ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A tiny terror has John Valdes troubled. 

He is a contractor in St. Augustine who specializes in restoring historic buildings. 

Tuesday, he took First Coast News on a tour of a 100-year-old house he is working on. 

“This is termite damage right here,” he said. That damage was created by domestic subterranean termites.

“St. Augustine has had termites forever,” he said. “We deal with them all the time.”

However, Valdes recently discovered in a different house he has restored, Formosan termites, or what has been called the “super termite.” That house is not far from Downtown St. Augustine.

That discovery has rattled him.

“We’re spending a fortune trying to get them (the Formosan termites) out of the building,” he said. 

Formosan termites do more damage in a shorter amount of time than the domestic termite.

“The difference is the colonies are huge. You go from having a million individuals in a domestic colony of subterraneous termites to having 10 million (in a Formosan colony), which means they eat a lot more wood a lot faster,” Valdes noted. 

He is concerned about the termites swarming and spreading.

“I know of another building that is infested right now with them, and the people can’t afford to do anything about it,” Valdes said. 

Formosan termites are the same kind that infested the Women’s Club in Jacksonville and spread in the Riverside community in 2021.

Pest control companies tell First Coast News they have started to see Formosan termites over the last few years in different parts of St. Johns County. There are prevention techniques and treatments available.

So, Valdes is waving the red flag in St. Augustine.

“Our architectural history is at stake here,” he said. 

Valdes is urging St. Augustine city leaders to do something to protect the historic buildings in the city. He spoke to the Historic Architectural Review Board earlier this summer about the Formosan termites. 

Regarding a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) established in Lincolnville and another CRA coming to West Augustine, Valdes said, “We have money in place to help people rebuild their buildings. That’s great. That’s wonderful,” Valdes said, “But we need to allow some of this money to be used for preventative termite treatment.”

He also suggests reviewing the city’s building code and encouraging or requiring treated wood for construction, which Valdes said the Formosan termites do not like.

He said Formosan termites have been seen in St. Augustine for a few years, but their numbers appear to be growing. 

“It’s not as dramatic as a wrecking ball or a backhoe tearing a building down,” Valdes noted. But, he believes that the damage to historic buildings, given time, could be just as dangerous.