If you find termite damage in your home, the next question matters more than most people realize: what kind? Subterranean and drywood termites share almost nothing beyond the fact that they eat wood. They live differently, signal their presence differently, and require treatments that do not overlap. Applying the wrong treatment, or treating one species when you have the other, wastes time and money and leaves the damage continuing. Here is how to tell them apart.
Quick answer
Subterranean termites need soil contact, build mud tubes, and cause the most structural damage in the Houston area. Drywood termites do not need soil or moisture. They live entirely inside the wood they eat and produce distinctive pellet-shaped droppings called frass. These two species require completely different treatments, so identifying which one you have before treating matters.
Dealing with this right now?
Not sure which termite you are dealing with? Schedule an inspection with Kingwood Pest & Termite and we will identify the species, map the damage, and recommend the right treatment, not a generic one-size-fits-all approach.
Learn more about our termite control across Spring, Kingwood, and North Houston.
Subterranean Termites: The Primary Threat in the Kingwood Area
Subterranean termites are the most structurally destructive insect in North America, and they are common throughout Harris and Montgomery County. They live in the soil and require consistent moisture, which is why they build mud tubes to travel above ground without drying out. The colony stays underground; workers travel up through tubes to reach the wood in your home, eat, and return.
Colonies can range from tens of thousands to several million individuals, which is why the damage can accumulate quickly. Subterranean termites attack the soft spring wood between the grain and hollow out beams, joists, and studs from the inside. The surface often looks intact until you press on it.
The reliable signs are mud tubes on foundation walls and slab edges, hollow-sounding wood when tapped, and swarms in spring when winged reproductives emerge from mature colonies. Swarmers have two pairs of equal-length wings that they shed after landing.
Drywood Termites: No Soil Needed
Drywood termites do not need soil or moisture. They fly in, usually during swarming season, and start a colony inside the wood itself. They live, feed, and breed entirely within the piece of wood they colonize. A beam, a window frame, furniture, hardwood flooring, or even structural framing can host a drywood colony without any connection to the ground.
Because they do not need moisture, drywood termites are often found higher in the structure: in attic framing, door and window frames, rafters, and furniture. The damage pattern is different too. They eat across the grain as well as with it, creating smooth-walled galleries that often look cleaner than subterranean termite damage.
The most distinctive sign of drywood termites is frass. As they eat and digest wood, they push their fecal pellets out through small kickout holes in the wood. Drywood termite frass looks like tiny sand or sawdust, coffee-colored or tan, with six distinct ridges on each pellet under magnification. Small cone-shaped piles of frass on a windowsill, floor, or piece of furniture point directly to a drywood colony above.
- Drywood: frass pellets below kickout holes, no mud tubes
- Subterranean: mud tubes on foundation or framing, no frass
- Drywood: attacks attic framing, furniture, window and door frames
- Subterranean: attacks basement, crawl space, wall framing from the slab up
Treatment Is Completely Different
Subterranean termite treatment typically involves liquid barrier applications around the home's perimeter and foundation, baiting stations, or a combination. The goal is to eliminate or intercept the colony in the soil before it can reach the structure. The Sentricon baiting system, for example, uses bait stations placed in the soil that workers carry back to the colony.
Drywood termite treatment targets the wood itself rather than the soil. Localized treatment (injecting insecticide directly into the gallery through kickout holes) works for isolated infestations. Whole-structure fumigation is used when the infestation is widespread or inside an area you cannot easily access and treat locally.
Treating for subterranean termites does nothing for drywood termites, and vice versa. If you have both, they each need separate treatment strategies.
Which Is More Likely in Spring and Kingwood?
Subterranean termites are by far the more common find in this area. The warm, humid climate and clay soil give them ideal conditions. Drywood termites are found in Southeast Texas but less frequently. They tend to be brought in on infested furniture or lumber, and they are more common in areas closer to the coast.
That said, the only way to know which species you have is a professional inspection. The clues each leaves behind are distinctive, but they require knowing what to look for and where.