Bugs That Look Like Termites: 18 Look-Alikes and the One Check for Each

What bugs look like termites?

Eighteen insects are mistaken for termites often enough to matter. Flying ants top the list. Mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, lacewings, drain flies, fungus gnats, webspinners and wood cockroaches fool people because they have wings. Booklice, springtails, earwigs, bed bugs and cockroach nymphs fool them without wings. Finally, carpenter bees and powderpost beetles fool them with damage.

Each look-alike has one feature that settles it, so the table below puts that feature first. You rarely need a microscope. A clear phone photo of the antennae, the waist and the wings answers most cases in under a minute.

How do I know if a bug is a termite?

Check three things. A termite has straight antennae that look like a string of tiny beads and a thick body with no pinched waist. When it has wings, it has four of the same length that reach well past its tail. If even one of the three is missing, you are looking at one of the bugs that look like termites, not a termite.

Size helps less than people expect. Most termite swarmers in the US are 1/4 to 5/8 inch (6 to 15 mm) long with their wings, although Pacific dampwood swarmers reach 1 inch. Workers are about 1/8 inch (3 mm). Many look-alikes fall in the same range. Our guide to what termites look like shows workers, soldiers and swarmers of each kind in detail.

Bugs that look like flying termites

Winged ants cause most of the mix-ups, and nine other flying insects cause the rest. The quickest check is how the wings sit. A termite lays four equal wings flat over its back. Mayflies hold them up like a sail, while caddisflies, lacewings and drain flies fold them like a roof. Stoneflies lay theirs flat too, but carry long antennae and two tails.

Flying ants and carpenter ant swarmers

Flying ants are the look-alike in nearly every “is this a termite?” photo. Both swarm on warm days after rain, and both can be dark brown to black. However, an ant has elbowed antennae, a narrow pinched waist, and front wings clearly longer than its back wings. Carpenter ant swarmers are the big ones, up to 3/4 inch (19 mm), and they are the ants that nest in damp wood. One catch: male ant swarmers can have only slightly bent antennae, so always check the waist as well.

A wingless ant queen can fool you as well, because she sheds her wings after mating just as a termite does. She still has the pinched waist and a bulky middle section. For the side-by-side detail, see our pages on telling flying ants from termite swarmers and on termites vs ants without wings. Small ants with a heart-shaped abdomen that nest around damp window frames are acrobat ants.

Mayflies

Mayflies are 1/4 to 1 1/4 inches (6 to 32 mm) long, with a slim body and two or three long tails. They hold their wings straight up over the back like a sail. The back wings are tiny next to the front pair, so the four wings are never equal. They emerge from lakes and rivers in huge numbers from May into September and pile up under lights. Adults cannot bite and live only a day or two.

Stoneflies

Stoneflies are the closest match in shape. Like termites, they fold four wings flat over the back. But their antennae are long and thread-like, and two short tails stick out past the wing tips. Most are 1/2 to 2 inches (13 to 50 mm) long and dull brown. They stay close to clean streams, and many are drawn to lights at night. They do not eat wood and do no harm.

Caddisflies

A caddisfly looks like a small brown moth. Its wings are covered in fine hairs and held like a tent over the body, and its antennae are as long as the body or longer. Most are 1/4 to 1 inch (6 to 25 mm) long. They hatch from rivers and lakes and swarm to porch lights for a few weeks at a time.

Lacewings

Green lacewings are 3/8 to 1/2 inch (10 to 13 mm) long, pale green, with large, lacy wings held like a roof over the body. Look for the golden eyes and the long, thin antennae. Brown lacewings are smaller and darker, and they are the ones people post online as “flying termite or lacewing?” Both are garden helpers, since their larvae eat aphids.

Drain flies in the bathroom

Small dark bugs with wings in a bathroom are usually drain flies. They are 1/16 to 1/5 inch (2 to 5 mm) long, fuzzy all over, and hold their wings like a roof, so they look like tiny moths. They sit still on a tile or a mirror and flutter a short way when disturbed.

