Drywood termite

How to recognise it

These are the features that identify a drywood termite. Each one is described in words so the identification works without the diagram.

1. Fecal pellets are the defining evidence — hard, elongated, roughly 1 mm, six-sided in cross-section with concave faces, and they range from pale cream to dark brown regardless of the wood colour.
2. Pellets accumulate in small piles beneath tiny round kick-out holes, resembling coarse sand or pepper.
3. Swarmers are larger than subterranean swarmers at 8 to 12 mm, and are typically pale to reddish-brown with a darker head.
4. Galleries cut across the wood grain and are clean and smooth inside, with no soil packing — the opposite of subterranean damage.

What it leaves behind

• Piles of six-sided pellets on windowsills, in cupboards, and on floors beneath infested timber.
• Small round kick-out holes about 1 to 2 mm in the wood surface.
• No mud tubes anywhere, which effectively rules out subterranean termites.

Why an infestation persists

Drywood termites live entirely inside the wood they eat and need no soil contact and no external moisture source, which is why they infest furniture, picture frames, structural timber, and even wooden objects moved between buildings. Colonies are much smaller than subterranean colonies and grow slowly, so damage accumulates over years. Because there is no soil connection, the entire approach to them differs from subterranean termites — which is precisely why confusing the two wastes time and money.

Where it occurs

A coastal and southern band — California, Arizona, the Gulf Coast, Florida, the Southeast coastal plain, and Hawaii. Largely absent from the interior and northern states.

Where to look for it

• Windowsills and the floor directly beneath exposed timber, where pellet piles collect and reappear after sweeping.
• Attic rafters, purlins, and the ends of joists where they bear on a wall plate.
• Door and window frames, skirting, and architrave, tapping for a hollow note.
• Antique and second-hand wooden furniture, picture frames, and wooden ornaments, which is how infestations move between buildings.
• Exposed structural timber in garages, porches, and unlined roof spaces.
• Any small round hole 1–2 mm in a timber surface, with or without a pile beneath it.

When you see it, and why

Swarming is typically in late summer and autumn in most of the range, which is the reverse of subterranean termites and is a useful secondary clue when someone reports flying insects. Colonies grow slowly — often years before damage becomes evident — so the absence of any visible sign says little. The diagnostic habit is pellet accumulation, which continues year-round: sweep a pile away and note whether it returns within a fortnight, because that single observation separates an active infestation from old damage.

What getting the identification wrong costs you

Confusing drywood frass with powderpost beetle frass sends the response to the wrong species and the wrong timber. Drywood pellets are hard, gritty, and six-sided; powderpost frass is flour-fine and flows freely, and occurs only in large-pored hardwood, never in softwood framing. Rub a little between finger and thumb — that one test settles it. The other costly error is assuming subterranean treatment applies: a soil treatment does nothing for a colony living entirely inside a roof timber with no ground contact.

What a professional actually does

The hard and valuable part is establishing extent — how many separate colonies there are and which members are infested — because that determines whether a localised approach is viable or whether whole-structure work is being proposed. Ask for the finding to name the specific timbers and to distinguish active infestation from old damage. Whole-structure fumigation is a licensed operation requiring the building to be vacated for days, so if it is proposed, get the extent finding that justifies it in writing first.

What it costs

The range here is unusually wide because the two approaches differ by an order of magnitude: localised work on identified members against whole-structure fumigation of the entire building. What decides which you are quoted is the extent finding, which is why paying for a thorough inspection first — from someone not selling the treatment, if you can arrange it — is the cheapest money in this category.