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Most people picture the same thing when they hear “termites”: a whole house eaten through, a wall falling down. That level of damage is real, but how fast it happens, and how it happens, depends entirely on which kind of termite you’re dealing with. And most of the time, you catch it well before it ever gets that far.
Subterranean termite colonies run huge, anywhere from 60,000 up into the millions. They live in the ground and forage constantly, going after downed trees, shrubs, anything with rot or cellulose in it. If that search leads them near your home and they find something worth eating, they recruit the rest of the colony and the whole group moves in. Because the colony’s already large, the damage can add up fast once they’re in.
Drywood termites run on a different clock
Drywood termites work on a completely different timeline. A new colony starts when a pair of alates, the winged reproductive termites, swarm out and pair off. From that starting point, it takes about five years to reach roughly 500 termites, a fraction of a subterranean colony’s size and speed. The real difference with drywood termites is that one colony is never really the only one in your home. They don’t share space well, so you end up with multiple separate colonies, and as a house and the surrounding neighborhood age, that number tends to grow. A lot of times you simply can’t see where all of them are.
The difference in one line
Subterranean colonies are large, fast, and tied to water. Drywood colonies start small, grow slowly, but tend to multiply into several separate colonies over time rather than one big one. I’ll get into more specifics as this series continues.
Not sure which kind you’ve got? Start with what termites look like in Florida. If you’re finding little piles of pellets, read termite droppings and signs.
If you have questions about this or any other pest, give us a call at 727-462-0400, or text us at 727-458-7900. As long as GOD keeps making them, we’ll keep killing them. You have a great day.