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Spray foam insulation has recently exploded in popularity with new builds, due to its energy-efficient selling feature, but it may be hiding a pesky problem: termites. Fox 5’s I-Team spoke with a coastal homeowner with a two-year-old house insulated with spray foam and termite tunnels going 15 feet up. Pest experts don’t believe the spray foam caused the infestation, but “it sure makes them harder to detect,” says Rick Bell from the Georgia Pest Control Association. He compared the insulation to drawing a curtain around the wall.

Even in the best of conditions, termites can be tricky to find. Pick up a two by four. It's something to support your home and it seems solid enough, right? Well, termites can eat their way inside, creating tunnels sight unseen.

Attorney Tom Campbell shows us what's left of the Orange Beach, Alabama tiny house. It was a retirement dream for Leslie Echols and his wife. The water is a 30 second walk away. Their RV was parked and ready to roll at anytime. But while the Echols were setting up house, the termites were building homes in their walls.

"They can travel unseen. They don't eat the foam but mine through it. They'll go to the wood in the structure and go all over the house very quickly and that's what happened here," said Campbell, an attorney who has special knowledge of homes insulated in spray foam.

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