Termites: What They Look Like, Which Kind You Have, and What to Do

What are termites?

Termites are small social insects that live in colonies and feed on wood and other plant material. They digest cellulose, the tough fiber in wood, paper and cardboard. Scientists now class them as a group of cockroaches, in the order Blattodea. About 45 species live in the continental US, and nearly 30 of them can damage wood, according to the University of Arizona.

A termite colony works like a family business. Workers do the feeding and building, soldiers guard the tunnels, and a king and queen produce the young. Once a colony is mature, it sends out winged swarmers to start new colonies. Those swarmers are the termites most people ever see.

In nature, termites are recyclers. They break down dead trees, stumps and fallen branches and return them to the soil. The trouble starts when a colony finds the wood in a house, because to a termite a floor joist is just another fallen log.

Are termites ants?

No. They are sometimes called “white ants”, but the two are not closely related. Ants are a kind of wasp, while termites descend from cockroaches. A 2007 study by Inward, Beccaloni and Eggleton in Biology Letters, titled “Death of an order”, concluded that termites are “social cockroaches”, and most entomologists now agree.

The confusion is easy to understand. Both live in colonies, and both send out winged swarmers in spring. But a termite’s body is straight, with no narrow waist, and its antennae are straight like a string of beads.

What do termites look like?

Termites look different depending on their job in the colony. Workers are cream-colored, wingless and about 1/8 inch (3 to 4 mm) long. Soldiers look like workers with a large brown head and jaws. Swarmers are darker, often brown to black, and about 3/8 inch (10 mm) long including their wings.

Sizes are from UF/IFAS and Texas A&M, and they vary by species, so treat them as typical. Sources disagree on workers: UF/IFAS gives about 1/8 inch, while Texas A&M gives 1/4 to 3/8 inch.

How big is a termite?

Most termites a homeowner sees are 1/8 to 1/2 inch (3 to 13 mm) long. Workers are the smallest, at about 1/8 inch. Swarmers of the common eastern subterranean termite are about 3/8 inch with wings. Formosan swarmers are a little bigger, at 1/2 to 5/8 inch, and drywood and dampwood swarmers are bigger again.

Can you see termites with the naked eye?

Yes, but you rarely do. Workers are big enough to see, but they avoid light and open air and stay inside wood, soil and mud tubes. So most people see swarmers, shed wings or damage, never the workers. Workers have no eyes at all, and they find their way by touch and smell.

What do baby termites look like?

Young termites look like small, pale workers. They do not have a grub-like larva the way beetles and flies do. They hatch as tiny versions of the adults and molt as they grow. So “termite larvae” in a broken piece of wood are almost always workers, and seeing them there means an active colony.

Termite or flying ant?

Check three things: the antennae, the waist and the wings. A termite has straight antennae, a thick waist and four wings of equal length. A flying ant has bent, elbowed antennae, a narrow pinched waist, and front wings longer than the back pair. Color and size will not tell them apart.

If the antennae are bent, it is an ant. Our guide to flying ants covers which ant swarms in which month, and the one on carpenter ants explains how their damage differs from termite damage.

Which kind of termite is it?

The US has four kinds of termite that matter to a homeowner: subterranean, Formosan, drywood and dampwood. Where you live narrows it down fast. The eastern subterranean kind lives in almost every state. Formosan colonies are in the Southeast, Hawaii and parts of California. Drywood colonies live in warm southern and coastal areas, and dampwood mostly along the Pacific coast. Florida has the most of all: 20 established species, says UF/IFAS.

The kind matters because each one is treated differently. Subterranean and Formosan termites live in the soil, so treatment goes into the soil. Drywood termites live inside the wood itself, so treatment goes into the wood or the whole building.

Subterranean termites

Subterranean termites nest in the soil and travel up into houses through mud tubes. They cause most termite damage in the US. The eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, is the one most Americans have. Its colonies hold 100,000 to 1,000,000 insects, and they forage up to 150 feet (46 m) from the nest.

They need moisture, so they keep to the soil and build tubes of soil and saliva over anything dry or exposed. A tube about the width of a pencil running up a foundation is their signature. Inside the house, they eat the soft parts of wood along the grain and leave the tunnels lined with mud.

