Signs of Termites? Solved! How to Identify Termite Damage

Table Of Content

• Solved! What Are the Signs of Water Damage in Walls, and What Should I Do About Them?
• There’s evidence of swarms and mud tubes.
• sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!
• signs you have termites in your home, including discarded wings and tight-fitting doors
• Your backyard is full of rotting wood
• EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs
• Swarmers

Because these types of termites have soft bodies, mud tubes allow them to travel around your home without exposing them to external threats like dry weather and predators. Finding damaged wood is another one of the best indications that you either have a current termite issue or that your home experienced a termite infestation in the past. If you find damaged wood in an area with harder wood and you find smooth, almost sculptured holes, this can indicate the presence of drywood termites. However, if the damaged wood is near a moist area and the damage is along the grain of the wood, you may have subterranean termites. Pencil-thick to inch-wide tunnels on foundation and crawl-space walls (above) shelter subterranean termites traveling to and from the nest.

Solved! What Are the Signs of Water Damage in Walls, and What Should I Do About Them?

By following a mud tunnel to its ground connection, the entrance to the rest of the colony can be found, and treatment can begin. There are several things you should consider when choosing a pest control management company to handle a termite infestation. Find out how long they've been in business and what their credentials are. Make sure the company has at least one certified and licensed pesticide applicator.

There’s evidence of swarms and mud tubes.

If you want to tell the difference between a flying ant and a termite swarmer, the latter has wings of uniform size, while ants have larger wings at the front. Owning a home can sometimes feel like a constant battle against the environment and all sorts of pest infestations. Professionals use scientifically proven methods of termite control and can usually provide ongoing management for you. These licensed experts can catch signs of termite activity you may have missed and can help protect your biggest investment. However, it’s difficult to know for sure without examining the interior of the wood with a sharp instrument. If you find mud tubes, termite holes or other damage inside the wood, it’s likely that you have a termite problem.

sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!

However, powderpost beetle frass is finer and more powdery than termite droppings—like the difference between coffee grounds and flour. Their exit holes may also be more noticeable than termite kick-out holes. Carpenter ants dig tunnels and nest in wood, much like drywood termites. However, unlike termites, they don’t actually eat wood—they merely excavate it. Rotten wood crumbles or feels spongy, but termite-damaged wood will sound hollow when tapped. Frass can be mistaken for sawdust at first glance, but it’s actually the six-sided fecal pellets that termites leave behind as they chew through wood.

How to protect your home against termites - Fox Weather

How to protect your home against termites.

Posted: Thu, 09 Mar 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

signs you have termites in your home, including discarded wings and tight-fitting doors

These tubes roughly have a pencil-width passageway, and are designed to reach from the soil to a source of food. They’re a combination of mud and wood, aimed at protecting the termites from the harsh environment as well as predators as they travel. The first and most obvious sign of termites has to be the structural damage they leave behind. The indents left behind have an almost maze-like resemblance from the inside. Termites will actually work their way from the inside out when eating your walls, so if the damage reaches your interior, it may be more severe than it appears.

However, avoiding build-ups of moist soil or dirt around the perimeter of your house is one way to prevent the frequency of termite travel across your property. They’re about the width of a pencil and the color of cardboard. Though they’re most commonly seen outside along brick foundations or concrete slabs, you might see them along interior walls, pipes, or insulation. Termites build mud tubes when a hard or inedible surface forces them to take a detour. Ignoring the early signs of termites in drywall can cause significant damage down the road.

Ask for at least two or three quotes before you make a decision. Don't automatically go with the company that provides the lowest quote. Termite damage to walls often resembles minor water damage, but is quite a serious and complicated issue to fix. That said, damage doesn't happen overnight and there's no need to panic if you notice signs of termites. If termites are active around your doors or window, you may also notice other signs of activity like frass and wood damage. Bugs that look like termites include powderpost beetles, carpenter ants, and winged ant swarmers.

EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs

Uneven floorboards, sagging ceilings, pinhole openings, and warped windows or doors may also indicate a termite infestation. Termite mud tubes, also known as shelter tubes or mud tunnels, are hard to miss. Termites use them to keep themselves safe and on track when looking for food. These mud tubes can extend over multiple surfaces, including walls, house foundations, and other any obstacles in the termites' way. They serve as a transportation network connecting the termite colony in the soil to their food source. Seeing these tubes outside your home, near your deck, or even in trees nearby is a surefire sign of a termite infestation.

Old wives' tales say that marigolds and lemongrass are known to be less appealing to the bugs, making it harder for them to establish colonies near your house. In fact, only adult reproductive termites—also known as “swarmers”—have wings. As you can see in the image above, swarmers are a little less than half an inch long, and they have two sets of nearly-identical wings that are translucent. Wingless termites include “soldiers,” which are non-reproductive adults that have larger heads with protruding mandibles. These types of termites are responsible for protecting their colony, as the name suggests.

Their reproductive organs mature, and they develop two sets of temporary wings. Reproductive termites descend to the ground and look for a nesting site after pairing off in the swarm. Termite workers spend their lives foraging for food, building and repairing the colony’s intricate network of tunnels, and tending to the young. They’re both sightless and wingless, and one of their most important jobs is to feed and groom the other castes.

They can spread in an underground tunnel that's more than 150 feet long, and feed on various wood materials within the environment. However, subterranean termites can find other ways into your home. Not seeing any mud tunnels on the outside of your home doesn't mean you don't have an infestation. Termites often build mud tubes in visible locations such as along fences, porches, nearby tree trunks, and wall corners.

Drywood termites prefer to nest in dry wood and usually above ground level. These species don’t need contact with soil because they extract moisture from the wood they feed on. Many things, like swarmers, discarded wings, frass, damaged wood, and mud tubes, can tip you off to a termite infestation. While termites can do serious damage, especially if left unaddressed, damage takes awhile to become serious.

But it’s worthwhile to do further research so you can identify the bugs easily. There are 50 species of termites throughout the United States, including subterranean termites, drywood yermites and dampwood termites. These swarms are a strong indication that termite colonies are present in or around your house. You can tell termites from lookalikes and other wood-destroying pests with a keen eye and some detective work.

Homeowners spend billions of dollars annually to treat infestations and repair termite damage. Early detection is crucial in limiting the scope of a colony's destructiveness, but it can be difficult to do. Homeowners seldom see termites, which lurk in subterranean nests and devour wood from inside walls, but there are ways to detect their presence. Unless you have significant termite damage, it can be hard to be positive that you’ve even got a problem at all.

There are also soldier termites with large heads and jaws that protect the workers and defend the colony. As adults, they are wingless, but they start their life cycle with wings so they can swarm to form a new colony. If you spot this effect on your walls, it is too late for prevention and it’s time to call in an expert pest team to manage your house’s termite problem.

If you have termites lurking within your walls, you might start to notice some flaws to your wallpaper or walls. That’s because, as termites eat and move about, they leave tunnels and pin-sized exit holes. You should also look for wood damage to your home, as termites feed on wooden structures.