We cannot answer that question for you. You are definitely not required, however, if your state requires a termite letter at the time of closing, only professional companies can issue these letters and if you do not have an active contract with a company you will usually be forced to pay a large sum to have your house treated to get a clearance letter. You should call your state Department of Agriculture which is usually the department that manages pest control companies and ask if your state is one that requires a termite closing letter when selling a house.
You definitely do not have to treat all at once. A Termidor treatment can be spread out over a few weekends or whatever time frame you want to. Please read our "How To Do A Termite Treatment" article if you have not already. You are also welcome to call us with any specific treatment questions. We are here to help.
Termidor SC works best if applied in a trench around the fence post or in this case Cinder blocks. If you want to treat the damaged areas directly then you can drill and inject Jecta.
Termidor SC contains an intentionally slower-acting active ingredient, so it may take several hours or longer for an insect to die after contacting a surface treated with this product. Exact timing will depend on the size and health of the insect as well as how much active ingredient it picked up. Please refer to our Carpenter Bee Treatment Guide for tips on how best to manage this pest.
A good option would be to use granules, such as Demand G Granules. They can be applied around the perimeter of your home outdoors to control ants. This product does need to be watered in for it to be activated so during the rainy season, this would be ideal until it dries up and you can use the Termidor SC.
Termidor SC or Taurus SC should be applied when you are not expecting 24 hrs of rainfall after completely drying.
Termidor SC will not penetrate through the wood nor is it a wood treatment product. We do carry Bora-Care that can be applied to raw wood only (nothing that contains paint, stain or a sealant in anyway). Jecta is a great option to inject into treated wood.
We recommend trenching with Termidor SC because it binds to the soil and creates a continuous barrier. Most members of termite colonies remain hidden and there are often multiple colonies, so if you only treat one area where you visibly see them, there is no way to ensure that all the termites will encounter the amount of Fipronil needed to eliminate a colony. While Termidor does have a transfer effect, the idea is to create a barrier and as the termites travel through the treatment, they will absorb enough of the active chemical used in the treatment and then die.
Anytime you are adding soil on top of soil that was previously treated with Termidor SC, you need to be sure to also treat that new soil so it is still protected. We recommend applying the Termidor SC in a trench with the soil that is and will be directly up against the foundation of the treated structure. Please refer to the termite treatment article for full instructions on treatment
When using Termidor SC for ant control, you want to make sure the ants are contacting the treated area. If they are traveling on top of the rock and fabric topical application is fine. If not, you would need to take the material back and then apply and replace.