Do termites bite people?

No, not in any meaningful way. Workers and swarmers don't bite people, and soldiers will only nip a finger if you pick them up; most people barely feel it. They don't carry human diseases. The damage termites do is to wood, not to you.

What do baby termites look like?

Young termites (nymphs) look like tiny versions of the workers: under 1/8 inch, soft, translucent white to cream, with straight antennae and no wings. They live inside wood or soil tunnels, so you almost never see them unless you break into infested wood.

Are there black termites?

Workers are never black. The black or dark brown 'termites' people see are swarmers, the winged reproductives. Native subterranean swarmers are dark brown to black; Formosan swarmers are amber to yellowish-brown.

What do termites eat?

Cellulose: wood, paper, cardboard, the paper facing on drywall, carpeting, and wood debris in soil. Subterranean termites prefer moist, softer wood; drywood termites live in dry wood with no soil contact. They don't eat concrete or plastic but can tunnel through cracks and around them.

Where do termites come from?

Subterranean termites live in soil colonies and reach the house through mud tubes over foundations or wood that touches soil. Drywood termites fly in as swarmers and start colonies in attic wood, furniture or frames. They aren't created by wet wood; wet wood just attracts them.

How big are termites?

Workers are roughly 1/8 to 3/8 inch long depending on species. Swarmers are about 3/8 to 1/2 inch including wings. Queens of mature colonies can be much larger but stay hidden deep in the nest.

How long does it take termites to damage a house?

Usually years. NC State Extension estimates a 60,000-worker colony eats about a foot of 2x4 in a little over five months and that serious damage takes roughly 3 to 8 years. Formosan termites are faster because their colonies are far larger.

Termites: What They Look Like, Eat, and Do to Homes

Termites are small, pale, soft-bodied insects that live in large colonies and feed on wood and other cellulose. They don't harm people, but they quietly hollow out structural wood, and most homeowners learn they have them only after years of feeding.

The US has about 50 termite species, and almost every state except Alaska has at least one that attacks buildings. UF/IFAS puts the annual US cost of subterranean termites alone at over $30 billion. The warm, humid South has the most pressure, but subterranean termites are common across the Midwest and Northeast too.

What termites are

Termites are social insects related to cockroaches. A colony has distinct castes:

Workers: pale cream, wingless, blind, about 1/8 to 3/8 inch. They do all the feeding and tunnel building, and they are the ones damaging your house.
Soldiers: like workers but with a large, often amber or brown, head and strong jaws. They defend tunnels from ants.
Reproductives (swarmers, alates): darker, with eyes and two pairs of equal-length wings. They leave the colony in a swarm to start new ones; see flying termites and swarmers.
King and queen: the founding pair, hidden deep in the colony. UC IPM notes queens and kings can live a decade or more and the queen can lay thousands of eggs. NC State Extension cites mature subterranean colonies of 50,000 to 2 million workers; Formosan colonies reach several million.

Termite castes side by side: pale worker, soldier with a large dark head, and a dark winged swarmer — Workers do the damage, soldiers guard the colony, and winged swarmers are the ones most people actually see.

What termites look like

Up close, a termite worker looks like a small, soft, creamy grain of rice with legs. Three features separate termites from ants, the insect they're most often confused with:

Straight, bead-like antennae (ants have elbowed antennae).
A thick waist: the body is the same width from front to back (ants have a pinched waist).
Wings of equal length on swarmers, longer than the body (ant front wings are longer than the back wings).

Pictures and side-by-side comparisons are on termites vs ants and other look-alikes.

Black termites are swarmers, not workers. Workers avoid light and dry air, so they stay inside wood or mud tubes; the dark winged ones on a windowsill are reproductives that came out to swarm.

Baby termites (nymphs) are tiny, translucent versions of workers. Seeing white, soft insects when you break into damp wood is a strong sign of termites.

What termites eat

Termites digest cellulose with the help of protists and bacteria in their gut. In a house that means:

structural lumber, subfloors, sill plates, joists, door and window frames;
the paper facing on drywall, cardboard boxes, books, stored paper, even carpeting and art canvases (NC State Extension);
wood mulch, stumps, firewood and buried construction lumber outdoors.

Subterranean termites need moisture and prefer softer, wet wood, eating along the grain and leaving the surface intact. Drywood termites can live in sound, dry wood with no soil contact. Neither eats concrete, metal or plastic, but subterranean termites will build mud tubes over them, squeeze through 1/32-inch cracks, and tunnel through foam board and pool liners.

