How to check the house for termites

Sprinkle flour or talcum powder on the floor. Mice will leave tracks in the powder, eventually revealing entry points or nests. You don't have to blanket the entire floor, just near the walls/borders of the rooms, and "as needed" until you have the evidence you seek. Keep in mind that their typical range is 12-20 feet from their nest.

Look for mouse droppings.

Use an ultraviolet light to find urine stains.

Use light. If you can make the room dark, look for sunlight shining through cracks from outside. Or, wait until dark and shine a light through possible cracks, either from inside or outside, and have an assistant on the other side alert you to any light shining through.

Watch for drafts. If you're in a cold climate such as Minnesota, wait until it is -20 degrees Fahrenheit, so that you can feel the cold air blasting through the mouse hole. (That's how I found an entry point recently. The cold air was flowing into a basement crevice such that I could see a spider web waving in the air. Turns out there was a crack where an addition had been put on the house. This was confirmed by shining a light as described above.)

We just went with a pest control company after we found a bunch of the critters. Very scary when you live in a log home!

They put down poison to get a beachhead and then went with bait stations since. It seems to be working. No new damage.

Some other advice those guys gave is:
- Do not use wood mulch right up against the house.
- Make sure not to pile dirt up anywhere near the top of the concrete foundation of the house. - pick up any lose wood or dead brush laying around the yard. You want the minimum of wood-to-dirt contact anywhere near your house as possible, otherwise you are attracting the suckers and feeding them.