How Do Termites Get Into Your House?
Termites do most of their damage precisely because nobody sees them arrive. Knowing which species is in your area, what each one is looking for, and where each one actually gets in is what turns termite prevention into something concrete.
It starts with a swarm, and the swarm is the only visible part.
A new infestation begins with winged reproductives leaving an established colony, usually in spring. They pair off, shed their wings, and the pair becomes the king and queen of a new colony. Both can live for decades under good conditions, which is why a colony left alone becomes a much larger problem rather than a stable one.
Egg production starts slow. A first-year queen lays comparatively few; a mature queen in a large species lays on a completely different scale. The colony then runs on three stages — egg, nymph, adult — with nymphs developing into workers, soldiers, or the next generation of swarmers.
Workers are the majority and they do the damage. Soldiers defend the nest with heavy mandibles and take no part in feeding. It is the workers you are dealing with, and you will almost certainly never see one.
Four kinds, and they do not get in the same way
Which one you have determines where it entered and therefore what has to be treated.
Subterranean termites
The main structural pest across Texas. They nest in soil and come up into the structure, building mud tubes to cross any exposed gap between ground and wood. Soldiers have oval heads. Because the colony lives outside the house, treating the house alone was never the whole job.
Formosan termites
A subterranean species, not a separate category, and the aggressive one. Colonies reach into the millions and they are established across the Houston area. They need moisture like any subterranean termite, but they build moisture-retaining carton nests, which lets part of the colony survive in a wall void with no soil contact. That is what makes them harder to clear.
Drywood termites
These need very little moisture and nest inside the timber they are eating, with no soil connection at all. They turn up in roof framing, attic spaces, floors, and furniture, and one house can hold several separate colonies at once.
Dampwood termites
Larger than the others and easy to identify for it. They want wood with high moisture content, so they follow rot rather than sound structural timber. A dry, well-drained house is largely uninteresting to them.
Cellulose, moisture, warmth
Termites need three things and a house supplies all of them. Food is cellulose, which is not only framing timber — cardboard, paper, and stored boxes all count. Moisture comes from leaks, poor drainage, and standing water near the foundation. Warmth comes from the structure itself or the soil banked against it.
So what attracts a colony toward a house is usually sitting outside it: woodpiles, tree stumps, old fence posts, and deep mulch beds against the foundation. Each is both a food source and a staging point, and each shortens the distance between an established colony and your structure.
Structural problems do the rest. Gaps around a roofline or a foundation give access to warmth and food at once, and they matter more as temperatures drop and a colony looks for somewhere better than open soil.
Where they actually cross
Termites need a sliver of an opening. These are the ones that come up repeatedly in inspections.
Subterranean and Formosan
Mud tubes from soil to wood. In practice that means wherever timber meets or nearly meets the ground: door frames, porches, steps, deck posts, and piers. They also exploit cracks in brick mortar and concrete foundations, and voids inside concrete block. Formosan colonies can additionally establish aerially, so a roof is not out of scope.
Drywood
No tube, no soil route. Swarmers land on the structure and bore straight into cracks, crevices, and checks in exposed wood, then nest inside it. Because they do not need ground contact, they can start on any floor of the building, which is why they are so often found in an attic first.
Anywhere wood meets concrete
Common to every species and worth its own mention. Joints between framing and slab, unsealed expansion gaps, and any point where a structural member sits directly on masonry are the openings that come up over and over in inspections. Termites need very little of a gap.
What you will notice before you notice a termite
- Mud tubes around the perimeter, on piers, or up a foundation wall.
- Discarded wings near windows, doors, and light fixtures after a swarm.
- Frass, the fine pellet-shaped droppings, in small piles beneath wood.
- Damage to window frames, exterior doors, shingles, and structures near garden beds.
- Chewed cardboard, paper, documents, and food packaging in storage areas.
- Doors and windows that have become hard to open or close.
- A hollow sound when you knock on timber that should be solid.
- Faint clicking or rattling from inside a wall in a quiet house.
Every entry point is a maintenance problem first
Wood in ground contact, water against the foundation, a stump by the fence line. Most termite entry is created rather than discovered. Our termite technicians can walk the structure and the grounds and tell you which routes are open.
Keep reading
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