What a WDI report is, and who may issue one
The Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report is a specific document on a specific state form — Form SPCS/T-5 — administered by the Structural Pest Control Service of the Texas Department of Agriculture. It is not a section of your home inspection report, it is not written by your inspector in that capacity, and it is not issued under a TREC licence.
Only a certified applicator or a technician licensed by TDA in the termite control category may perform the inspection and sign the report. Apprentices may assist for training purposes but may not conduct the inspection independently. A TREC inspector licence does not authorise a WDI report. Many Texas inspectors hold both credentials, and in DFW it is common for one person to arrive and produce two documents. That is convenient and entirely proper, but it is two licences doing two jobs, and a buyer should confirm the second one exists rather than assume it.
The inspection procedure is codified — it is not left to the individual company's discretion. The governing rule is 4 TAC §7.175, Official Wood Destroying Insect Report Inspection Procedures, which sets out how the inspection is conducted and how the report is completed.
Why this structure exists is worth understanding. Structural pest control in Texas is a separate regulated profession from real estate inspection, with its own licensing, its own continuing education and its own enforcement. The WDI report exists to serve lenders, buyers and sellers who need a document from someone qualified to identify wood-destroying insects — an area the real estate inspection standards specifically leave out.
Why it is a separate report from your home inspection
The Texas standards of practice for real estate inspections state that inspectors are not required to determine the presence of pests, along with asbestos, lead paint, mould, or any other environmental hazard. That is not a gap somebody forgot to fill. It is a deliberate boundary between two licensed professions, and it produces four practical consequences.
- A separate order. The WDI report is arranged and paid for separately, whether or not the same person performs it.
- A separate form. It appears on TDA's T-5, not on TREC's REI 7-6. If what you received is a letter on company stationery rather than the state form, you did not get an official WDI report.
- A separate scope. The T-5 asks different questions than the inspection report does, and answers them about different things.
- A separate slot in the option period. This is the one that costs people money. Ancillary services stack: a sewer scope, a static plumbing test, a structural engineer and a WDI report all need scheduling inside the same short window. The general inspection needs to happen in the first day or two so everything else still fits.
Whether your lender requires a WDI report is a question for your lender and your loan programme, and the requirements vary. Ask directly rather than assuming, and ask early — a report you discover you need on the last day of the option period is a report you may not get in time.
What the report covers, and what it does not
What is on the T-5:
- The structures inspected — the residence and any other structures requested, which can include the garage, outbuildings and fences.
- Evidence of active infestation — live insects, frass, and the other signs of a current problem.
- Evidence of previous infestation — old damage, old tubes, spent galleries.
- Visible evidence of previous treatment.
- Conducive conditions — wood rot, moisture, insufficient ventilation, wood-to-ground contact, and similar conditions that invite infestation.
- Inaccessible or obstructed areas that limited the inspection.
- Treatment recommendations and warranties, where applicable.
What is not on it, and this is where expectations go wrong:
- It is not a structural evaluation. The report may note visible damage, but determining whether a damaged member still carries its load is engineering work, not pest control work. If a WDI report describes significant damage, the next call is a structural engineer, not a second pest company.
- It does not guarantee an absence of insects. It documents what visible evidence was found on the day, in the areas that could be reached.
- It does not cover what could not be inspected. Attics and crawlspaces must be inspected where they are accessible; where access is blocked, the limitation belongs on the report. Read that part of the form — it tells you how much of the house the report actually speaks to.
- It does not price or scope a repair. Damage repair and treatment are separate scopes of work.
The form and instructions are published by TDA: Form SPCS/T-5.
Why North Texas houses generate conducive conditions
Subterranean termites are endemic in North Texas. That is the baseline, and it is not a statement about any particular house. What matters locally is that the way we build and maintain houses here produces exactly the conditions the T-5 form asks about.
Slab-on-grade construction puts soil in contact with the slab edge. Foundation-moisture management — the thing this site otherwise spends most of its time recommending — calls for keeping soil moisture stable near the perimeter, which in practice means watering near the slab and mulching to slow evaporation. Texas A&M AgriLife's foundation guidance specifically recommends 2 to 4 inches of mulch and soaker hoses 8 to 18 inches from the foundation.
There is a genuine tension there and it deserves to be said out loud rather than glossed over: the mulch and the foundation watering that protect your slab also create termite-conducive conditions. Both concerns are real. Neither cancels the other.
The resolution is technique, not abandonment of either practice:
- Keep mulch to the recommended 2 to 4 inches deep — deep mulch beds are the problem, not mulch as such.
- Keep mulch off the slab edge and off any siding. Leave the slab edge visible; you want to be able to see a mud tube if one appears.
- Keep soaker hoses 8 to 18 inches out from the foundation rather than laid against it.
- Eliminate wood-to-ground contact — fence posts, deck posts, trellises and stored lumber against the house.
- Correct standing water and chronic moisture at the perimeter, which serves the foundation and the termite question simultaneously.
The visible slab edge is the single most useful habit on that list. A homeowner who can see the bottom four inches of their own foundation will find a mud tube years before someone whose flowerbed is piled over the brick.
Previous treatment is not a red flag
This is the part of the topic where buyers most often overreact, and where a neutral reading of the report matters most.
Evidence of previous infestation and visible evidence of previous treatment are separate boxes on the form from evidence of active infestation, and they mean different things. A house in North Texas that has been treated for subterranean termites at some point in a forty-year life is not an unusual house. It is a house where somebody noticed a problem and dealt with it. The finding that changes a transaction is active infestation, or damage significant enough to warrant a structural opinion — not the historical record.
