You’ve found live termites. Don’t touch them.
The single most expensive mistake on the Gold Coast is disturbing or spraying active termites before treatment. Here is exactly what to do in the next ten minutes — and what not to.
Do these four things — in this order.
- Stop. Do not spray anything. No fly spray, no surface insecticide, no methylated spirits, no boiling water. Repelling them on contact is the worst possible outcome (we explain why below).
- Do not break the timber open further. If you’ve already cracked a skirting or architrave and seen mud-packed galleries, leave it. Don’t pull more off “to see how bad it is”. Every disturbed gallery is a gallery the colony re-routes around.
- Cover it loosely and seal the room. Lay a towel or cardboard gently over the exposed area to reduce light and air movement. Close the door. Termites are sensitive to disturbance — keeping the gallery undisturbed keeps the workers feeding and the trail to the nest intact.
- Photograph it and call a licensed technician. One or two photos from a distance is plenty. Then call. The faster a QBCC-licensed technician can trace the activity while it’s still live, the cheaper and more certain the treatment.
The reason “just spray it” backfires.
Modern termite elimination — whether a non-repellent liquid like Termidor or a Sentricon bait — works because foraging workers keep moving freely and carry the active ingredient back through the colony to the queen. It is a slow, deliberate transfer effect. It depends on the termites not knowing they’re being treated.
The moment you spray a repellent product or smash the gallery open, the colony does what it evolved to do under attack: it seals that breach, abandons the visible workers, and pushes new foraging tubes into untreated parts of the wall cavity, sub-floor or roof void where you can’t see them. You haven’t killed the colony — you’ve hidden it and scattered it.
Worked example. A Mudgeeraba homeowner found activity in a door frame and hit it with two cans of surface spray over a weekend. The visible workers died; the colony re-routed into the opposite external wall. The job that would have been a $2,400–$3,200 in-situ treatment became a $4,800+ exercise requiring full perimeter trenching and drilling because the active galleries could no longer be located and treated directly. The spray cost them roughly double.
The active-activity inspection — $380–$520.
A confirmed-activity callout is different from a routine AS 4349.3 inspection. Our priority is to locate and trace the colony while it is still feeding and undisturbed:
- Detailed locate-and-trace of all accessible activity using thermal imaging, moisture metering and a borescope — without disturbing the workings
- Identification of the species (Coptotermes vs Schedorhinotermes changes the treatment approach)
- A written report with photographs and a fixed-price treatment quote — in-situ dusting or foaming, a non-repellent liquid treated zone, or an above-ground bait station depending on what we find
- Clear advice on what to keep undisturbed until treatment is completed
For the difference between a liquid treated zone and a baiting system after activity is confirmed, see Termidor vs Sentricon, and termite treatment costs for honest 2026 ranges. If you want to understand what attracted them in the first place, read conducive conditions.
Why activity here is rarely a one-off.
The Gold Coast’s subtropical climate, high soil moisture and dense timber-framed and high-set housing stock make it one of the highest-pressure termite environments in Australia. Coptotermes acinaciformis — the species behind most serious local damage — nests in tree stumps, root crowns and sometimes within the building itself, and forages up to 50 metres or more from the nest.
If you have visible activity, there is an established colony nearby. Treating the activity you can see without locating the source is how homes get re-infested. That is why the response and the trace matter as much as the treatment chemistry. Once treated, an annual AS 3660.2 inspection is what keeps it from recurring undetected.
Where we respond.
Found them? Call before you do anything else.
Same-day or next-business-day response for confirmed live activity across the Gold Coast.