What Does Termite Damage Look Like?
Recognizing termite damage, It will have a honeycombed or layered appearance when broken open. Termites prefer to eat the softer spring wood, leaving the summer wood. Galleries in the wood usually run parallel to the grain. They are messy, containing a mixture of solid and digested wood, and soil. Gallery walls have a yellowish or grayish-brown, speckled appearance from soft fecal material that termites plaster on the surface.
Subterranean termite galleries do not have wood frass, fecal pellets, or sawdust, and no similar material is pushed out. If you notice sawdust, you are not dealing with termites. Termites consume the wood they excavate and do not create exit holes that produce sawdust. If a gallery is active, you might see workers and soldiers inside the wood when you break it open. Additionally, you may find mud tubes in the crevices of the infested wood.
Termites may continue to feed until only a thin outer shell of wood remains. Unpainted wood often appears undamaged on the surface, or it may have dark, blistered areas on the surface. These areas can be easily crushed with a knife or screwdriver. Painted wood may also look “blistered” and termites may have consumed the paper from between the gypsum and the paint on plasterboard. Vinyl floor coverings may have irregular sunken areas. Termite-damaged wood will have a hollow sound when tapped. Heavily infested wood splinters and breaks apart easily during probing with a screwdriver or other tool.
Termites will even infest live trees and shrubs, but they don’t just damage wood. They can also damage other materials, especially if the materials are in contact with soil or are damp: composition board, paper, cardboard, fiberboard, insulation, and certain fabrics made from plants like cotton. On carpeted floors, there may be holes where the termites have chewed on the carpet backing, leaving loose, unattached fibers.
If you are every in dought you can contact Arbor Pest Management for a free inspection.
