Termite Larvae, Eggs and the Termite Life Cycle
Termite larvae are newly hatched termites. They are tiny, pale and soft, with no eyes and no wing buds, and they cannot feed themselves, so worker termites feed them. After three or four molts, a larva becomes a worker. Some workers later turn into soldiers, and a few become the winged swarmers that start new colonies.
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The Termite Life Cycle, Stage by Stage
Termites have no pupa stage. A young termite looks like a small, pale worker from the day it hatches. That is why Ohio State's extension service notes that termite larvae are not true larvae like caterpillars or maggots. Each larva molts as it grows, and chemical signals in the colony steer which role it takes.
The table below shows the six forms a subterranean termite can take, with sizes from Texas A&M AgriLife's termite guide.
| Stage | What it looks like | Size | Job in the colony |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egg | Translucent, like a tiny jelly bean, laid in clusters | About as small as a new larva | Tended by the king, the queen or workers |
| Larva | Pale, soft and nearly see-through, with no eyes | About 1/16 inch | Gets fed by workers and molts three or four times |
| Worker | Creamy white, soft, wingless and blind | 1/4 to 3/8 inch | Forages, builds tunnels, feeds the colony and eats wood |
| Soldier | A worker's body with a large brownish head and strong jaws | Similar to a worker | Guards the colony, mostly against ants |
| Nymph | Pale, with small wing buds | Up to about 1/4 inch | Becomes a swarmer or a backup egg layer |
| Swarmer | Dark brown to black, with four clear wings of equal size | About 3/8 inch | Flies out to mate and start a new colony |
What Do Termite Larvae Look Like?
A termite larva looks like a smaller, softer copy of a worker. It has six legs and short, straight antennae. Ohio State describes larvae as very pale, with no eyes, no wing buds and jaws that have not darkened yet. Their heads and mouthparts are still soft.
A worker has the same shape, but it is larger and cream-colored, with darker jaws for chewing wood. Under a magnifying glass, size and jaw color are the easiest ways to tell them apart. Few people ever get that close to a larva.
Termite Eggs and How Larvae Are Raised
A new colony starts with one king and one queen. After a spring swarm, the pair sheds its wings, digs a small chamber in moist soil near wood and mates. Termite eggs look like small, translucent jelly beans, and the queen lays them in clusters, according to the University of Missouri Extension's termite guide. The king and queen tend the first batch themselves. After that, workers take over and keep the eggs clean of fungi and bacteria.
Growth starts slowly. Texas A&M says a young queen lays only a few hundred eggs in her first year, then lays more as she grows larger. Larvae can't feed themselves, and termites can't digest wood without help from microbes in their gut. Workers eat the wood, digest it and share the food with the larvae. Some colonies also raise backup egg layers, called secondary reproductives. When several of them lay eggs, the colony grows faster than it would with one queen.
What Termite Larvae Mean for a Colony
Larvae don't damage your house. Texas A&M is clear that workers do the damage. But larvae are the colony's future workforce, and a steady supply of them means the colony is growing.
That growth takes years. Texas A&M AgriLife puts the time for a native colony to reach maturity at 3 to 5 years. By then it usually has about 250,000 workers, and only then does it start producing swarmers. In Texas, April and May are the main swarm months. So a cloud of winged termites inside a DFW home in spring tells you more than where the termites are. It tells you a colony has raised and fed larvae for years.
DFW homes deal with subterranean termites, a soil-dwelling kind that reaches wood through mud tubes. Spraying the workers you can see does nothing to the larvae, the queen or the backup egg layers deep in the colony. That is why subterranean termite treatment aims at the colony in the soil, with bait stations that workers feed on and share with the rest of the colony, larvae included.
Termite Larvae or Beetle Grubs?
People often mistake a fat, white "worm" from a mulch bed or lawn for termite larvae. Texas A&M's field guide describes white grubs as C-shaped larvae up to 1 inch long, with cream-colored bodies, brown heads and three pairs of legs near the head. They are the young of May and June beetles and chafers, and Texas has more than 100 species of May and June beetles.
Grubs feed on grass roots, not on houses. Around DFW, the adult beetles come out in early summer, and the eggs they lay hatch into new grubs about two weeks later. A termite larva looks nothing like a grub. It is about 1/16 inch long, straight rather than curled, and it never leaves the colony. A curled grub up to an inch long is a lawn insect, not a termite.
Why You Almost Never See Termite Larvae
Termite larvae spend their whole stage inside the colony, in its most protected chambers. Most of the colony works within about six inches of the surface, close to dead wood, and the insects dry out quickly in open air. Larvae never go out to forage, so they have no reason to leave.
The pale termites people do find, inside a broken mud tube or a crumbling baseboard, are almost always workers. Workers are the termites that travel into your house to feed. Our free termite inspection tells you whether termites are active and where they are getting in, before you spend anything on treatment.
Termite Larvae FAQ
What should you do if you find termite larvae?
Leave the spot alone and take a photo. Store-bought sprays only kill the termites you can see and won't reach the colony in the soil. Have the area inspected so you know where the termites are getting in.
How are termite larvae different from maggots?
Maggots are legless fly larvae that live in garbage, compost and rotting food. Termite larvae have six legs and antennae, look like tiny workers and live only inside a termite colony.
What month are termites most active?
Termite colonies feed all year. Swarms are the most visible activity, and in Texas they peak in April and May. Eastern subterranean termites usually swarm in mid-spring, often on a warm day after rain.
