A common question I receive is whether the chemicals I use to treat termites are safe for pets. It’s safe to say that most pet owners are more concerned about the health of their pets than they are about their own.

I don’t think twice about my dog’s safety before administering any sort of pest control at my house. That’s partly because I own a Belgian Malinois who seems indestructible. He once swallowed an ant bait station without any ill effects.

We use two types of chemicals: fipronil and disodium octaborate tetrahydrate. These are the active ingredients in Termidor, Ternate, Tim-Bor and Bora-Care. All of these products carry the EPA’s Caution signal word, which is the lowest toxicity category used on pesticide labels.

When a customer asks whether the chemicals I use are safe for pets, the simple answer is yes, when they’re used according to their labels. That’s assuming, of course, that your pets don’t get into a bucket of Tim-Bor or lick up some Termidor off the sidewalk underneath the fascia I’m treating. No pet is going to be up in the attic with me when I’m applying borate. Although, I once had three full-size black Labs join me in a crawl space. It wasn’t their first time.

Basically, if you keep your pets inside while I’m treating the outside of your home and let the treatment dry before letting them back outside, there shouldn’t be a problem. In all my years in pest control, I haven’t had a single customer tell me their pet became sick after one of my treatments.

The biggest concern is when a customer has a koi pond anywhere near wood that needs to be treated. Fipronil is toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates. Spray reaching a pond could be deadly to the fish living in it. Even when we’re drilling into termite-infested wood and injecting the treatment directly into the holes, there are times when the chemical can pour back out and run down toward the ground. During that descent, it can be caught by a breeze and carried in an unintended direction. Personally, I won’t apply fipronil anywhere near a koi pond. It’s simply not worth the risk.

The good news is that you don’t have to live with termites just because you have pets. The chemicals we use for local treatments shouldn’t be an issue when they’re applied properly and the label directions are followed.

When it comes to fumigation, however, that’s another story. California even has a separate disclosure specifically addressing cats. The concern isn’t necessarily that a homeowner intentionally leaves a cat inside. Many cats are considered outdoor cats and are perfectly capable of slipping into places they don’t belong—especially when no one is looking. There’s a reason people say, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

Before fumigation, homeowners must make sure their cats are accounted for and cannot enter the structure. Fumigation uses a lethal gas, and a cat that sneaks back inside could be killed. All pets must be removed from the structure before treatment and cannot return until the structure has been cleared for re-entry. California regulations also require a structural pest-control company to report any death or serious injury relating to a structural fumigation or pesticide application to both the Structural Pest Control Board and the County Agricultural Commissioner.

Bottom line: the main goal of every termite and pest control company should be to kill termites and nothing else.