Should I use Orange Oil for termites?

Written by Josh Stevenson, owner/operator

The Magic Orange Cure?

If you’re reading this post, you most likely have already gotten an inspection or you at least know you might have an issue with termites. Maybe you heard some ad about termites, no tenting necessary and got excited. We live and work in Fairfield and also service Napa, Vacaville, Benicia, American Canyon and surrounding areas. In our area, we get drywood termites and subterranean termites. If you have subterranean termites the answer is easy… no. Subterranean termites live in the soil and only come up for food. Orange oil is designed to be injected into wood and is not labeled for and won’t kill subterranean termite colonies. The best you can do with it is kill some of the termites is the wood but because it’s a contact kill and a repellant which means it keeps termites out of the treated area. Sounds like a positive right? Nope, termites are super sneaky and will simply go to another piece of wood if repelled away.

What about the vast majority reading this with Drywood Termites? That answer is a little trickier. I’m going to use my 11 years as an inspector, the last 4 or so as licensed Branch 2 and 3 Operator (general pests and wood destroying organisms) and some common sense to opine on why I’m not a huge fan of Orange Oil.

How Does Orange Oil Work?

I think the first point to make which sets up everything is the way the chemical works. Orange Oil is labeled as XT-2000 plus and is a registered Termiticide in California. That means the powers that be in our state stamp their approval on the chemical and have claimed it’s effective at killing Termites. Orange Oil is a highly processed version of, well, Orange Oil. The manufacturers process Orange Oil until they have a highly concentrated form, what’s used on homes isn’t from pest operators getting a bunch of orange rinds and squeezing the oil into a treatment tank. The actual active ingredient is d-limonene and that’s what kills the termites. Basically you inject the infested wood with the chemical, it goes into the galleries and kills the termites. There apparently is a wicking process that occurs which sucks the orange oil into other pores of the wood so that it saturates the wood thus (hopefully) ensuring a better kill.

Does Orange Oil Work Well?

There are lots of studies out there noting efficacy of Orange Oil. From what I’ve seen, it works… good enough. Meaning if you really carefully find all the colonies and really carefully treat properly (assuming you can find all the colonies and have ability to properly treat all the colonies) you’ll have success or, well, hopefully. Local treatments for drywood termites are always a bit of a crapshoot in my opinion. If you’re interested in a study listed on the Structural Pest Control Board’s website, you can find it here - Field Evaluations of Localized Treatments for Controlling Drywood ... Basically local treatments all come down to how good the inspection is and how good the treatment is, Orange Oil is no exception. There are some down sides to Orange Oil when comparing to other treatment options, especially our go-to product Taurus Dry. So, in my opinion I don’t think Orange Oil is worth the hype (by the way MOST pest experts think this they may just not say it).

What Are The Downsides To Orange Oil?

I’ll start with the downsides to all local drywood termite treatments. As mentioned above the treatment process is only as good as the inspection to begin with and the treatment method itself. Even the most amazing inspectors will miss drywood termite evidence from time to time and no inspectors will see colonies in walls that aren’t showing their presence anywhere else. In addition, the best technicians will have off days and may not get the best treatment done every time. Apart from those issues, Orange Oil has some other issues. It’s considered a repellant, which means it pushes termites away. So if you don’t kill all the termites during the treatment by getting the product to as many areas as possible where the termites are colonizing as possible, there’s a chance some will survive. I can say from experience I have talked to many customers in my career (especially when I worked in San Jose where drywood termites are super prevalent) that have had lots of call back issues with Orange Oil treatments. Another issue with Orange Oil is the low residual life. Orange Oil will only be effective for approximately 4 days. If termites don’t hit the product within that time, they simply won’t die from the product.

How Do We Treat Locally For Drywood Termites?

First off, if you can fumigate, do so. I know there are environmental issues (though those are way overblown in my opinion) and I know it’s inconvenient and I know it’s costly but it’s sooooo much better for most cases. Now, if you can’t or absolutely don’t want to fumigate there are really good local treatment options out there. We use Taurus Dry as our primary treatment product. Why? It’s dust that’s super fine and is designed to statically stick to termites. Also, because it’s a super fine dust, it can much more easily penetrate into galleries when compared to foam or liquid. For my money and my customers, it’s the best. The label actually only requires you to drill every two feet and use a very minimal amount of product meaning you are getting a minuscule amount of chemical in your walls. We typically also use Termidor Foam which creates a foam looks like shaving cream. We foam the wall voids around the infested wood in order to help supplement the dust treatment. Both products use Fipronil which is an amazing termiticide. We’re always trying to utilize new, better methods so this set up may change but as of this writing, this is our go-to system.