Formosan termites

Formosan termites, Coptotermes formosanus, are an invasive subterranean termite from southern China and Taiwan. They are the most destructive termite in the US because their colonies are huge. An average colony holds about 350,000 workers, and they can eat a foot of a 2x4 in about 25 days.

According to UF/IFAS, they are established across the Southeast, in Hawaii and in southern California, and have been found as far north as Virginia and inland to Tennessee. Their swarmers are tan to amber, about 1/2 to 5/8 inch with wings, and fly after sunset toward lights. A crowd of soldiers with oval orange heads at a break in a mud tube points to Formosan termites.

Drywood termites

Drywood termites live inside dry wood with no contact with the soil. In the West, the western drywood termite swarms on sunny days, from late September through November in southern California. In the Southeast, the most common kind swarms at night toward lights. A swarmer flies into a crack in an attic, a window frame or furniture, and the colony stays in that piece of wood. Colonies are small, often a few thousand, but a house can have many of them.

The clue is their droppings. They push hard pellets out of small holes, 1 to 2 mm (under 1/16 inch) across. The pellets pile up below like coarse sand or ground coffee. Under a magnifier, each pellet has six flat sides, which no other house pest makes.

Dampwood termites

Dampwood termites live in wood that is wet or already rotting, such as logs, stumps and wood next to a leak. They are the largest kind in the US: Pacific dampwood swarmers are 3/4 to 1 inch (19 to 25 mm) long with wings, by Washington State and Oregon State figures. In the Pacific Northwest and northern California, they swarm in late summer and fall, often after rain, and fly to lights at dark. Florida has its own dampwood termites in coastal woodlands and mangroves, which rarely bother houses.

They rarely damage a dry, sound house. Finding them indoors almost always means a leak or water damage, and fixing the water fixes the termite problem.

Termite swarmers: what a swarm means

A swarm is how a mature termite colony starts new ones. Winged males and females fly out, pair up, drop their wings and look for a place to start a nest. One swarmer, or a few that die on a sill, does not mean your house is infested. A swarm from inside a wall, or piles of wings indoors, does.

Swarmers cannot damage wood themselves. The University of Kentucky notes that swarmers that come out inside a house only live for about a day, and you can remove them with a broom or vacuum. Most die without starting a colony.

The real question is where they came from. Use this as a guide:

Collect a few swarmers in a jar or a zip bag, or tape them to an index card. An inspector can tell the species from them, and you can check them against the ant features above.

When do termites swarm?

Most termites swarm in spring, but the month and time of day depend on the species and the region. The eastern subterranean kind flies in daytime, on warm, still afternoons after rain, from late winter in Florida to late spring in the North. Formosan swarmers fly after sunset, around lights, from April to June. Drywood and dampwood swarms mostly come in late summer and fall, though some drywood termites in Florida fly in spring.

The weather sets the exact day. A warm day after rain often triggers swarms across a whole town at once, which is why pest companies get many calls in the same week. Latitude sets the month: Texas A&M reports native swarms in January and February in South Texas, but not until April or May in the Panhandle.

Can termites swarm at night?

Yes. Texas A&M puts it simply: Formosan termites swarm at night and are attracted to lights, while native subterranean termites swarm during the day, usually in the afternoon. The common southeastern drywood termite and the Pacific dampwood termite also fly toward lights after dark, so you find them around porch lights, windows and screens. A swarm at a porch light on a warm May evening in Louisiana or Florida suggests the Formosan kind.

Signs of termites in a house

The clearest signs of termites are mud tubes on a foundation or wall, piles of shed wings, small piles of six-sided pellets, and wood that sounds hollow or crushes easily. Mud points to the subterranean kind. Pellets point to drywood. Bubbling paint, sagging floors and sticking doors can be signs too, but water causes those more often.

How to check your house for termites

Walk the outside of the house first, then the inside, with a flashlight and a flat screwdriver. It takes about an hour. Look at the places termites reach first: where soil, wood and moisture meet.

The pellet test comes from UC IPM’s drywood termite guide. If you find mud tubes or live termites, stop there. Do not break up everything or spray. An inspector needs to see the activity to judge it.

Termite droppings or something else?

