Heat vs. Tent Fumigation for Termites

Heat treatment has real appeal: no chemicals, one day, sleep in your bed that night. For the right infestation it works. For whole-house drywood termites in Florida construction, its limits show up in the physics.

How Heat Treatment Works

Technicians seal a room or structure and raise temperatures to roughly 120 to 140 degrees, holding them until wood cores reach lethal levels. Termites in the heated zone die, including in furniture. The challenge is uniformity: thick beams, wall voids, slab edges and shaded corners heat slowly, and every cold spot is a survival spot.

Where Heat Struggles

Attics in Florida already run hot, but the colonies that matter hide in enclosed framing, under insulation and inside joints where probes may not sit. Heat also treats only the zone heated that day; an infestation spanning the roof system, both floors and the furniture is a sequence of heat jobs, each priced separately, with no whole-structure certification at the end.

Where Fumigation Wins

Tent fumigation treats the entire structure simultaneously at a calculated dose, penetrates every void gas can reach, and ends with instrument clearance and a whole-structure retreatment guarantee. Its costs are inconvenience (2 to 3 nights out) and the absence of residual protection.

The Honest Verdict

Single room or single piece of furniture with confirmed activity: heat (or vault fumigation) is a reasonable, fast answer. Multi-room or attic-wide drywood evidence: fumigation is the treatment that can honestly promise the whole house. Beware any company that sells only one of these and finds it fits every house. Our full side-by-side, including no-tent options, is on the tent vs. no-tent page.