Fumigation Prep Guide: Getting Your House Ready for the Tent

What Fumigation Is (and When You Actually Need It)

Fumigation seals your whole house — usually under those striped vinyl-coated tarps — and fills it with a gas that reaches every piece of wood, including framing you can't see or open up. That's the entire point: it kills the drywood termites you can find and the ones you can't. The house stays tented anywhere from six hours to a week, depending on the dose, the temperature, and the size of the structure — you get the exact dates in writing before anything starts.

Three facts worth knowing before you commit:

• It's for drywood termites. Fumigation does not kill subterranean termites — those live in the soil and need a separate soil treatment. If someone quoted you a tent for mud tubes, get a second opinion. And if you have both termite types (plenty of SGV houses do), you need both treatments. Not sure which you have? Start with my termite guide.
• Only two treatments cure a whole house of drywood termites: fumigation and whole-structure heat — and heat is not a service I offer, so when a whole house needs treatment, fumigation is the route I coordinate. Electro-gun, microwave, and freezing are spot tools only — a UC Berkeley study for the state pest control board settled that. Anyone selling them as whole-house cures is selling wrong.
• You don't always need it. If the infestation is limited and accessible, localized treatment handles it for far less money and zero moving out. I cover how I make that call on my termite control page. No tent-first sales tactics here.

The Prep Timeline

As Soon as the Fumigation Is Booked

• Book lodging. Everyone in the house needs somewhere to stay — including pets. Nobody stays behind, not for a minute.
• Call the gas utility. Schedule the shutoff and the restoration. Minimum 48 hours ahead; some areas need 3–5 days. In California the utility handles the shutoff and relights your pilot lights — the fumigation crew doesn't touch them.
• Block pet hiding spots. Do it now, not on move-out day. A cat under the house on tent day stops everything.
• Plan parking. Cars go away from the structure, so the tarps and crew have room.
• Hold mail. Pause deliveries too.
• Arrange security. The house will sit empty for days. Tell a trusted neighbor.
• Sign and return the paperwork, including the occupant fumigation notice — it lists the pest being treated, the fumigant and its active ingredients, a caution statement, and the exact dates, and you and every occupant get copies.

2–3 Days Before

• Bag or remove all unsealed food and medicine. The full checklist is below. Nylofume bags come from us — ask if you need more.
• Arrange keys. The crew needs a key to every exterior locked door, including sheds that will be inside the tent.
• Move potted plants away from the house.
• Prune anything touching the house. Plants, shrubs, and tree limbs against the walls or hanging over the roof — the tarps need to reach the ground.
• Water the soil to about 18 inches out from the exterior walls. This protects your landscaping from the tarp and the gas.
• Retract awnings. Tarps are heavy.

1 Day Before

• Water the foundation soil again.
• Open waterproof mattress and pillow covers (skip this if they're the air-vented kind).
• Drop off pets at boarding.
• Tell the neighbors it's happening tomorrow.
• Move cars several feet away from the house. Cars staying in the garage are fine — leave doors and trunk unlocked.

Day Of

• Hand over keys and your best phone number to the crew.
• Get everyone out. People, pets, plants — including fish, and any seeds or bulbs you plan to plant.
• Confirm the gas-restoration appointment one more time.
• Turn off timers, sprinklers, and the AC.
• Turn off electric heating elements. Space heaters, aquarium heaters, reptile-tank heaters — anything with a coil.
• Pilot lights: already handled. The gas utility takes care of these if you scheduled the shutoff. That's their job in California, not yours.
• Open every cabinet, drawer, closet, and interior door. The gas has to reach everywhere, and open storage airs out faster afterward.
• Raise the blinds and open the drapes. Helps the gas circulate — and speeds up aeration, which gets you home sooner.

After the Fumigation

• Stay out until the re-entry notice is posted at your door. Nobody enters until the licensed fumigator officially clears the house — not for two minutes, not to grab a charger. During the job, secondary locks only the company can open go on every outside door, and warning signs go up at every entrance. Even a few minutes of exposure to the fumigant can be fatal.
• Clearance is earned, not assumed. The house is released only after air testing shows the fumigant at 1 part per million or less in every breathing zone — the EPA threshold. The posted notice shows the release date and time, the company, its license and phone numbers, and the fumigant used.
• If anyone feels off within 24 hours of re-entry, act. Headache, dizziness, nausea, watery eyes, coughing, throat irritation, shortness of breath, double vision, drowsiness, weakness, tremors: leave the house, contact a doctor, and call Poison Control at (800) 222-1222 (24 hours, interpreters available). Then call the fumigation company and the state board.
• Meet the gas company to restore service. Don't remove the clearance notice on the meter — they need it there.
• Restart timers, sprinklers, and the AC — anything you shut off.
• Don't wash anything. Dishes, linens, clothes — none of it needs washing. The gas dissipates completely and leaves no surface residue.
• Leave the tag. The fumigator posts a permanent tag in the attic, subarea, or garage — licensee name, date, fumigant. California has required it since 1961, and it's useful history for the next inspection (or the next owner). Don't pull it down.

Food and Medicine: Bag It, Remove It, or Leave It

The rule in one sentence: if it goes in a mouth and it isn't unopened in glass, metal, or a hard airtight plastic container (bottles, jars, cans), it gets double-bagged or leaves the house — bags, boxes, and pouches get bagged even if they've never been opened.