Termite droppings, called frass, come only from drywood and dampwood termites. Drywood pellets are hard, under 1/25 inch (1 mm) long, and have six flat sides with ridges. Subterranean termites leave no piles of droppings, because they use theirs to build mud tubes. So a pile of “droppings” with no pinhole above it is usually something else.

If yours are brown capsules about 1/3 inch long and rounded at both ends, they may be fly pupae instead. Roach droppings are often mistaken for termite frass, and our guide to German cockroaches shows what theirs look like.

Termite damage or wood rot?

Both make wood soft and crumbly. Look inside the damage. Subterranean termite tunnels follow the grain and are lined or packed with mud. Drywood termite tunnels cut across the grain, are smooth and clean, and hold pellets. Rot has no tunnels at all: the wood cracks into small cubes, or turns stringy and pale, and stays damp.

A woodpecker on the siding is not a termite sign by itself. Woodpeckers drum on corners to make noise, and they hunt carpenter bee larvae far more often than termites. Our guide to carpenter bees shows their round entrance holes.

Are termites dangerous?

Termites are not dangerous to people. They do not sting, they do not live on people, pets or beds, and no extension guide links them to disease. Soldiers can nip a finger if you handle infested wood, and Texas A&M says even the Formosan soldier’s bite and sticky defensive fluid are harmless to humans. The danger is to wood, slowly: a colony can weaken floors, framing and sill plates over months and years.

How fast do termites damage a house?

Slowly, by most accounts. PestWorld puts it at about 1/5 ounce (5 g) of wood a day for a colony of 60,000 subterranean termites, roughly 2.3 feet of 2x4 a year. A large Formosan colony eats far faster, about a foot of 2x4 in 25 days. Serious damage usually means years of feeding nobody noticed.

That slowness matters for you. The University of Kentucky says that because termites damage wood slowly, taking an extra day, week or month to choose a company makes little difference. You have time to get quotes.

How much damage do termites cause?

Nobody knows the exact figure, and the numbers online disagree by billions. The famous “$5 billion” began as the pest industry’s estimate of what Americans spend to control termites, not the damage itself. Three University of Florida pages cite one 2012 review, by Rust and Su, for three different numbers, and that paper’s published abstract gives no dollar figure at all. What every source agrees on is the scale: billions of dollars a year in the US, mostly from subterranean termites.

Does homeowners insurance cover termite damage?

Usually not. The standard homeowners policy form used by most US insurers, ISO’s HO-3, lists damage from “birds, vermin, rodents, or insects” among the losses it does not cover. The one narrow exception in that form is a sudden collapse caused by insect damage that was hidden from view and that you did not know about. Insurers treat ordinary termite damage as a maintenance problem, not an accident. That is why a termite contract and regular inspections matter more than insurance. Check your own policy to be sure.

Can a house with termites be saved?

Almost always. Treatment kills or blocks the colony, and a carpenter replaces or reinforces the damaged wood. Houses with old, repaired termite damage are bought and sold every day. The cases that get expensive are long-ignored infestations in sill plates and floor joists, where a structural engineer should look before you buy.

What to do if you find termites

Do not panic, and do not spray. Store-bought bug spray kills the few you can see and leaves the colony untouched. Collect a few, take photos, leave any mud tubes in place, and get two or three professional inspections. You have time: termites work slowly.

Should I worry if I find one termite?

Not much. A single swarmer, alive or dead, usually flew in from outside. Readers on Reddit describe this all the time, and the pest professionals answering give the same advice: one swarmer can show up anywhere, so look for more swarmers, piles of wings, mud tubes or pellets. If you find none of those, keep the termite in a jar and stay alert during swarm season.

A single worker is different. Workers never leave their tunnels, so a pale, wingless termite in the house means it came out of wood or soil nearby. Find where.

Buying a house with termite damage

A termite report is a normal part of buying a home in much of the South and West. Old, treated and repaired damage is common and not a reason to walk away by itself. Ask for the treatment records and any transferable warranty. If the report mentions damage to sill plates, joists or a sagging floor, get a structural engineer before you close.

How termites are treated

Subterranean termites are treated through the soil, with a liquid termiticide or bait stations. Drywood termites are treated in the wood, by fumigating the whole building, heating it, or treating the infested boards. EPA puts it bluntly: products that only kill on contact have not shown they can protect a building. Pick the treatment that fits the type.

Can you treat termites yourself?

