Drywood termites come from warm, coastal regions where they live naturally in dead trees and dry wood. Unlike subterranean termites, they don’t need soil or moisture from the ground. They get all the water they need from the wood they eat, which means they can establish colonies entirely inside a piece of lumber, a roof rafter, or a piece of furniture and survive there for years without any connection to the earth below.
Where They Live in the Wild
Drywood termites are native insects in warm parts of North America. Along the Pacific coast, the western drywood termite is the most common species, ranging from coastal California into the Central Valley and the deserts of Southern California. A second species is found in southeastern California’s desert regions. On the other side of the country, drywood termites are found throughout Texas, with the highest concentrations along the Gulf Coast. They also thrive across the southeastern United States, Hawaii, and into the Caribbean.
In nature, these termites live inside dead branches, standing dead trees, and naturally fallen wood. They don’t forage through soil tunnels like subterranean termites do. Instead, a colony lives entirely within the piece of wood it infests, eating it from the inside out. This self-contained lifestyle is exactly what makes them so good at moving into homes undetected.
How They Get Into Your House
Drywood termites reach homes in two main ways: flying in during a mating swarm or hitchhiking inside infested wood that someone carries through the door.
Swarming Season
Once a year, mature drywood termite colonies produce winged reproductive termites called swarmers. These swarmers leave the colony in large groups, often attracted to lights at dusk or in the evening. During flight, males and females pair off. Once they find a partner, they drop to the ground, shed their wings, and begin searching for a crack or crevice in exposed wood where they can start a new colony.
The pair moves fast, with the female leading and the male following closely behind in a distinctive “train” formation. When they find a suitable gap, they seal themselves inside the wood and begin laying eggs. That tiny sealed chamber becomes the start of an entirely new colony. They enter structures through attic vents, foundation vents, gaps under eaves and fascia boards, and openings around doors and windows. Any exposed, unfinished wood surface is a potential landing site.
Furniture and Shipped Wood
The other major route is human-assisted transport. Because drywood termites live entirely inside the wood they eat, they travel whenever infested wood moves. Furniture, picture frames, wooden crates, and salvaged lumber can all carry live colonies from one location to another. This is how drywood termites end up in places well outside their natural range, including cold climates where they’d never survive outdoors. Once inside a heated building, they do just fine.
Infested furniture brought from a warm coastal area to an inland or northern home can seed a full infestation. The termites don’t care about the climate outside as long as the indoor environment stays warm and the wood stays available. This kind of transport happens frequently enough that pest control experts recommend inspecting any secondhand wooden furniture before bringing it into your home.
What to Look For
The most reliable sign of drywood termites is their droppings, called frass. Unlike subterranean termites, which use their waste to build mud tubes, drywood termites push their fecal pellets out of small “kick-out holes” in the wood surface. The pellets are tiny, about 1 millimeter long, oval-shaped with six concave sides and rounded ends. They often accumulate in small, sand-like piles on windowsills, floors, or beneath furniture legs.
The color of the pellets varies depending on the type of wood the termites have been eating, ranging from light tan to dark brown. But regardless of color, the six-sided shape is consistent and distinctive. If you find small mounds of gritty, granular material beneath a piece of wood or near a baseboard, look closely at the individual grains. If they have that characteristic hexagonal cross-section, you’re likely looking at drywood termite frass. The kick-out holes themselves are small, roughly the diameter of a pencil lead, and can be easy to miss on painted or textured surfaces.
Why They’re Hard to Catch Early
Drywood termite colonies grow slowly. A founding pair may only produce a handful of offspring in the first year, and the colony can take several years to grow large enough to cause visible damage or produce its own swarmers. During that time, the termites are living entirely inside the wood, with no mud tubes on your foundation walls and no visible entry points. The wood surface can look perfectly normal while the interior is being hollowed out into a network of smooth, clean galleries.
This slow, hidden growth means that by the time you notice frass piles or see swarmers inside your home, the colony has likely been established for years. Multiple colonies can exist in the same structure independently, each one started by a different pair of swarmers that found a separate entry point. A home in a high-risk area may accumulate new colonies with every swarming season if gaps around vents, eaves, and window frames aren’t sealed.
Reducing Your Risk
Sealing entry points is the most effective preventive step. Screen attic and foundation vents with fine mesh, caulk gaps around window and door frames, and keep eaves and fascia boards in good repair. Paint or varnish exposed wood surfaces, since swarmers are far less likely to bore into sealed wood than raw, unfinished lumber.
If you’re buying or receiving used wooden furniture, especially from coastal areas of California, Texas, Florida, or Hawaii, inspect it carefully before bringing it inside. Look for small round holes in the wood surface and check underneath and around the base for piles of tiny pellets. If you spot either, treat the piece before it crosses your threshold. Once a colony is inside your walls, it won’t leave on its own, and localized treatments or whole-structure fumigation become the only options.