Where People Miss Things

Walk each of these with a Nylofume bag in hand:

• Cupboards and pantry
• Fridge and freezer — every fridge and freezer, including the garage one
• Kitchen drawers
• Dresser drawers and nightstands (that's where the cough drops hide)
• Kids' rooms (snack stashes, candy)
• Office desks
• Medicine cabinets
• Liquor cabinets (opened bottles)
• Garage and basement bulk storage

In my experience the nightstand and the desk drawer are the two everyone misses.

How to Double-Bag with Nylofume

Nylofume bags are the fumigant-manufacturer-approved bags for this — regular trash bags don't qualify. We supply them.

1. Nest two bags, one inside the other.
2. Fill the inner bag — don't overstuff. Leave plenty of clearance at the top.
3. Seal the inner bag: twist the top, fold the twist over once, then tape or twist-tie it down.
4. Repeat for the outer bag: twist, fold, tape.
5. Press gently on the finished bundle. If air leaks out, redo the seal.

Three extras worth knowing:

• Cold and frozen food can stay put. Bagged items go right back in the fridge or freezer — pull the shelves out so the bags stack.
• Don't bag non-edibles. Clothes, toys, bedding — unnecessary. The gas airs out of them fully.
• Keep the bags away from kids. They're thin plastic film.

Special Situations

• Aquariums — fish leave; the tank and setup need a plan. Talk to me before prep week, not during it.
• Burglar alarms — leave the crew instructions or disable the system, or the tent triggers it at 2 a.m.
• Connected structures — tell us, always. Central vacuum lines, PVC or metal conduit, French drains and landscape drains, hollow block walls, attached archways and breezeways can carry gas to a neighboring structure. The company is required to ask; you're the one who knows your property. Speak up.
• Doors without locks — any exterior door that can't take the secondary lock gets secured or temporarily nailed shut.
• Keys and keyless locks — key for every exterior lock, including sheds inside the tent. Keyless locks can be temporarily recoded for the crew.
• Gas grills — off at the tank valve if the grill ends up under the tarp.
• Roof-mounted items — antennas, satellite dishes, cameras, weather vanes can be bent or crushed by tarp weight. Some should come down first; ask.
• Pool gates — may need to stay open while the tent is up. Plan supervision accordingly.
• Walk-in vaults — must be opened for inspection before and after the fumigation. No exceptions.
• Valuables — jewelry, cash, small electronics: take them with you. The house sits empty, and the company isn't responsible for theft.
• Waterbeds — nothing to do. Genuinely zero prep.
• Severe weather — high wind or storms postpone the job. Annoying, but tarps and wind don't negotiate.

What Sends the Crew Home on Tent Day

Before a single tarp goes up, the Branch 1 foreman walks the full perimeter asking one question: can the tarps reach the ground and seal, all the way around? Most day-of postponements I've seen come from that walk — and every one costs you a trip charge, a new date, and a second round of lodging. Some obstacles you can fix in a weekend:

• Move firewood, wood piles, and stored lumber stacked against the house. Tarps can't seal to the ground through a wood stack, the crew won't relocate a half-cord for you — and wood piled against your walls is its own termite invitation anyway.
• Empty the side yards. The crew needs a walkable path around the entire structure to drape and clamp heavy tarps. A three-foot side yard packed with bins, ladders, and leftover fencing is a wall they can't work around.
• Confirm the pruning actually happened. It's on the timeline above for a reason: limbs over the roof or branches against the stucco mean the tarps physically can't lay down. If it wasn't cut back, the crew can't proceed — they don't bring chainsaws.

Other obstacles are built into the property, and those need a decision, not a Saturday of work. Zero-lot-line houses with no room to work between your wall and the neighbor's. A gas line that also feeds the back unit, so the shutoff can't be isolated to your structure. And the bigger cousin of the conduits and drains in Special Situations above: structures that are genuinely joined — a common wall, a shared attic — let gas travel next door, so the connected structure gets sealed and vacated too. If that neighbor won't leave, or someone in your own household genuinely can't, the tent is off the table no matter how well you prep.

That's when a localized treatment earns a serious look — especially if the infestation is limited and I can reach it. I'll give it to you straight in both directions, same as always: a local job only kills what it reaches, and a hidden colony elsewhere in the framing survives it. Sometimes that trade is worth making; sometimes it isn't. If you're not sure which kind of obstacle you're looking at, describe your property to me and I'll tell you before a date ever gets set. Either way, it's the same question that should come before any of this prep — whether your house needs a tent at all.

Before You Prep — Make Sure You Actually Need the Tent

The best fumigation prep is finding out you don't need one. A surprising number of houses I inspect need a localized treatment, not a tent — and a localized job means no moving out, no bagging the pantry, no gas appointment.

So start with the inspection. I'll go through the attic, eaves, and subarea, tell you honestly which situation you have, and put it in writing. If you do need the tent, I coordinate the Branch 1 fumigation crew, walk you through this exact checklist, and back the whole job with a two-year fumigation warranty.

Call (626) 409-1584, get a free quote, or book an inspection online — and keep this page handy either way.

The honest part. I don't tent houses myself. Fumigation in California is done by a Branch 1 licensed fumigation company. My job (ExterMetro, Branch 3 — operator license #13694, company registration #8828) is the part before and after: I inspect, I tell you honestly whether you actually need the tent or whether a localized treatment will solve it, I coordinate the fumigation crew, and I back the whole job with a two-year warranty. The crew tents it. You prep it — this guide covers your part.