Do Termites Make Noise?
Termites are quiet enough to work inside a wall for years without anyone noticing. They are not, however, silent. Here is what is actually audible, when you can hear it, and which of those sounds mean damage rather than activity.
Yes, but you will only hear it at night, in a silent house.
Termites make noise, and with good hearing and a quiet room you can pick it up. Nobody hears it during the day with a house in use. What people report is a faint snapping, popping, or rattling from inside a wall or under a floor, late, with everything else switched off.
Most of what you hear is not the insects. It is the wood. As galleries hollow out the timber, fibres under load give way and snap, and that is louder than anything a termite does directly. So a house that has started making small noises has usually been worked on for a while.
Termites do not hear airborne sound the way we do. They communicate through vibration carried in the wood itself, which is why the loudest thing they produce is deliberate: soldiers strike their heads against the gallery wall to raise an alarm through the structure. That is the rattle homeowners occasionally catch.
Five sounds and what each one means
Worth separating, because two of these mean termites are present and one means they have already done structural work.
Rattling or head-banging
The loudest of them and the most distinctive: a sharp, dry rattle. Soldier termites strike their heads against the gallery wall to signal alarm through the wood, and Formosan colonies, which are well established across the Houston area, do it more than most. If you can hear anything at all, this is usually it.
Clicking
Much softer and easy to dismiss. Workers feeding and excavating produce a faint irregular clicking. You are unlikely to notice it unless the house is completely quiet and you have your ear near the wood.
Rustling, like crumpling paper
Often described as someone slowly crushing a paper bag. It is workers moving through galleries close to the surface, sometimes combined with the wood fibres giving way behind them.
Snapping and popping
Not the termites at all, but the structure. As galleries are hollowed out, thin wood fibres under load break. This is the sound most homeowners actually hear, and it means damage rather than activity.
Buzzing, in spring
Swarming season. What you are hearing is a large number of winged reproductives in the air near the house rather than anything inside a wall. It is brief, seasonal, and worth acting on.
Tap the wood and listen
This is what an inspector is doing when they work along a skirting board or a sill with a knuckle or the handle of a screwdriver. Sound timber gives a dull, solid response. Timber that has been hollowed out from the inside gives a distinctly papery, hollow one, and the change between the two is obvious once you have heard it.
Work along a length of wood rather than tapping one spot, because what you are listening for is the point where the sound changes. Door frames, window sills, skirting on exterior walls, and any framing you can reach in a crawlspace or garage are the places to start.
And why the yard counts
Inside, the places worth checking are beams, floors, ceilings, and walls, which is to say anywhere structural timber runs. But subterranean termites, the more common problem here, do not live in the house at all. They nest underground in the yard and travel in via mud tubes, using the structure only as a food source.
That means tree stumps, rotting logs, old fence posts, and stacked wood in the yard are all worth looking at, and mud tubes on a foundation or pier are worth more than any sound you might hear.
Drywood termites are the opposite problem. They need much less moisture, so they set up in roof framing and attic spaces, and they leave far less for a homeowner to notice. They are the reason a periodic inspection is worth booking whether or not you have heard anything.
Noise in a wall is late-stage evidence
By the time termite activity is audible, the galleries are extensive enough for wood fibres to be breaking. That is worth an inspection now rather than at the next annual. Our termite technicians can sound the structure properly and find what is behind it.
Keep reading
Signs of Termites & What To Do About Them
Termite infestation is a common problem in the US, with more than 600,000 homes affected yearly. Here are the signs of termites to watch out for.
Read articleTermitesAnts vs. Termites: How To Tell the Difference
They look similar, but ants and termites do different degrees of damage. Learn how to tell the two apart, point by point.
Read articleTermitesTermite Season in Texas
When termites swarm in Texas, and what homeowners should do to protect their biggest investment.
Read articleGot a pest problem? Get a free quote today.
Tell us what you're dealing with and get a free, honest quote over the phone. No inspection fee, no obligation. Same-day service in most cases, free re-service if pests come back, and every visit backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.