Expert Wood Destroying Insect Inspection
Wood-destroying insects, or WDIs, are known for their home-demolishing skills. They work in swarms and will eat away at the foundation of your home or office. When purchasing or selling a home, it is common for a wood-destroying insect inspection to be performed for safety reasons. It’s also common for those looking to renovate their space to conduct a wood-destroying insect inspection before they get started.
Here are the main WDI organisms we at IMEL search for when conducting wood destroying insect inspections:
Subterranean Termites
These termites are known to live in the ground and eat away at the foundation of your home. They enter through cracks, under stoops, gaps in your brick and porches.
Carpenter Bees
These wood damaging bees are found infesting around the outside of your home. They tend to bore holes in wood-like structures including soffits, decks, gazebos, fence posts and more.
Carpenter Ants
These are unusually large black ants that tend to crawl along the outside of your home. They don’t eat at wood like termites, but they do nest and repopulate within your home.
Wood Destroying Beetles
Beetles can cause severe damage to your home. They can eat away and destroy your basement, crawlspace and require immediate professional attention.
FAQ
Q: What is a WDI inspection?
A: A Wood Destroying Insect inspection — a formal, documented examination of a property for evidence of termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees, and wood-boring beetles, reported on the industry-standard NPMA-33 form that lenders and closing attorneys recognize.
Q: Do I need a WDI report to sell my house?
A: Illinois doesn’t universally require it, but lenders frequently do — and VA loans require a termite and wood destroying insect inspection in Illinois. Even when optional, buyers’ agents routinely request one in our area, where termite pressure is high. Sellers often order one proactively to prevent closing-week surprises.
Q: What does the inspector actually check during a WDI inspection?
A: Every accessible area where wood-destroying insects live or leave evidence: the foundation perimeter inside and out, crawlspaces and basements, sill plates and floor joists, garages, decks and porches, and any visible wood in attics. The inspector is looking for live insects, mud tubes, damaged or hollow-sounding wood, shed swarmer wings, frass (insect droppings), and evidence of previous treatments — and probing suspect wood, not just eyeballing it. Anything inaccessible (finished walls, blocked crawlspace sections, stored-item areas) gets noted as such on the NPMA-33, because the report documents both what was found and what couldn’t be examined. That’s part of why the report carries weight with lenders: it’s a standardized account of exactly what a trained inspector could and couldn’t see.
Q: What happens if you find termites during a WDI inspection?
A: The report documents the evidence — active or previous — and the deal usually proceeds with treatment negotiated between buyer and seller. We can quote the treatment the same day, and Sentricon installation typically doesn’t delay closings. Finding old, previously treated damage is common in this region and isn’t automatically a deal-breaker.
Q: Is a WDI inspection the same as my home inspection
A: No. General home inspectors note visible pest evidence but aren’t licensed to issue the NPMA-33 WDI report lenders require. The wood destroying insect inspection is a separate, specialized inspection by a licensed pest professional — that’s us.