Signs of termites in your Byron Bay home

The most reliable signs of termites are thin mud tubes running up piers, stumps or walls, timber that sounds hollow or crumbles when pressed, and small piles of discarded wings near windows or doors after a warm, humid night. Other clues include faint clicking inside walls, paint that bubbles or cracks over timber, and doors that start to bind for no clear reason. If you find any of these, leave the area undisturbed, take photos and book a licensed timber pest technician to look.

This guide is for owners and tenants trying to work out whether what they have seen is termites, something else, or nothing to worry about. It ends with a simple rule for deciding between an inspection and a treatment.

What do termites actually look like?

CSIRO describes termites as having a pale, elongated body. It also notes they are often called white ants, but they are a very different group of insects from the ants they get named after. Most of the colony never comes into the open. Workers and soldiers stay inside soil, timber or the mud tunnels they build, and the only ones you are likely to see out in the air are the winged breeders.

In the subterranean termites known as Coptotermes, CSIRO says the soldiers produce a milky substance when they are disturbed, and that is one of the easiest ways to recognise them. Every species in that group feeds on wood, and their colonies likely contain millions of individuals. A handful of termites in a broken mud tube is a small window onto a much bigger nest somewhere nearby.

What are the common signs of termites in a house?

Sign	What it looks like	Where to look
Mud tubes	Pencil thin, earthy tunnels running up from the ground	Piers, stumps, foundation walls, the slab edge, inside the subfloor
Hollow or soft timber	Timber that sounds papery when tapped, or gives under a thumb	Skirting boards, door and window frames, deck and stair timbers
Discarded wings	Small, equal sized, see-through wings, often in piles	Window sills, door thresholds, under outside lights
Bubbling or cracked paint	Paint lifting over timber with no sign of water damage	Architraves, window reveals, wall linings over timber studs
Sticking doors or windows	Frames that start to bind or drop out of square	Internal doors, timber window frames
Clicking or rustling	A faint ticking sound inside a wall, often clearer at night	Walls next to wet areas or the garden side of the house
Earthy packing	Soil or mud pushed into cracks, joints or gaps in timber	Cornices, door frames, the joint between wall and floor

hipages lists a similar set of tell-tale signs in its termite inspection guide: clicking and crunching sounds, small droppings, wings or flying termites, mud tubes on the outside of the house and damage to wood including doors and windows. None of these signs is proof on its own. Sticking doors also come from settling or humidity, and bubbling paint can be plain water damage. Several signs together, or any mud tube, are a stronger case for an inspection.

Why are discarded wings a warning?

CSIRO explains that only the reproductive termites have wings, and that they usually fly from the nest on warm, humid nights to mate and start new colonies, shedding their wings afterwards. Finding a scatter of wings on a sill after a muggy evening means a flight happened nearby. It does not prove the nest is inside your house, but it does mean an established colony is close enough to produce flyers.

Byron Shire Council notes that the Shire gets high rainfall between January and May, with March the wettest month, and a mean temperature of 23.7 degrees. That is a general climate description, not a termite calendar, but it does mean warm, humid nights are a familiar part of the year here.

How can you tell termites from ants?

Flying ants and flying termites both turn up around lights, and both get mistaken for each other.

Feature	Termite	Ant
Body shape	Pale, elongated body with no narrow waist	A distinct waist, a constriction between the first two segments of the abdomen
Wings	Two pairs of wings of equal length, shed after mating	Front wings larger than the back wings
Where you see them	Many kinds avoid light and travel in protective tunnels	Workers are often seen out in the open

The termite column follows CSIRO’s termite (Isoptera) page and the ant column its page on the Hymenoptera, the order ants belong to. A clear photo of one of the flyers next to a ruler is usually enough for an inspector to tell you which you have.

If what you have is clearly ants trailing across benches or nesting in paving, the ant control page is the better place to start.

What should you do if you find termites?

1. Leave them alone. Do not spray, poke or break open the mud tubes or damaged timber. A technician needs to see the activity undisturbed to trace where it is coming from.
2. Take photos. Photograph the mud tubes, damage or wings where they are, with something in the frame for scale, and note the date.
3. Note where and when. Write down the room, wall or pier, and whether the activity looked live (moving termites, fresh moist mud) or old (dry, empty tubes).
4. Check the paperwork. Find any termite notice in the meter box and any past inspection report, and note what system and dates they record.
5. Book a licensed timber pest technician. In NSW, termite treatments with pesticides need an EPA licence, and the about page explains how to check one on the EPA public register.

Should you book an inspection or a treatment?

Use a simple rule. If you have seen signs but no live termites, start with an inspection. A termite inspection finds out whether there is activity, where it is, and how much damage has been done, and the written report gives you something to act on. If you have seen live termites moving in mud tubes or damaged timber, ask for a termite treatment enquiry instead, because the provider will need to inspect and then plan how to deal with the colony.

When you book, ask whether the inspection covers the subfloor, roof void, wet areas, garden and fences, and how the findings will be reported. A written report that marks where activity or damage was found, and what was not accessible, is far more useful to you than a verbal all clear given at the front door.

Either way, the business that comes out is an independent local operator chosen for your enquiry; it inspects, quotes and treats on its own account. You can describe the termite signs you found in the form and the provider will tell you which visit it suggests.

What else gets mistaken for termites?

• Other timber pests. Holes or powder in old furniture or flooring may come from a different timber pest altogether, which a timber pest inspector can identify.
• Wood rot. Soft, dark timber beside a leak may be decay from the water itself. hipages notes that termites are drawn to moisture in wood, so a damp, damaged spot is still worth having checked.
• Ants. Ants nesting in a wall cavity or under paving can look like a termite problem at first glance, and a photo of the insects usually settles it.
• Old, dead workings. Dry, empty mud tubes may be from a colony treated years ago. Only an inspection can confirm whether anything is still active.

Once termites are ruled out or dealt with, the termite prevention checklist covers the jobs an owner can do to make the house less inviting next time.

Next step

An enquiry with good evidence gets a better answer. Put in your suburb, which signs you have seen and where (room, wall, pier, deck), whether you saw live termites or only damage or wings, roughly when you first noticed, and whether the house is on piers or a slab. Attach your photos and mention any termite notice details from the meter box. Then send a termite sighting enquiry.

Send a job enquiry