If you go and look at a house being built, you will see green along the lower 1/3rd of the 2x4s. That is a borate treatment to fend off insect activity. They also treat the soil.
Termite damage does happen if you do things like having shrubs too close to the foundation or trees touching the house allowing termites to hide and maintain a moisture source. I routinely check the outside foundation to make sure there are not termite tunnels around the edge of the foundation and I also look for them under sinks to make sure they don't come up between the pipes in the foundation. I do this casually because I've only owned one house that had termites and that was because of the tunnels going up the foundation hidden behind the shrubs. Termite damage takes time - I think their damage tends to actually be minimal even when it happens.
There are also dry wood termites. Another story but you can still spot them with just minimal effort of observation.
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