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Wooden doors, frames, wardrobes and modular kitchens are a big investment — and they are exactly what termites (deemak) look for. Treating furniture the right way saves you the cost of replacing it. This guide explains how termites reach your furniture, how professionals treat it, and the simple steps that keep it safe.
How Termites Reach Your Furniture
Most termites in Indian homes are subterranean: they live in the soil and travel up through cracks in the floor and walls. Furniture that touches a wall or the floor — wardrobes, beds, kitchen cabinets, door frames — is reached first. So treating only the furniture is not enough: the source in the soil has to be treated too.
A second type, drywood termites, lives inside dry wood and needs no contact with the soil. They leave tiny dry pellets near the furniture. Wood borers (powder post beetles) are different insects again: they leave fine powder and small round holes. Each needs a slightly different treatment.
How Professionals Treat Wooden Furniture and Doors
1. Treating the building
First, the source is cut off with a post-construction anti-termite treatment: small holes are drilled along the wall–floor joints, termiticide is injected into the soil and the holes are sealed. This stops new termites from coming up into the furniture.
2. Treating door frames and fixed woodwork
Door and window frames are treated by drilling small holes into the wood at intervals and injecting a termiticide, so it soaks through the inside of the frame. The holes are then filled and can be touched up with paint or polish.
3. Treating furniture
Wardrobes, beds and cabinets are treated on the joints, back panels and legs, where termites usually enter. Hollow or damaged sections are treated through small holes, and surfaces can be sprayed or brushed with a wood treatment.
4. Treating wood borers
For wood borer holes and powder, wood preservative is injected into the exit holes with a syringe and applied to the surface. This kills the larvae inside and stops new beetles from laying eggs. Read more about wood borer treatment.
What Does Not Work
- Household insect spray kills only the termites you can see. The colony keeps sending new ones.
- Kerosene or diesel on the wood is a fire hazard, smells for weeks and does not reach the termites inside.
- Breaking mud tubes only makes termites move to another route.
- Moving the furniture to another room without treatment often carries the termites with it.
How to Protect New Furniture
- Get the building treated before installing a modular kitchen or new wardrobes.
- Keep a small gap between furniture and walls, so you can check for mud tubes.
- Fix leaking pipes and damp walls — termites love moisture.
- Do not store cardboard, old newspapers or wood scraps on the floor of store rooms.
- Check doors, frames and cupboards once a year, especially after the monsoon.
Can Badly Damaged Furniture Be Saved?
If the wood still feels solid, treatment usually saves it. If a section has become hollow or crumbly, it will need repair or replacement by a carpenter after the treatment — otherwise the weak wood may break. Always treat first, then repair, so the new wood is not attacked.
Get Your Furniture Checked
Our technicians inspect your home for free, find where the termites are coming from, and treat the building and the furniture together. Post-construction treatment costs ₹10 per sq ft for up to 1,100 sq ft and ₹7 per sq ft above that (plus GST). Call or WhatsApp +91 94111 22334, or book a free termite inspection online. Learn more about our termite control service, check the signs of termites, or see termite treatment in Dehradun.