Look for signs of termites before they cause too much damage to your home
When you watch enough home improvement shows, you learn to live in fear of the dreaded termite. But by watching for the warning signs of termite infestation, you can catch them before they cause too much damage in your home. From mud tubes to blistering walls, termite evidence can be elusive, but this guide will help you know what signs to keep in your sights.
No matter which sign tips you off to an infestation, it’s best to handle termites as soon as possible. If you think you might have a termite infestation, check for these warning signs of termites.
Discolored or drooping drywall
Peeling paint
Buckling floorboards
Loose floor tiles
Hollowed, crumbling, or damaged wood
Presence of termite droppings (resembling sawdust or wood shavings)
Mud tubes or tunnels on walls, floors, or ceilings
Swollen or sagging floors or ceilings
Buckling floorboards
Holes in drywall
Unexplained cracks in walls or ceilings
Discarded wings near windows or doors
Visible termites (often mistaken for ants)
Termite swarms
Peeling or bubbling paint that resembles water damage
Hollow sounds when knocking on wood
Subterranean termites will create tunnels of mud or even their own saliva and feces. You might notice these tunnels in foam insulation or around your home, starting toward the ground and moving up.
Although they tend to stay underground when they aren’t searching for food, you still may see swarms of subterranean termites. These swarmers have two sets of large, pale wings. The swarmers in a colony are responsible for reproduction.
After reproducing, the swarmers shed their wings. As such, you may notice discarded, pale wings that are about ¼ to ½ inch long around bright areas, like doors and windows.
Once they find a good food source, drywood termites make that spot home. As such, they leave tunnels in maze-like patterns in the wood surfaces of your home. You may notice patterns of tunnels in wood walls, floors, or furniture if you have a drywood termite infestation.
Since they eat and nest in the same area, drywood termites also defecate in this location. That means you’ll find termite feces around the site of the infestation. Drywood termite droppings look like tiny little pellets. You may find termite feces around floors, baseboards, window sills, furniture, or walls and ceilings.
If drywood termites are eating away at the wood in your walls, floors, or ceilings, it can cause these surfaces to shift and sag. You may notice squeaky floorboards or bubbling water damage in walls when drywood termites are eating away at these surfaces.
Dampwood termites prefer moist wood. So if you have these termites in your home, it could also indicate there’s a leak or water damage in your floors, cabinets, or other wood sources. Dampwood termites nest inside their wood sources. They don’t tunnel, but they usually feed on wood across the wood grain and can leave the wood sounding hollow when you knock on it.
Because they thrive in damp or rotting wood, dampwood termites may be nesting in wood that is soft or squishy to the touch. Again, this may not only be a sign of termites, but could also mean you have water damage.
Here are the common early warning signs of termites to look out for.
If you notice rotting stumps or other decaying wood on your property, it's important to inspect them closely for termites. A mass of small, white ant-like insects could be termites, and if they're in close proximity to your home, there's a possibility they may have infiltrated your walls and other wooden structures.
Carvings that resemble the marks made by knives and rough troughs could indicate early stages of termite damage. It's worth noting that galleries made by carpenter ants, another type of wood-destroying pest, will have a smooth texture.
If your home is infested with termites, it's possible to hear noises coming from the affected area. This sound is like a faint clicking noise, which results from soldier termites banging their heads against the walls to signal danger.
Termites often begin by targeting easily accessible areas like windows or door frames. As the insects eat through the wood, they lose their support, and you may notice that opening or closing the windows and doors becomes more difficult.
There are actually three types of termites: drywood, subterranean, and dampwood termites. Each of these three types of termites can cause damage to your home, and have slightly different warning signs.
As their name suggests, subterranean termites nest underground. They typically only come to the surface for feeding. Some clear signs of subterranean termites include:
Tunnels
Swarms
Wings
Drywood termites are most likely found in homes located in warm climates, like the southern U.S. These termites nest in dry wood sources, and signs of these pests include:
Mazes
Termite droppings
Sagging walls, floors or ceilings
Opposite to drywood termites, dampwood termites prefer wet or rotting wood. Although larger than other common types of termites, they have smaller colonies. Dampwood termites can usually remain undetected for long periods of time until a termite inspection, and are mostly found in the Western U.S. Some signs of dampwood termites include:
Hollow wood
Soft wood
Swarms
The best way to know if you have a termite infestation, aside from seeing the insects, is to examine your home for the key signs of termite activity. These indicators include discarded wings, mud tubes, wood damage, and frass, a sawdust-like substance that termites leave behind as they tunnel through wood.
Alsio, if you tap on wood and it sounds hollow, that may indicate termite damage, as they eat wood from the inside out. If you notice any of these signs, it's best to contact a professional termite inspector to assess the situation as soon as possible.
The first thing you should do when you see signs of termites is to contact a termite control company near you for a professional termite inspection. Professionals will be able to identify the type of termites and can get a better idea of the size of the infestation. You may need multiple treatment sessions to fully eradicate a colony of termites. You can expect to spend about $230 to $970 per treatment on the cost of termite extermination.
Depending on the type of termite infestation, you may need different types of termite treatments. For instance, physical barriers or soil treatments will help prevent subterranean termites but won’t be effective for drywood or dampwood termites. If you have dampwood termites, it’s critical to remove any wet or rotting wood and repair water damage. Without the moisture, the termites won’t survive.
