Brisbane's subtropical climate is one of the best in the world for termites. Warm soil all year round, high humidity, and timber framed houses everywhere. One in three Queensland homes will be attacked by termites at some point. Most homeowners find out too late.
Why Queensland Is Different from the Rest of Australia
People in Victoria or South Australia get a break. Winter slows termite colonies down. Soil cools, colonies go quiet. That is not how it works here.
In South East Queensland, soil temperatures stay warm enough for termites to stay active all year. There is no winter slowdown. Colonies keep feeding, keep expanding, keep moving through the ground toward the nearest timber structure. Your house.
The species doing most of the damage in SEQ is Coptotermes acinaciformis. These are the termites that most pest controllers in Brisbane are dealing with every week. A mature colony can hold more than one million workers. They feed from the inside of timber, hollowing it out while leaving the outer surface intact. By the time you can see anything wrong from the outside, the damage is already well advanced.
Brisbane's older housing stock makes this worse. Queenslanders, stumped homes, and hardwood framed houses give termites exactly what they want: timber at ground level, subfloor access, and plenty of moisture. These properties are not high risk because they are old. They are high risk because of how they are built.
Important: Termite damage is not covered by home insurance in Australia. If a colony gets into your structure and causes damage, that repair bill is yours to pay. There is no claim to make.
What Termites Actually Do to a House
Most people picture termites eating visible holes through timber. That is not how it works. Termites eat from the inside out. They consume the internal structure of a bearer, a joist, or a wall stud while leaving just enough of the outer layer to stay hidden. They avoid light and open air. As long as the surface looks fine, they keep going.
The first signs homeowners usually notice are things like a floor that feels soft underfoot, a door that suddenly sticks in its frame, or a wall that sounds hollow when you tap it. By the time any of that shows up, the damage underneath is often already structural. Not cosmetic. Structural.
Repairs at that point are not cheap. Replacing termite damaged floor joists, bearers, and wall frames in a stumped Queenslander can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Some jobs cost more than that. And none of it is covered by insurance.
That is the thing that catches people off guard. They assume home insurance covers it. It does not. Termite damage is specifically excluded from standard building insurance policies across Australia. You are on your own.
The Signs Most People Miss
Termites are hard to spot because they work out of sight. But there are things you can look for. Most people walk past these every week without recognising them.
- Mud tubes on walls, stumps, or pipes: Termites build these to travel between the soil and their food source. They look like thin trails of dried mud running up a wall or stump. If you see one, do not disturb it. Call a pest controller.
- Tiny holes in skirting boards or plasterboard: Termites sometimes break through the surface. The holes are small, often just a few millimetres wide, and easy to miss.
- Doors and windows that suddenly do not fit properly: When termites damage the framing around a door or window, the frame can shift. If a door that always closed fine is now sticking or dragging, that is worth investigating.
- A faint clicking sound inside walls: Soldier termites bang their heads against tunnel walls to signal alarm. It is a soft sound but you can sometimes hear it if you put your ear to a wall in a quiet room.
- Discarded wings near windowsills: When a termite colony swarms, the reproductives fly out, mate, and then shed their wings. Finding small piles of wings near windows or doorways is a sign a swarm has happened nearby.
None of these signs on their own confirms active termites in your house. But any one of them is reason to book an inspection straight away.
Why Annual Inspections Are Not Optional
The Australian Standard for termite management, AS 3660.2, recommends annual inspections for all Queensland properties. That is not a suggestion that gets made to be cautious. It reflects how fast a termite colony can move.
A well established Coptotermes colony can cause significant structural damage within three to six months of gaining access to a property. Twelve months is a long time to go without checking. Annual inspections give you a realistic chance of catching activity before it reaches that point.
A visual check is not enough. A termite inspector looking only with their eyes will miss activity that is inside walls, under concrete paths, or behind plasterboard. A proper inspection uses thermal imaging to spot moisture and heat variations in wall cavities, and Termatrac motion detection to identify termite movement through timber without drilling or cutting. These tools find what a visual check cannot.
The maths: An annual termite inspection costs a fraction of what structural repairs cost. The inspection is cheap compared to the damage. Most homeowners who get hit wish they had done it sooner.
What Protection Actually Looks Like
There are two things that work together for properties at high risk. On their own, each one does part of the job. Together, they cover you properly.
Annual Inspection
This is the baseline. Every Queensland home should have one every twelve months. The inspector checks all accessible areas of the property including the subfloor, roof void, external perimeter, and garden structures. Any activity found early can be dealt with before it becomes a structural problem. An inspection with no findings is still useful because it gives you a documented baseline for next year.
Termidor Chemical Barrier
A Termidor barrier is applied around the perimeter of the property by injecting or trenching the chemical into the soil. Termites moving through treated soil pick up the product and carry it back to the colony. It is a transfer effect, which means you do not need to treat every individual termite. The barrier gives around eight years of continuous protection when installed correctly.
This is not a DIY job. Termidor is a Schedule 7 poison. Application requires a licensed and accredited pest controller. If someone offers to do it on the cheap without proper licensing, walk away.
For most high risk properties in Brisbane, the standard recommendation is annual inspection combined with a Termidor barrier. The barrier stops termites getting in. The annual inspection confirms the barrier is intact and catches anything the barrier might have missed, such as activity from above ground entry points or breaches in the treatment zone.
If your property has no barrier and has not been inspected in more than twelve months, now is the right time to fix that.
Book a Termite Inspection or Ask About a Termidor Barrier
We carry out AS 3660.2 compliant inspections across Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. QBCC licensed, Termidor accredited. Over 16,500 jobs completed in South East Queensland.