Todd Murray has a reputation for getting rid of unwelcome guests.

The broad-shouldered, tight-gripped man has a good-natured smile and friendly manner, but when it comes to his lethal work, he approaches the job with a cool professionalism.

Silently, easily, laying the bothersome interlopers to waste.

Pulling up to clients’ homes in the early morning, he’ll connect a hose to a noxious gas tank in the bed of his pickup, lace it through a cracked window or door, and pump.

There’s no need to be alarmed. Well, unless you’re a termite.

Murray, 32, is at the forefront of a constant battle against the insects. He specializes in ridding homes of dry-wood termites, which assault any timber within a house — including baseboards, studs and furniture.

The ant-sized insects have a pale hue and develop colonies of nearly 10,000 strong. They infiltrate homes through exposed wood, under the ground, and even in store-bought furniture.

“Every house on this block has ‘em,” Murray says of his tiny foe, taking residence in a house on Shoreview Drive in Naples. “They just don’t know it yet,” explaining that a colony of these wood-craving termites may be in a home for years before people notice them. “They’re in there. Eating.”

In order to eradicate the pests, which are abundant in Southwest Florida, Murray must completely cover homes with heavy plastic tarps. The process called “tenting” transforms homes into giant colorful mounds that resemble a big top at a circus. Murray’s tents are Smurf-blue.

The largest house he’s done was 5 million cubic feet, he says. On this day he’s enveloping a Naples house that is 38,000 cubic feet.

A termite is only quarter of an inch, at it’s largest.

The colorful structures may seem odd. What’s going on under the big top? An elephant eating peanuts? A tiger jumping through a fiery ring?

And then there’s this response: People regarding a tented house as a sign of bad housekeeping, instead of a symptom of living in the humid and pest-friendly South.

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“I was told some time ago that it’s not if you get termites, it’s when you get termites,” says Barbara Caldwell of advice she was given when she moved here from North Carolina. “I don’t even remember termites there,” she says of her former state.

Now Caldwell is prepping her family for a tenting, which is three days away. She’s busily packing up the family’s fish, birds, food, and other essentials.

She says she brought termites into the house in a TV armoire at least three years ago. “They’ve moved into the baseboards,” she says. “Now that we’ve realized they are on the move and in the wall, it’s time to do this.”

Caldwell hasn’t had to tent her house before. She has seen cockroaches, ants and flying insects lurking about, but did not pay them much mind. “Those are simple to take care of,” she says, explaining that an exterminator sprays her home for individual bugs — a process that doesn’t require much more than moving things away from base boards.

But the tent-fumigation, essentially a nuclear bug-bomb, will kill most any living thing within the home, including other insects besides termites. The gas, which crawls out at negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit, will also poison exposed food. It will cover cups, cutlery and keepsakes. Even feather pillows must be removed because they will trap the gas within.

“We’ve been trying to eat everything out of the freezer,” Caldwell says, knowing that what she doesn’t eat must be thrown away or stored in a friend’s kitchen.

“We do about 10 tentings a week,” Murray says. With his three-man crew, he says he can tent five homes a day.

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On this day, Murray the bug bomber is covering a house on a cul-de-sac on Shoreview Drive in Naples. He’s resting on a bent knee, coupling two sections of tarp. A band of metal clips, strapped around his shoulder like Rambo-armour, jingle as he moves about.

The average time to coat a home is about two hours, Murray says, but some of the multiple-story homes require more time, and occasionally he’ll even employ cranes to hoist the heavy tarps into place.

The tents have a two-fold purpose. They lock termites and bugs in the home, and locks owners out. “We change the locks,” Murray says of the added precaution exterminators take to protect clients.

This is a hardship many residents take as normal part of life in this hot and humid climate.

“Yeah, it’s an inconvenience, but whatcha gonna do,” says Roan zumFelde, who rents a two-bedroom section of the soon-to-be-covered house. “It’s better than your house rotting out.”

The charter fisherman says the termites were discovered when roofers were trying to repair damage caused by Hurricane Wilma. “You could see where they were gnawing away,” he says. “I’m sure they’ve been in there for a long time.”

Minutes before having to leave, zumFelde scrambles around the house, peering into bedrooms, into his study, and the living room. He lifts some papers on a coffee table.

“Just checking,” he says. He’s looking for anything still worth packing. Anything he may not be able to live without.

Outside, his mini van is plump with clothes, food and fishing equipment. Some glossy bags of chips catch the afternoon sunlight.

To allow the gas an easy passageway, Murray has told zumFelde to leave cupboards open, making it look as though someone was desperately hungry.

The tenting forces people out for at least three days. Some of the displaced bunk with relatives and friends; others must check into hotels, becoming virtual tourists in their own town.

“You almost ready?” Murray asks zumFelde, telling him that he’s nearly done blanketing the house. “I’m gonna have to boot you out.”

He and his fiance will be staying at his aunt’s house during the fumigation, zumFelde says. “I guess it’s a nice way to keep in touch with family.”

Others don’t have the luxury of relatives or friends who can spare a bedroom.

Elaine Wilson, who is also a tenant in the house, says she’ll stay at a hotel.

She has lived in Florida for 13 years and says this is her first tenting. And while some find the experience embarrassing, as though it were their fault insects found their home a tasty treat, Wilson says she has no qualms about the process.

“We need to take care of this now so [the termites] don’t spread to the rest of the neighborhood.”

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