How fast? NC State cites research that a colony of 60,000 workers eats roughly one foot of a 2x4 in a little over five months, and puts serious structural damage at about 3 to 8 years of feeding. That's why termites are a slow, expensive problem rather than an emergency.

Where termites come from

Subterranean and Formosan termites live in the soil and travel into structures through mud tubes on foundations, through cracks in slabs, around plumbing penetrations, or wherever wood touches soil. Drywood termites arrive by air: a pair of swarmers lands on an attic vent or a gap in trim and starts a colony inside the wood. They also travel in infested furniture.

Termites are attracted by moisture and wood-to-soil contact: leaking gutters, a dripping AC line, mulch piled against siding, firewood stacked against the house, or a deck post set straight into the dirt.

Do termites bite?

Practically no. Termites aren't interested in people, only cellulose. Workers and swarmers can't bite in any noticeable way, and soldiers will only pinch if you pick one up; most people barely feel it. Termites don't spread disease. If you're getting bitten at night and suspect termites, it's something else; see bug bites. The real cost is damage, and standard homeowner's insurance usually doesn't cover it.

Types of termites in the US

Type	Where	Lives in	Clue
Eastern and other subterranean	nearly every state	soil, mud tubes into the house	mud tubes, damaged wood packed with soil
Formosan (invasive subterranean)	Gulf Coast, Florida, Hawaii, parts of California	soil plus moist "carton" nests in walls	huge evening swarms in late spring
Drywood	southern California, Southwest, Florida, Gulf Coast	dry wood, no soil contact	piles of tiny pellets below kick-out holes
Dampwood	Pacific Coast, parts of Florida	very wet, decaying wood	large size; found in rot-damaged wood

More detail on each, including Florida and Texas species, is in types of termites.

Signs you have termites

Swarmers or discarded wings indoors, often on windowsills, in spring.
Mud tubes about the width of a pencil on foundation walls, piers or in the crawl space.
Wood that sounds hollow or breaks to reveal galleries packed with soil.
Drywood pellets: small, hard, six-sided droppings in little piles.
Bubbling paint, tiny pinholes in drywall, sagging floors or sticking doors.

The full checklist, including early signs in ceilings and baseboards, is on signs of termites in your house.

What people who dealt with it say

Homeowner threads in r/Termites, r/pestcontrol and r/homeowners keep circling the same points:

Most "termites" are ants, and some "ants" are termites. Most winged insects posted for ID are ants. The reverse mistake is costlier: in one northern Michigan thread a neighbor insisted a badly infested house had carpenter ants until pros pointed out the mud and soil.
Swarms cause panic but rarely need a same-day decision. Technicians routinely tell people with hundreds of swarmers indoors that a few weeks to get two or three inspections changes nothing.
Termites in the yard don't mean termites in the house. Finding a colony in a stump or log 30 feet away is normal; pros recommend an inspection and, if you have no protection, a preventive treatment quote.
Mud tubes go unrecognized. A home inspector in a popular r/homeowners thread said he'd never had a buyer or seller correctly identify mud tubes on their own.
Reported costs for a typical native subterranean treatment cluster around $1,000 to $2,000, more for Formosan termites, slabs that need drilling, or tenting for drywood termites.

Termite control

Termite control is one of the few household pest jobs where a licensed professional usually is the right answer. The colony is hidden in soil or inside wood, damage is structural, and the main treatments (liquid soil termiticides like fipronil or imidacloprid, bait systems with hexaflumuron or noviflumuron, and whole-house fumigation for drywood termites) require equipment, drilling, or licenses.

What you can do yourself:

Fix moisture: gutters, downspouts, leaks, AC condensate lines, crawl space ventilation.
Break wood-to-soil contact; keep mulch a few inches away from the foundation and firewood away from the house.
Inspect the foundation and crawl space every spring for mud tubes.
Get a professional inspection periodically: UC IPM suggests every 3 to 5 years in general, and annual inspections are the norm in the high-pressure South or if you've had termites before.

Treatment options, what DIY products can and can't do, and typical costs are on how to get rid of termites and termite treatment.

When to call a pro

Call a licensed pest control company if you find live termites, mud tubes, drywood pellets, or a swarm coming from inside the house. Get two or three inspections and written quotes; ask which active ingredient or bait they'll use, how long the warranty runs, and whether it includes repair or only retreatment.

Termites