What Is a Texas WDI Report (the T-5)?
A Texas WDI report is the Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report, form SPCS/T-5, and it is the state prescribed form for recording whether there is visible evidence of wood destroying insects on a property. It runs four pages plus a diagram, it is regulated by the Texas Department of Agriculture through its Structural Pest Control Service, and it can only be completed by a certified applicator or a technician licensed in the termite control category. Texas does not require a termite inspection on every home sale. What Rule ยง7.176 requires is that when a wood destroying insect report is done for a real estate transaction in Texas, it has to be on this form. So if you are buying a house and your lender, your agent, or your VA loan asks for a termite inspection, the T-5 is the document you are going to get back.
This page walks through what is actually on that form and what the answers mean, because the T-5 gets misread constantly. Most of the panic we see comes from people reading a “yes” in one box and assuming the worst.
What the inspection actually covers
The scope is narrower than most buyers expect, and it is spelled out on page one of the form. The inspection covers the primary dwelling or place of business. Sheds, detached garages, lean-tos, fences, guest houses and any other structure are not included unless they are specifically listed in Section 5 of the report. So if you wanted the detached garage looked at, that had to be asked for, and it has to appear in Section 5.
The inspection is also limited to the parts of the structure that are visible and accessible on the day of the inspection. Areas concealed by wall coverings, furniture, equipment and stored articles are not covered, and neither is any part of the structure that would have to be removed or defaced to look behind. Attics and crawl spaces are different though, and this is where a lot of reports go wrong. Attics and crawl spaces must be inspected if they are accessible, and they can only be marked entirely inaccessible if it would be physically impossible for any other inspector to get in there. An effort has to be made, including using tools like cameras. “I didn’t feel like crawling under there” is not a scope limitation.
What a T-5 is not
Section F of the scope says it in capital letters on the form itself: this is not a structural damage report or a warranty as to the absence of wood destroying insects. Those are two separate things and both of them matter.
It is not a damage report because the inspector is reporting visible evidence of insects, not judging what the framing underneath is worth. The form says plainly that inspectors usually are not engineers or builders qualified to give an opinion on the degree of structural damage, and that evaluating damage should be done by a qualified expert. So if the report notes evidence of an old infestation in a floor joist, that tells you insects were there. It does not tell you the joist needs replacing, and your WDI inspector is not the person to ask.
It is not a warranty because the whole thing is a visual inspection on one day. Nobody is certifying the house is free of termites. Also worth knowing, if the report shows evidence of a previous treatment, the inspecting company cannot guarantee that the earlier work by another pest control company actually rendered the insects inactive. They are reporting that they saw drill marks or trenching, and that is all that means.
Does a “yes” mean the house has termites?
Not by itself, no. Section 11 asks three separate questions about each insect, and people tend to read them as one. There is visible active infestation, visible previous infestation, and visible previous treatment, and a “yes” in each column means something different.
Active infestation means the insects were actually found in or on the structure during the inspection. For subterranean termites, which are the ones most Texas buyers are worried about, “yes” for active can only be marked if live termites were observed that day. Any other evidence without live insects gets reported as a previous infestation instead. Drywood termites work differently, where frass or fecal pellets alone are enough to mark active, as long as there is no evidence of a prior remedial treatment. Carpenter ants need live ants or their frass, though the form notes that a few randomly scattered carpenter ants on a structure do not necessarily mean an infestation that needs treatment.
Previous infestation means there is evidence something was there, but no current activity was found. Old mud tubes, old damage, exit holes. This is the box that scares buyers the most and it is often the least urgent one on the page.
Previous treatment means the inspector saw signs the house was treated before, like drill marks, trenches next to the foundation, or a treatment notification sign. A “yes” here does not mean the treatment was complete or successful. It means somebody treated this house at some point. Hold on, before you read that as bad news, a treated house with no active infestation is frequently a house where somebody handled a problem properly.
One thing to take seriously though. If the report does show visible evidence of an active or previous infestation, the form says it should be assumed that some degree of damage is present. That is when you want a qualified expert looking at the structure itself.
Conducive conditions, and the letters on the diagram
Section 10 covers conducive conditions, which are the things about a property that attract wood destroying insects or make it easier for them to get in unnoticed. Basically, these are not bugs. They are the conditions that invite bugs, and most of them are fixable by a homeowner on a Saturday.
