subterranean
Subterranean termite
The termites behind the mud tubes on a foundation wall. They nest in soil, reach the wood from below, live in nearly every state, and work slowly.
Knowledge base
This is where the species pages live: how to tell which termite you are looking at, what it does to a house and how fast, and what that changes about treatment. Almost every treatment decision follows from which termite you have, which is why identification comes before anything else.
The species
drywood
Drywood termite
The termites that leave little piles of hard six-sided pellets. They live entirely inside dry wood, need no soil contact, and build up slowly over years.
formosan
Formosan subterranean termite
A subterranean termite with colonies in the millions and long-range foraging. That size is why spot-treating where you found them so often fails.
Identification guides
Carpenter Ants vs. Termites: Telling Them Apart
Coarse shavings in a pile, or hard six-sided pellets. Big dark ants, or pale swarmers. The two problems look alike for about a minute, and here is the minute.
6 min readFlying Ants vs Termite Swarmers: How to Tell
You have time to get this right. Here is the two-minute check, why the room it came from matters, and what actually happens next.
6 min readSubterranean vs Drywood Termites: Which You Have
One thing sorts nearly every case: whether they touch the ground. Guess wrong and you pay to fight a colony that isn't where you aimed the chemistry.
6 min read