What Do Termites Look Like?
Termites look like small, pale ants with a thick waist and straight antennae. Workers are cream-colored, soft and about 1/4 inch long, and they rarely leave their tunnels. The ones most people actually see are swarmers, dark winged termites with four wings of equal size that show up near windows in spring.
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What Termites Look Like to the Naked Eye
A termite is easy to see but easy to mistake for something else. Most are about 1/4 inch long. The body has no narrow waist, so it looks like one soft tube from head to tail. The antennae stick straight out and look like a string of tiny beads.
Color depends on which termite you find. Workers and soldiers are cream to off-white, almost see-through in bright light. Swarmers are dark brown to black, because they are the only members of the colony built to survive outside. That color difference confuses many homeowners, who expect every termite to look white.
Ants are the usual mix-up. An ant has a pinched waist and bent, elbowed antennae, and a flying ant's front wings are larger than its back wings. Termites have none of those features.
Termite Workers, Soldiers and Swarmers
Each colony has several castes, and each one looks different. The table below shows what each caste looks like and where you are most likely to see it around a DFW home.
| Caste | Size | Body | Wings | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worker | About 1/4 inch | Cream, soft, no eyes | None | Inside damaged wood or a broken mud tube |
| Soldier | About worker size | Pale body topped by a big brown head with heavy jaws | None | Defending a broken mud tube |
| Swarmer | 1/4 to 3/8 inch | Dark brown to black | Four equal wings, longer than the body | Windows, doors and lights in spring |
| Queen | Much larger than the rest | Swollen abdomen | Sheds her wings after the swarm | Deep in the colony, almost never seen |
Workers make up most of the colony and do the damage, so they are what you find when you break into infested wood. Soldiers are only a small share, about 2 to 5 percent according to University of Maryland Extension's termite guide.
What Winged Termites Look Like
Swarmers are the termites people notice. They are slender and dark, with four long, clear to smoky wings that all match in size and shape. The wings reach well past the tip of the body, up to twice its length.
Those wings break off easily. After a short flight, swarmers drop them in piles on windowsills, floors and spider webs. Each wing is about 1/4 inch long and has a silvery shine, and a pile of identical wings is often the first clue a homeowner finds.
In DFW, native subterranean swarmers fly in daylight in spring, often after rain. The rare Formosan swarmer looks different, lighter yellowish-brown and a bit longer, with fine hairs on its wings, and it flies after dark in early summer.
What Termites Look Like on Wood and Walls
Most of the time you see where termites have been, not the termites. Subterranean termites travel inside mud tubes about 1/4 inch wide that run up the foundation or across a wall. Break one open and live workers inside look like grains of cream-colored rice that wriggle.
Inside wood, their tunnels follow the grain and carry soil. The damaged wood looks layered, with mud packed into the galleries and a pale, spotted look from what the termites plaster on the walls. DFW's subterranean termites don't leave piles of pellets, so wood packed with mud points to them.
Getting a Termite Identified in Texas
A clear photo or a few saved insects settle most questions. Texas A&M AgriLife notes that its Center for Urban and Structural Entomology in College Station identifies termites from samples. Swarmers travel best in a small vial of 70 percent rubbing alcohol, which keeps the wings intact, as Texas A&M's subterranean termite guide explains.
For a home in DFW, a local inspection is faster. A termite inspection confirms whether the insects are termites, which kind they are and whether they are working on the house. If they are, termite control with Sentricon bait stations treats the colony. Get a price online or by phone.
What Termites Look Like FAQ
What do termites look like without wings?
Without wings, termites look like small, pale, soft ants with a thick waist. Workers are cream-colored and about 1/4 inch long. A swarmer that has dropped its wings looks like a dark, straight-bodied insect with a short stub where each wing was.
What color are termites?
Workers and soldiers are cream to off-white. Swarmers are dark brown to black. Soldiers add a darker, brownish head to the pale body.
What do baby termites look like?
Young termites look like smaller, paler copies of the workers. They stay deep inside the colony, so homeowners rarely see them.
