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Termite Identification and Termite Photos

What Do Termites Look Like?

Most termites are milky white with soft, oval-shaped, wingless bodies about 1/8 to 1/4 inch long. Living their entire lives underground, subterranean termites are blind with no eyes, using pheromones to communicate. Termites require high humidity to keep their unprotected bodies from drying out. Termites have developed a highly ordered social system with each caste – royals, reproductives, soldiers, and workers – performing a specific task for the benefit of the colony.

Royals. New colonies begin with a swarm when an established colony becomes overpopulated. Winged termites emerge from the ground, kings and queens pairing off to search for new food sources. Shortly after landing, their wings break off, and they burrow into the ground to mate. They spend the rest of their lives underground. Royals are the only termites with functional eyes, are slightly darker in color, and live longer, 10 to 20 years, compared to the average two-year life span of most termites. While kings remain normal size, the queen's body enlarges with reproduction, giving her an unusual striped appearance as body segments spread apart. Queens can grow to 1/2 inch in length and produce 2,000 eggs a day. A single queen and king can produce a huge colony with millions of offspring.

Reproductives. Future queens and kings, some reproductive termites develop satellite nests to increase the colony's population. Reproductives eventually become part of a swarm and establish independent colonies.

Soldiers. Soldiers defend the colony from marauding ants and competing termite colonies. They grow enlarged, yellowish, armored heads nearly as big as their bodies and have large mandibles for defense. If a tube or infested timber is opened, you're likely to see soldier termites rush out to guard workers repairing the breach.

Workers. Workers do all labor for the colony: care for young, repair the nest, build foraging tunnels, locate food, and feed and groom the other termites. The only termites able to chew and digest wood, workers have hard mouthparts adapted for chewing. With the aid of symbiotic protozoa in their guts, workers process wood into a semi-liquid food that they feed to other colony members via regurgitation or secretion. It's the worker termites that are seen in infested wood.

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What Kind of Damage do Termites Cause?

The Eastern subterranean termites, common to New Jersey and New York, can consume one foot of 2x4-inch wooden wall stud in 120 days. The larger the colony, the more rapid the destruction. Termites eat out the internal sections of structural timbers along the grain, leaving a thin shell of wood or paint around the hollowed core. They may pack hollowed sections with moist soil to maintain the damp environment necessary to their survival. Because of their secretive nature, termite presence can go undetected for years, allowing the occurrence of significant structural damage and even structural collapse.

How Can I Tell If I Have Termites?

There are three main indicators of termite infestation: swarming insects, mud tubes, and wood damage. Termites live their lives deep in the soil where they can go undetected for years. Your first indication of termite presence may be swarming insects. When a termite colony becomes overpopulated, thousands of winged reproducers exit the nest in search for new food sources. In New Jersey and New York, swarms usually occur on warm days between March and May, often after a rain. You may see masses of winged insects milling near outside foundations or in lawns before taking flight. Swarming termites are attracted to light. If they emerge indoors, you will find them along windowsills, doors and light fixtures. A litter of discarded wings on window sills, floors or caught in spider webs is a telltale sign of termite infestation.

Termites are often confused with swarming ants which also swarm in the spring. Termites have straight antennae, a uniform waist, and wings of equal size; whereas ants have elbowed antennae, constricted waists, and forewings that are longer than their hind wings.

Mud tubes are another sign of termite infestation. About the width of a pencil, workers build these flat, dirt-colored tubes from soil mixed with feces to navigate exposed surfaces. Mud tubes are commonly found on concrete foundation walls, along cracks, under flooring or behind siding.

Actual wood damage may be hardest to detect as termites do much of their damage out of sight behind walls and baseboards and under flooring. Discovery is often by accidental when the thin veneer left on hollowed wood is broken, exposing the damage and sometimes active worker termites. Wood damage can sometimes be detected by tapping and listening for a hollow sound, though this will not always expose areas of active infestation.

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Why Is It Important to Treat Termites Immediately?

Because of their secretive nature, termites are likely to have already done considerable damage by the time an infestation is discovered. Mature underground colonies can be massive and will have developed multiple entry sites into the structural wood of your home. It is important that you contact an experienced ChemTec Pest Control termite professional immediately to prevent further damage to your home.

Locating and successfully eliminating the entire termite colony is a complicated and laborious process best performed by a knowledgeable ChemTec Pest Control termite professional. Spot treatment of an exposed site or inadequate treatment with hardware store materials will only cause termites to relocate, making location and treatment more difficult. When termites are discovered, it is essential to treat the entire structure to prevent re infestation. An expert ChemTec Pest Control pest professional can determine the extent of termite infestation and explain treatment options. Find out more about our termite control services.

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