The ground may look solid, but at least 6 feet down, the High Desert earth is swarming with termites foraging for woody meals.

Experts say Central Oregon has higher concentrations of Western subterranean termites than anywhere in the state, and this year’s wet winter and long, mild spring have made populations surge.

”It’s an urban myth in Central Oregon that there are no termites here,” said Ryan Bacon, co-owner of Bend Pest Control. ”That’s completely false.”

The bugs can be found under any log, branch or pile of wood chips; can tunnel through foam in building foundations; and can travel along insulation, nibbling any wood material they can find, Bacon said.

Pest control businesses are busy fighting back.

Bacon’s business is doing record-breaking numbers of termite treatments, he said, averaging one per day. He’s booked for the next month.

High moisture levels are helping breed the termite population, Bacon said, especially on Bend’s west side, where older homes could be more susceptible to the bugs. Some of the oldest houses were not built to code, he said, and may lack pest- or moisture-resistant materials, or have wood pillars in the ground holding the house.

”Picture gigantic Tootsie Rolls in the ground, waiting for termites to eat them,” Bacon said. ”If there’s any kind of earth-to-wood contact, they will eat it.”

Anything containing cellulose – all wood products including cardboard, newspaper and wood timbers – is potential termite food, Bacon said.

In newer houses, the bugs can flourish in crawl spaces not treated for pests or that are cluttered with wood materials.

Homeowners may know they have a termite problem if they notice smart, dark-colored bugs flying in the home – a sign that the termite colony is swarming – or dirt tubes commonly found in garages or anywhere a wall meets a joint, Bacon said. Dirt tubes look like tunnels cemented to a surface, protecting the termites’ fragile bodies.

The termites can burrow through expansion joints or settlement cracks.

The No. 1 cause of termites is poor building practices, said local home inspector Mike Wilson, who owns Central Oregon Inspection Services. He’s seen more termites this year, but says it’s no plague.

When bark dust is piled so high it touches the home’s siding, termites can simply climb behind the siding, into the house’s framing, Wilson said. He estimates that 75 percent of the time, bark or dirt touching the siding is the reason for problems, though pesticide treatments aren’t always necessary.

”Just take a shovel and get the bark or dirt away,” Wilson said, adding that when termites are in a house, they normally are not living there, but are collecting food for their colony.

”Removing the access cuts of their path and they’ll literally fall out of the house,” Wilson said.

Wilson said no new houses have termite problems. He estimates that houses 10 years or older have a roughly 30 percent chance of having termites, with probability increasing each year after that.

The current swarming season is when homeowners panic, because they see the winged reproductive termites emerging from crawl-space vents or heating vents as they seek to get outside and mate, he said.

”This is the least appropriate time to panic because they are just trying to get out of the house,” Wilson said. It doesn’t necessarily mean the house is under attack.

Don’t panic

Central Oregon has a moderate amount of termite infestations, said Paul Heidtke, owner of Central Oregon’s Terminix pest-control businesses. That means 30 percent to 35 percent of homes in the area have termites.

But it doesn’t mean anyone’s home is being eaten out from under their feet, he said.

”Termites are made worse seasonally, so if you see evidence of them, you should see it as good fortune that you found out,” Heidtke said. ”It is an issue that you can solve.”

He said longtime residents of the Northwest are not used to these pests, which are more common in places like California and Nevada. As a general rule, any area with sandy soil and lots of juniper trees is likely to have termites.

His advice: If homeowners don’t see physical signs of termites – bugs or dirt tunnels – and remain concerned, they should call a pest-control expert for a consultation. Most consultations are free, he added, depending on how long it takes.

It could take years for termites to cause serious damage to a house, Bacon said, so many homeowners may not know they have a problem. He recommends that anyone who owns a house or is considering buying a house in Central Oregon get a pest and dry-rot inspection.

In Central Oregon, a treatment does not require a house to be covered in a termite tent to trap the chemicals inside, as is common in more tropical climates.

Pest control companies typically treat a house with a liquid insecticide around the home’s perimeter, creating what looks like a slurry of mud and chemicals, Bacon said. When the termites eat their way up through the treated soil, they die, he said.

A foaming agent also is added to the insecticide, which is applied under wood floors, along walls or anywhere else necessary. The process can take one to two days, depending on building size.

The treatment Bacon uses guarantees 10 years of effectiveness, he added. It also is nontoxic to humans and pets.

Termites may scare homeowners, but the biggest threat to Central Oregon buildings is dry rot, said Keith Bacon, Bend Pest Control co-owner and Bacon’s father.

”There’s more damage from fungus and rot than from termites, and tornadoes combined,” he said. ”Water is the main destroyer of people’s homes. It’s that way across the U.S.”

Making your house unattractive to termites

* Make sure no wooden parts of your house are in contact with soil.

* Remove tree stumps, stored lumber, fence posts and scrap wood near your home.

* Stack firewood so that it is not in contact with wood parts of your house.

* Repair leaky pipes and faucets. Be careful not to overwater near your house.

* Trim shrubs that are blocking your foundation vents.

* Make sure downspouts carry water away from your house.