What to do with a previous-treatment finding is ask questions, not walk:
- Who treated it, when, and what was done? Sellers often have the paperwork.
- Is there a warranty or a service agreement, and is it transferable? A transferable termite warranty is an asset, and it is routinely left on the table because nobody asked.
- Was the damage repaired, and by whom?
- Were the conducive conditions that let it happen ever corrected? If the mulch is still piled over the brick, the treatment addressed the symptom.
Conducive conditions themselves are usually the cheapest findings on any inspection day: pull the mulch back, move the stored lumber, cut the wood-to-ground contact, fix the drip. They are also the findings most likely to be ignored, because nothing appears to be wrong yet.
What each licence can and cannot tell you
A TREC inspector is performing a limited visual survey and basic performance evaluation of the systems and components of the building using normal controls. The inspector is not required to determine the presence of pests, is not required to inspect anything buried, hidden, latent or concealed, and is not required to report cosmetic conditions or ordinary wear. An inspector who sees something suggestive — a mud tube on a pier, damaged trim, chronic moisture at the sill — will note it and refer it, and that is the correct handling. Noting it is not a WDI report.
A TDA-licensed termite inspector completes the T-5: active evidence, previous evidence, previous treatment, conducive conditions, inaccessible areas, and recommendations. That is a specific and bounded set of questions, and the answers are about visible evidence on the day.
A Texas licensed professional engineer is who answers whether damaged framing still carries load, and what the repair needs to be. Neither of the other two credentials authorises that determination, and neither should be asked for it.
The failure mode to avoid is treating any one of these documents as though it answered all three questions. A clean WDI report does not mean the framing is sound. A clean inspection report does not mean there are no termites. And a treatment proposal from a company that sells treatment is a quote, not a diagnosis. The procedure the T-5 must follow is set out at 4 TAC §7.175.
What to do about it
Order it early. Put the WDI report in the first days of the option period alongside the general inspection, not at the end. It shares the window with every other ancillary service, and the scheduling is what fails, not the inspection.
Confirm the licence. Ask whether the person performing the WDI holds the TDA termite category licence. If your TREC inspector holds both, excellent — confirm it rather than assume it.
Insist on the actual form. What you want is the completed T-5, not a summary letter. Read the sections on inaccessible areas and obstructions, because they define how much of the house the report is speaking about.
Separate active from historical. Active infestation is a live issue to resolve before closing. Previous infestation with documented treatment is a paperwork exercise — ask for the treatment records and the warranty, and ask whether it transfers.
Escalate damage, not evidence. If the report describes damage rather than mere presence, the next call is a structural engineer. A pest control company can tell you what did the damage; it cannot tell you what the damage means to the structure.
Fix the conducive conditions regardless. Pull the mulch off the brick, keep the slab edge visible, move the soaker hoses out, and eliminate the wood-to-ground contact. These are the cheapest items in any transaction, they serve the foundation and the termite question at once, and they are the ones most likely to still be undone a year later.
Common questions
Is a termite inspection included in a Texas home inspection?
No. The Texas standards of practice state that inspectors are not required to determine the presence of pests, and the wood-destroying insect report is a separate document on a separate state form issued under a separate licence. Many DFW inspectors hold both credentials and will produce both documents in one visit, but it is two services, ordered and paid for separately. If your file contains only the REI 7-6 inspection report, you do not have a WDI report.
Who can perform a WDI inspection in Texas?
Only a certified applicator or a technician licensed in the termite control category by the Texas Department of Agriculture, through its Structural Pest Control Service. Apprentices may assist for training but cannot conduct the inspection independently. A TREC inspector licence by itself does not authorise a WDI report. The procedure is codified at 4 TAC §7.175, and the report goes on TDA Form SPCS/T-5 — if you received a letter instead of that form, ask why.
Does evidence of previous termite treatment mean I should walk away?
No, and this is the finding buyers most often overreact to. Subterranean termites are endemic in North Texas, and a house that was treated at some point in a long life is a house where somebody noticed and acted. The T-5 records previous infestation and previous treatment in different boxes from active infestation for exactly that reason. Ask for the treatment records, ask whether a warranty or service agreement exists and whether it transfers to you, and ask whether the conducive conditions were corrected. Active infestation is a different conversation.
Will a WDI report tell me if there is structural damage?
Not really. The report documents visible evidence of infestation, previous infestation, previous treatment and conducive conditions. It is not a structural evaluation, and the licence behind it does not authorise one. If the report describes damage to framing rather than simply evidence of insects, the correct next step is a Texas licensed professional engineer, who can say whether the member still carries its load and what the repair needs to be. A pest control company can tell you what caused the damage; it cannot tell you what the damage means.
Does mulch and foundation watering cause termites?
They create conducive conditions, which is a real tension worth naming rather than dodging: the mulch and perimeter moisture that protect a slab in Blackland clay are also what termites like. The answer is technique, not abandoning either practice. Keep mulch to 2 to 4 inches deep, keep it off the slab edge and off siding, keep soaker hoses 8 to 18 inches out from the foundation rather than against it, and eliminate wood-to-ground contact. Keeping the bottom few inches of the foundation visible is the most valuable habit of all, because it is how you spot a mud tube early.
When should I schedule the WDI report?
In the first day or two of the option period, alongside the general inspection. Ancillary services stack inside the same short window — a sewer scope, a static plumbing test, an engineer's visit and the WDI report all need their own slot, and the constraint is scheduling rather than the work itself. Ask your lender early whether the loan programme requires a WDI report, because discovering that requirement late is how option periods get wasted.