Still, termite swarmers do come out in bathrooms, because subterranean termites follow plumbing up through the slab. Dead swarmers near sinks and tubs are a known sign. So if the bugs are smooth rather than fuzzy, with long, flat wings that snap off, treat it as a termite question and check for wings on the floor.

Fungus gnats

Fungus gnats are tiny, dark, mosquito-like flies, 1/16 to 1/8 inch (1.5 to 3 mm) long. Like all true flies, they have only one pair of wings, and their legs are long and thin. They hover around houseplants with wet soil. A termite never has two wings, so counting them settles it.

Webspinners

Webspinners are slim, brown insects, 1/6 to 1/4 inch (4 to 7 mm) long in the US. They live in silk tunnels on bark, rocks and walls, and they are common in Florida and other warm southern areas. Females never have wings, but the males of some species fly to lights at night. Look at the front legs: a webspinner’s first foot segment is swollen, because that is where it spins silk. No termite has that.

Wood cockroaches

Male wood cockroaches fly to porch lights on warm nights, and people who see one land find a flat brown insect with long wings over its back. But it is a cockroach. The head hides under a shield-like plate, the antennae are long, and adult males reach 1 inch (25 mm). Indoors they do not feed or breed, and they dry out and die within a few days.

Bugs that look like termites without wings

Without wings, a termite is a worker: soft, cream-colored and about 1/8 inch (3 mm) long, almost always inside wood, soil or a mud tube. Pale bugs out in the open are usually booklice, springtails or ants. A worker almost never walks across a counter, a bed or a windowsill, so where you found the bug is half the answer.

Booklice and mites

Booklice are tiny, soft, pale insects, usually under 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) long, which is less than half the size of a termite worker. Most indoor kinds have no wings. They feed on mold, so they turn up on damp books, papers, window sills and stored food in humid rooms. Bringing indoor humidity below 50% starves them of the mold they eat.

Tiny white mites on damp lumber or firewood are smaller still and have eight legs. Neither booklice nor mites eat wood. Our guide to tiny white bugs sorts out every pale speck you might find indoors.

Springtails

Springtails are 1 to 2 mm long and can be white, gray or dark. The giveaway is that they jump. A forked tail folded under the body snaps down and flings them an inch or more. They gather in damp spots such as sinks, tubs, basements and potted plants, and they do not bite or damage anything.

Ant workers

Pale or yellow ants trailing along a counter can look like termite workers at a glance. The pinched waist and elbowed antennae still give them away, and ants walk in the open while termite workers avoid light. Our comparison of termites and ants covers this pair in full. If what you found is tiny, white and grub-like, see what baby termites look like.

Cockroach nymphs

Young cockroaches have no wings and can be pale right after they molt, so a fresh nymph can look like a termite. Yet a cockroach is flat, fast and shy of light, with long antennae and the head tucked under a plate. Small, dark nymphs with a pale stripe in a kitchen point to the German cockroach.

Earwig vs termite

An earwig is about 5/8 inch (16 mm) long, flat and reddish brown, with a pair of pincers at the tail. Its wings are short flaps, so it looks wingless. Those pincers end the question, since no termite has anything at its tail. Earwigs hide under mulch and debris in damp spots and are harmless to people and houses.

Bed bugs

Bed bugs get confused with termites mostly in photos, as both can be small and brown. An adult bed bug is about 5 mm long, flat, oval and reddish brown, with no wings at all and no visible waist. It lives in mattress seams and bed frames, not wood framing. If you found it on a bed, read what bed bugs look like before anything else.

Bugs that damage wood like termites

Three bugs that look like termites earn the name through damage, not looks: carpenter ants, carpenter bees and powderpost beetles. The holes and the dust tell them apart. Carpenter bees drill one round hole about 1/2 inch (13 mm) wide. Powderpost beetles leave pinholes with powder like flour. Termites leave six-sided pellets or mud, never sawdust.

Carpenter ants

Carpenter ants dig nests in wood but do not eat it. They push the shavings out, so you find small piles of shredded wood mixed with dead ant parts below a slit or crack. Inside, their galleries are clean and smooth, as if sanded. Termite galleries are lined with mud or packed with pellets. Our carpenter ant guide shows how to find the nest.