Only for something small and separate from the house. The University of Kentucky calls termite treatment a job for professionals, with one possible exception: a mailbox post or another small wooden object not attached to the house. A proper soil treatment uses hundreds of gallons of termiticide, injected along the foundation, under slabs and inside foundation walls, with drills and long rods most people do not own.

Texas A&M tested do-it-yourself bait stations from hardware stores and could not show that they control termites. For drywood termites, UC IPM says the products that work are not sold for homeowner use, and for Formosan termites, UF/IFAS says over-the-counter products are unlikely to work.

If you do use a termite product, use only one registered by the EPA for that use, and follow the label exactly. The label is the law. Store-bought sprays that “kill on contact” are not termite treatments.

Do home remedies kill termites?

Vinegar, salt water, dish soap, boric acid powder and orange oil all kill the insects they touch. None of them reaches the colony, so the rest keep feeding out of sight. UC IPM questions how well orange oil works even on drywood colonies, and Texas A&M says orange oil sprays have not been shown to control termites in houses. Save your money for an inspection.

What kills termites instantly?

Almost any insect spray, boiling water or a vacuum kills the ones you can see right away. That is the problem: the ones you see are a tiny part of the colony. The colony keeps eating. To stop them, you need a soil treatment or baits for the subterranean kind, or a whole-wood treatment for drywood.

How long does termite treatment last?

A liquid soil treatment should protect for at least 5 years, the minimum EPA asks products to show in testing. Extension estimates vary widely: Texas A&M says about 5 years, while Mississippi State says the better products last 8 to 12 years or longer. Baits protect as long as the stations are checked and stocked. Fumigation and heat kill drywood termites but leave no protection, so new swarmers can move in later.

Is termite treatment safe for kids and pets?

Used as the label says, they pose no significant hazard to people or pets, according to the University of Kentucky, because EPA reviews each product’s health studies before it can be sold. Texas A&M advises that children and pregnant women leave the house during the treatment, and that the house be aired out for 1 to 2 hours afterward. Keep pets off treated soil until it is dry. For questions about a specific product, call the National Pesticide Information Center at 1-800-858-7378. If someone swallows a pesticide, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

Choosing a termite company: quotes, warranties and bonds

Get at least two or three inspections and written quotes, and compare what is being treated, not only the price. Each quote should name the termite species, the treatment method and product, the area treated, the warranty, and the yearly renewal fee. A company that pushes you to sign the same day is a red flag.

Prices vary by house size, foundation type, termite species and method. As a very rough guide, Mississippi State Extension puts the first treatment for most single-family homes at $1,000 to $2,000, with a renewal fee of about $200 to $300 a year. Quotes that readers share on Reddit fall in the same range.

Price usually follows the length of the foundation in linear feet, not the square footage. So a 2,000 square foot house has no single price: a one-story house has a longer foundation to treat than a two-story house of the same size.

What is a termite bond?

A termite bond, or termite contract, is a warranty from a pest company. Paying the yearly renewal usually buys a free annual inspection and re-treatment if termites come back. Some contracts also pay for repairs; Mississippi State calls the two kinds “damage repair” and “re-treat only”. With baits, protection stops when the contract lapses. Texas A&M suggests a yearly renewal should not cost more than about 20% of the original treatment. A bond can often transfer to a new owner when you sell, which buyers value.

How to prevent termites

Termites need moisture and a hidden path to wood. Take those away. Fix leaks and drainage, keep soil, mulch and firewood away from the house, and leave at least 6 inches (15 cm) of bare foundation between the soil and any wood. Then a mud tube shows up before it reaches the house.

Is preventive termite treatment worth it?

It depends where you live. In the Southeast, the Gulf coast, Hawaii and much of California, termite pressure is heavy, and many homeowners keep a contract running. In the northern Midwest, the Northeast and the Mountain West, they are less common, and a regular inspection may be enough. If your neighbors have had termites, treat that as a strong reason to check yours.

What attracts termites to a house?

Moisture and wood in contact with soil. Leaky pipes, poor drainage, mulch against the siding, wood steps or posts set in the ground, and firewood stacked against the house all draw subterranean colonies. Drywood swarmers are attracted to exposed, unpainted wood in attics, eaves and window frames, and to lights during swarms.

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.