which does not open a route by itself but keeps the whole subfloor humid enough to use comfortably.
Every item on that list is bridging in one form or another. Each one is a covered path over the part of the house that was designed to be looked at. A perfect barrier with a bridged perimeter is, in practice, a house with no barrier at all.
2. The entry points that are part of the building
These you do not close, because they are the building. What you do is keep them visible and keep whatever protects them in service.
- The slab joint and construction joints, and the perimeter where the slab meets the ground.
- Service penetrations (water, waste, gas, conduit) wherever a pipe passes through the slab or the floor.
- Weep holes in brickwork, which have to stay open for the wall to breathe.
- Piers, stumps and posts in a subfloor, each of which is a vertical route from soil to bearer.
- Control joints, expansion gaps and cracks that open as a slab moves.
The protection that applies to these is a termite management system: physical barriers and mesh at penetrations and the perimeter. Or a chemical or baiting system, installed to the Australian standard for the building and then kept in service. A barrier is not an event that happened once. It has a service life, and it stops working quietly.
3. The one you cannot close
Across most of Australia, subterranean termites are simply present in the soil. No product or practice keeps them off a block of land, and anything sold on that promise is selling something that does not exist. The realistic target is not zero termites in the ground. It is that if they come to the building, they have to cross somewhere you can see, and somebody is actually looking. That is what an annual inspection buys you.
The walk-around, in the order that finds things
Do one lap of the outside, slowly, looking at the bottom 300 mm of wall and nothing else. Then look at anything attached to the house. Then, if there is a subfloor and it is safe and legal to enter, look at the piers and the bearers from inside it. A torch and a look is all this is: it is not a substitute for what a licensed inspection covers. And it does not include the roof void or opening anything up.
| Entry point | Can you close it? | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Garden bed or mulch over the slab edge | Yes | Cut it back and down until the slab edge is bare and visible again |
| Path or paving above the slab line | Rarely: it is concrete | Treat the house as having a concealed perimeter and raise the inspection frequency |
| Deck or steps hard against the wall | Sometimes, by opening up access | Make sure the wall behind it can still be reached and seen |
| Timber post set into the soil | Yes, by re-setting on a stirrup | Get the timber out of ground contact; that is the whole fix |
| Slab joint and construction joints | No | Keep the perimeter bare and keep the barrier in service |
| Pipe and conduit penetrations | No | These are what physical collars and mesh are for at construction; check the barrier covers them |
| Weep holes | No: they must stay open | Never block them; keep the soil below them and look at them regularly |
| Piers and stumps in a subfloor | No | Keep the subfloor dry, ventilated and enterable so the piers can be inspected |
| The soil itself | No | Barrier plus inspection. Nothing keeps termites out of a block of land |
If you find something at an entry point, stop
The single most expensive mistake at this stage is tidying up. A mud tube at a weep hole, a crust of mud up a pier, a soft skirting board next to a penetration: leave all of it exactly as it is. Breaking a tube open or spraying it makes the colony abandon that route and come back somewhere you cannot see. So the damage carries on where nobody is looking.
It also destroys the transfer mechanism the professional non-repellent products and baits depend on. And it destroys the evidence an inspector reads to work out where they are coming from and how far it has gone. Do not touch it. Photograph it, leave it alone, and book a licensed inspection.
Frequently asked questions
How many entry points does a normal house have?
More than you can seal, which is why sealing is not the strategy. Every slab joint, pipe penetration, weep hole and pier is a potential route. The workable approach is removing the ones you created, keeping a barrier in service for the ones that are part of the building, and inspecting so anything that does get across is found early.
Can I just seal the cracks and penetrations myself?
Filling visible gaps feels productive and achieves very little. Termites use openings far smaller than you can find, slabs keep moving and cracking, and sealing the ones you can see mostly removes the places a tube would have shown. Penetrations are handled with collars and mesh at construction, or by a licensed technician as part of a management system.
Do weep holes let termites in?
They are a known route, yes, but blocking them is not the answer. They are there to drain and ventilate the wall cavity, and blocking them causes damp problems that make things worse. Keep the soil well below them, keep them clear and look at them when you do your lap of the house.
I found mud at an entry point. Should I clear it away before the inspector comes?
No. Leave it completely alone. Disturbing workings pushes the colony to a concealed route, so the damage continues out of sight, and it removes the evidence the inspector uses to trace where they are entering and how far they have travelled.
Sources
What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.
- Queensland Building and Construction Commission. Protect against termites — termite management systems and inspections
- Department of Health, Victoria. Pest control — termites