Tim Lyons can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to break into a home that is being fumigated — or "tented" in local vernacular — for termites.

"It's just pure insanity to even think about doing something like that," said Lyons, executive director of the Hawaii Pest Control Association.

Still, it happens. The 25 or so association members report "maybe 10 break-ins a year" during a "bad" year, and far fewer in "good years," Lyons said.

Considering 4,000 to 5,000 homes are tented across the state every year, the break-in rate is very low, Lyons said.

The author of a letter to the editor that appeared in The Advertiser last month quoted a termite treatment company as saying roughly 50 percent of tented homes are burglarized.

Lyons and police said the 50 percent estimate appears to be very inflated.

Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department said that although no specific records are kept on homes that are broken into while being fumigated, the department's best estimate is between 50 to 100 per year.

DISTRICTS VARY

Some police districts on O'ahu may see two to three break-ins a month; other districts maybe five in a year's time; and yet other districts report none in a 12-month period, Yu said.

In some cases, suspects arrested in connection with the break-ins are familiar with fumigation practices, but in other cases, there is no prior connection with the industry, Yu said.

Tammy Murray, who co-owns Aloha Termite and Pest Control in Wahiawa with her husband, Shawn, called the 50 percent figure "ridiculous."

"If that number was true, we wouldn't be in business very long," Murray said. "As business owners and homeowners, we just wouldn't put someone's home in jeopardy."

But occasional break-ins are a problem throughout the industry, Murray said. Company employees discuss the possibility of a break-in with potential customers and provide them with a list of reputable private security companies that will provide overnight guards for homes that are being tented.

In addition, customers are asked to sign a section of the contract for services that says the risks of having the home treated include the use of a deadly poisonous gas and the possibility that the home might be broken into.

Some customers opt to hire a private security guard.

"Some of them camp out in the yard and some say they already have a very good security system," Murray said.

She said homes being fumigated are covered with a tent the day or afternoon before, then filled with poisonous "Vikane" gas, which is left in place over-night.

Company employees usually remove the tent the following morning and let the house air out for at least six hours.

Workers then test the air throughout the house, and if no problems are found, turn it back over to the owners, Murray said.

Lyons said virtually every one of the termite eradication companies in business today in Hawai'i and elsewhere use Vikane gas because it is the most effective at eradicating termites.

RISKING DEATH

Stories abound about humans willing to risk death from the poison gas.

"In one case I heard about, two guys who were caught in a tented home were wearing snorkels, not full-on scuba gear," Lyons said.

Apparently the two were removed from the home before they were overcome by the gas.

There are stories in Hawai'i about would-be burglars who have actually died while inside a tented house.

But Dan Galanis, an epidemiologist with the Injury Prevention and Control Program at the state Department of Health, searched through the department's death certificate database for the years 1991 through 2008, but could not find an unintentional poisoning associated with termite fumigation gas.

He said there was one death "a few years ago" that involved a senior-age victim who apparently committed suicide by returning to a house that was being tented.

Lyons said members of his association work with police when a break-in occurs.

"There was a rash three or four years ago," Lyons said. But even then, there was no apparent pattern to the break-ins.

It is possible that the burglaries were the work of disgruntled former employees or others who were high on drugs, or perhaps both, Lyons said.