Termite Damage: What Does It Look Like?

Written by: Frank || Published: December 15, 2020

Termite damage typically starts around termite-vulnerable wood, which starts to spread once the infestation starts growing. Subterranean termites are known for boring tiny holes into wood. If the infestation is allowed to progress, wood paneling or flooring might start looking warped, water damaged, or blistered. Eventually, the wood supports will start to break, crack, or sag.

How To Detect A Termite Infestation

If termites are invading your home, here are the signs to look out for:

Mud tunnels around the outside of your home, including concrete slabs, walls, bricks, and any other dense structural material. Termites build mud tunnels so they can travel through them when they are not able to bore into objects when searching for water and food.

Termite swarmers inside your home. These are the termites that fly around in swarms in search of mates. If you have started to notice swarmers inside your building, this is one of the tell-tale signs that termites are invading your home. These termites also shed their wings, leaving them behind on places like your window sills. This is another signal that termites are present in your home.

Damaged wood is one of the most obvious signs of a termite infestation. Wood damage often includes wood that has gone darker, or it looks similar to water damage. If you knock the wood using a hard object or hammer and it makes a thudding, dull sound, it is important to have the wood inspected as soon as you can for a termite infestation.

Small holes surrounded by sawdust, is another common sign of a termite infestation. In most cases, these holes are tiny but result in significant damages inside these wooden structures.

Termite damage can also result in tunnels. If you are looking at a wooden structure that was once solid, and now looks porous filled with channels and troughs, termites have probably been eating the wood.

Common Places Where You Will See Termite Damage

Siding Damage

With wooden siding, it is common to see chewed and damages areas close to the soil, particularly when the outside walls come into contact with the soil. The wood will look like it has been chewed or nibbled on. You might also notice eaten areas and holes appearing randomly on the surface of your walls.

Damaged Studs

If there is an outbuilding or shed on your property, these are also common places where you will find termite damage. The termites burrow long channels or tunnels in the wood, making the timber brittle enough that it will start to splinter or crack when you try to walk over it.

Damaged studs are also detected when you tap on them using a hammer. If the sound is hollow it could be a sign of tunneling inside.

- Crawl Spaces

If termites have started to damage the crawl spaces found under your house, this is often accompanied by several mud tubes. Termites are known for building these mud tubes that they take from the soil into the wooden structures in your home. These moist tunnels offer protection, allowing the termites to move freely throughout your home.

Water Damage

While termite damage often goes undetected, a termite infestation can look like damage caused by water. In some cases, the surfaces of floors, ceilings, and walls will start looking bumpy or swollen.

Damaged Walls

It is not common to detect damage caused by termites in your walls unless you have started to renovate. However, if the termite infestation has gone undetected for many months, the wall might start bulging out, or your windows and doors in a wall are no longer closing or opening smoothly. If you break into a wall, damage from termites is going to be unmistakable.

Frass Holes

Once termites start chewing into wooden structures they expel waste out of the holes that they have made. This waste is known as "frass". They do this by periodically boring circular, small holes through the sides of the tunnels that they make. You may be able to detect these holes along with a sawdust-like substance (frass) around the holes. They expel this waste so that it doesn't clog up their living spaces.

Ceiling And Floor Damage

If termites have started to eat into your floors, they might start to warp down or dip. This is caused by the timber that starts to weaken inside. If termites have damaged your ceilings, they might start sagging.

If you have started to notice wood damage in and around your home, it is important to contact a professional company like Hitman Pest of Yuma. Termites can cause extensive damages to your home, which is why you should never allow this type of problem to go untreated. Hitman Pest of Yuma provides top-rated pest-control solutions while providing superior customer service.

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