Carpenter bees vs termites

A carpenter bee is a large, shiny black bee, and nobody mistakes the bee itself. The hole is the problem. It is perfectly round, about 1/2 inch (13 mm) across, in bare softwood such as deck rails, eaves and fascia, with coarse sawdust and a yellow stain below. Termites never make a hole that size.

Powderpost beetles

Powderpost beetles are small, reddish brown to black beetles, 1/16 to 3/4 inch long depending on the kind. Their grubs tunnel inside wood and leave round exit holes. The most common indoor kind, the lyctid beetle, makes holes about the size of a pinhead and powder that feels like flour or talc. Lyctids attack only bare hardwood, such as floors, paneling, molding and furniture.

The University of Kentucky calls powderpost beetles second only to termites at damaging dry, seasoned wood. Yet it also says many infestations die out on their own and that there is no need to rush. Its test is simple: sweep up the powder, mark the holes, and look again in spring or summer. Fresh holes with light-colored powder mean the beetles are still active.

Acrobat ants

Acrobat ants often move into wood that termites or carpenter ants have already hollowed out. So a termite job that seems to come back to life may be acrobat ants. They are about 1/8 inch (3 mm) long and raise a heart-shaped abdomen over their back when disturbed. Their debris piles hold dead insects and bits of insulation, not pellets.

For every kind of damage side by side, including wood rot, see our guide to what termite damage looks like. For the pellets themselves, see termite droppings.

When the look-alike is a termite after all

Sometimes the “look-alike” is just a different termite from the one you pictured. Eastern subterranean swarmers are dark brown to black, not pale, and fly by day in spring. Formosan swarmers are amber, 1/2 to 5/8 inch (12 to 15 mm), and fly at dusk toward lights from April to June. Drywood termites in the Southeast also swarm at night to lights.

So a dark swarmer at noon or an amber one under a porch light can still be a termite. Our page on termites with wings shows each kind, and what a termite swarm means explains whether one indoors means an infestation.

Which look-alikes matter, and which you can ignore

Fourteen of the 18 bugs that look like termites do no harm to wood at all, and three of those point to a damp spot you should fix. Only carpenter ants, carpenter bees and powderpost beetles damage wood, while acrobat ants mostly reuse wood that is already damaged. Sort your bug into one of these groups before you spend money on it.

What to do with a bug you think is a termite

Catch one, photograph it, and check the antennae, the waist and the wings before you buy anything. That takes about five minutes and costs nothing. Hold off on spraying, because a dead bug in a jar is worth more to an inspector than a sprayed floor. Then act only on what you confirm.

If the checks point to termites, our guide to the signs of termites shows what else to look for, and what a termite inspection involves explains the next step. For the bigger picture, start at our termite hub.

Mistakes in other termite look-alike guides

Several of the pages that rank for this search repeat errors that send readers the wrong way. Here are four, each with the page it comes from and what the extension sources say instead. They matter, because each one can make a harmless bug look like termites or hide a real termite.

• Mistake 1

  Mistake: Mayflies shed equal wings like termites (Better Termite).

  Reality: Penn State Extension describes mayflies with two large front wings and two small back wings, held straight up like a triangular sail. Unequal wings held upright rule out a termite.

• Mistake 2

  Mistake: Termites range from white to light brown (Terminix).

  Reality: That fits workers, which never fly. UF/IFAS describes eastern subterranean swarmers, the ones people actually see, as dark brown to almost black.

• Mistake 3

  Mistake: A termite infestation comes with small piles of sawdust (Bob Vila).

  Reality: Termites eat the wood and leave pellets or mud, not sawdust. Sawdust below a hole points to carpenter bees or carpenter ants.

• Mistake 4

  Mistake: White bugs that look like termites are most likely termites (Bob Vila).

  Reality: Booklice, springtails and mites are pale too, and far more common out in the open. Termite workers stay hidden inside wood, soil and mud tubes.

Still not sure what you caught? Upload a photo to our free bug identifier, then check the antennae and the waist yourself.

Pest control disclaimer. Photo-based identification can help, but it is not always perfect. For dangerous spiders, large infestations, or anything you are unsure about, contact a licensed pest control professional.