Each one has a letter, and those letters get written on the diagram so you can see where on the property the condition is:
| Letter | Conducive condition |
|---|---|
| G | Wood to ground contact |
| I | Formboards left in place |
| J | Excessive moisture |
| K | Debris under or around structure |
| L | Footing too low or soil line too high |
| M | Wood rot |
| N | Heavy foliage |
| O | Planter box abutting structure |
| Q | Wood pile in contact with structure |
| R | Wooden fence in contact with the structure |
| T | Insufficient ventilation |
| C | Other, specified in the blank provided |
Wood rot is listed here because of what it does for insects, particularly carpenter ants, and not as a structural defect. That trips people up. Insufficient ventilation is on the list partly because some termiticide labels make recommendations about it, and the fix for that one is mechanical rather than chemical.
When conducive conditions can be corrected by mechanical alteration or a change in habit, that is usually the cheaper and better answer. Moving the firewood pile off the siding, fixing the sprinkler head that soaks one corner of the foundation, pulling the debris out from under the deck. A preventive treatment recommendation is appropriate when those conditions cannot be corrected that way.
When treatment can be recommended
There are rules about this, and they exist to keep the inspection from turning into a sales pitch. Corrective treatment may only be recommended when there is visible evidence of an active infestation in or on the structure, or visible evidence of a previous infestation with no evidence of a prior treatment. That is the whole list.
Anything recommended on the basis of conducive conditions alone is a preventive treatment, and it has to be explained on the report in terms of the conditions it relates to. So if you are looking at a recommendation for a full perimeter treatment and the report shows no active and no previous infestation, you are entitled to ask which conducive condition is driving that and why mechanical correction will not do it.
The diagram
A diagram must be attached for every structure inspected, and it is not meant to be a rough doodle. The diagram should resemble the structure and include approximate perimeter measurements on all sides. Active or previous infestations get marked with the appropriate symbols, and conducive conditions get marked with the letters from the table above.
If you are reading a report and there is no diagram attached, that is a real gap, not a formatting preference.
Who is allowed to perform one
A WDI report can only be completed by a certified applicator or a technician licensed in the termite control category. A TREC home inspector license does not cover it, because wood destroying insect inspections are regulated by the Texas Department of Agriculture rather than TREC. Apprentices may be present for training, and when they are, they have to be listed under “others present” in Section 7B along with their registration number.
That license is also not something an inspector holds on their own. It sits underneath a licensed structural pest control business, which is why Section 1A and 1B of the report ask for the company name and its business license number. If you are an inspector looking at adding this, we wrote up the whole path in how to get a Texas WDI license.
Who gets a copy of the report
Section 4 of the form lists everyone the report was forwarded to, and the options include the title company or mortgagee, the purchaser of the service, the seller, the agent and the buyer. But under the Structural Pest Control regulations, only the purchaser of the service is required to receive a copy.
This is the part that surprises people, and it is the reason a pest control company may tell you no when you call asking for a report on a house. It is not them being difficult. If you did not buy the inspection, they are not required to hand it to you, and generally they will not. If you paid for a WDI inspection, or it was included in what your inspector charged you, go back to that inspector for your copy.
The sticker in your breaker box
A lot of people find this page because they found a sticker. The inspector has to record where the notice of inspection sticker was posted and the date it went up, and the form gives three places: the electric breaker box, the water heater closet, or beneath the kitchen sink.
So a sticker in your breaker box means somebody performed a wood destroying insect inspection on that house on that date. It does not mean the house was treated for termites, and it does not mean anything was found. Those are separate boxes on a separate form.
If you disagree with the report
The form tells you what to do, which is more than most documents manage. If the report recommends a treatment and you have questions about it, you can contact the inspector who did the work, you can get a second opinion from another licensed pest control operator, and you can contact the Structural Pest Control Service of the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Also remember that termite control options vary quite a bit between companies in cost, in what areas actually get treated, in warranty terms and in renewal options. A quote is not a diagnosis, and it is fair to ask what a given price is actually buying.
The bottom line
The T-5 is a visual snapshot of one property on one day, recorded on a form the state wrote so that every inspector reports the same things the same way. It is genuinely useful if you read the columns as they are written, and it causes a lot of unnecessary alarm when a “yes” gets read as “termites.”
If you have a report in front of you and something on it is not clear, the inspector who signed it is the right person to walk you through it. Their name and license number are in Section 7A. If you are an inspector who wants to write these yourself, have a look at how to get a Texas WDI license or the FAQ, and get in touch if something is not covered.
Sourced from the Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report, form SPCS/T-5 (rev. 9/1/2020), and the Texas Department of Agriculture instructions for that form (rev. 9/1/2019). Written by Collin Nowak, Owner of WDI Science, TREC Professional Inspector 20772-PI and Certified Applicator #0920769 in the termite control category. Last updated July 31, 2026.