About

I'm Frank Dombrowsky, and this site is about termites and the other pests that come with living in a city full of old brick two-flats, drafty greystones, and basements that have seen some things.

Chicago housing stock is older than a lot of the country's, and that matters when you're talking about termites and the things that chew through wood, hide in foundations, or show up every spring like they pay rent. The weather here doesn't help either. We swing from brutal winters to humid summers, and pests adjust their habits accordingly. What works for termite prevention in Phoenix or Atlanta doesn't always translate to a hundred-year-old building on the North Side with a limestone foundation and a leaky gutter.

This site is my attempt to talk about that honestly. No scare tactics, no pretending every mud tube means your house is about to collapse, no pretending a few ants in the kitchen means you need a five-thousand dollar treatment plan. Just straight information about what termites and other pests actually do in this city, what's worth worrying about, and what you can reasonably handle versus when it's time to call someone who deals with this for a living.

I'm not a licensed exterminator and I'm not running a pest control company. I've just spent a lot of time around old buildings, landlords, property managers, and the kinds of problems nobody brings up until they have to. I write about it the way I'd talk to a neighbor leaning over the fence, because that's about the right tone for this subject.

If you want to talk specifics about your situation, call (312) 675-2299.