Florida Pest Answers
"You've spotted a few discarded wings on the windowsill or what looks like sawdust piling up beneath your baseboards—but which type of termite is actually invading your Florida home?"
The biggest difference between drywood and subterranean termites comes down to where they live and how they behave. Subterranean termites nest underground and need to stay in contact with soil to get the moisture they need. To sneak into your home, they build mud tubes—pencil-thin tunnels made of soil and saliva that run along your foundations and walls. Drywood termites are the opposite: they live right inside the wood they’re munching on and don’t need any soil at all, so you’ll never catch them building mud tubes.
Here’s how to tell them apart:
- Subterranean termites: Small (⅛ to ⅜ inch), soft-bodied, and pale cream to dark brown. They eat along the wood grain and leave bits of soil or mud behind in their tunnels. They also build huge, fast-growing colonies, which makes them more destructive.
- Drywood termites: A bit bigger (⅜ to 1 inch) and pale to dark brown. They eat across the grain, carving out hidden galleries that weaken wood from the inside out. Their giveaway sign is frass—tiny fecal pellets that look just like sawdust—piling up near the wood they’ve been feeding on.
Both types swarm when they’re ready to start new colonies, shedding equal-sized, see-through wings that often turn up on your windowsills or floors.
When it comes to treatment, subterranean termites usually require a soil-applied termiticide barrier or a bait-and-monitoring system, while smaller drywood problems are treated with spot treatments or fumigation. Since both can cause serious structural damage without you ever knowing, a professional termite inspection is the only way to detect a problem, confirm which pest you’re facing, and stop it fast.
