What Do Florida Termites Look Like?

Most people meet termites as swarmers: small winged insects around lights in spring. Telling them from flying ants is the first identification skill, and it is easy once you know the three checks.

Termite or Flying Ant?

Wings: termites carry two pairs of equal-length wings; ants have a long front pair and short back pair. Waist: termites are straight-waisted, almost sausage-shaped; ants pinch in. Antennae: termite antennae are straight beads; ant antennae bend like elbows. After landing, termites shed their wings, which is why windowsills full of identical wings after a swarm point to termites.

The Castes

Workers are pale, soft and about an eighth of an inch; they do the eating and are the ones you find under bark or in damaged wood. Soldiers have larger, darker heads and jaws. Swarmers (alates) are the dark, winged reproductives: drywood swarmers are reddish-brown, Formosan swarmers are yellowish-brown and swarm at dusk, subterranean swarmers are darker and fly earlier in the year.

Evidence That Identifies the Species

Frass (drywood droppings) are hard oval pellets that vary from beige to dark brown in one pile. Mud tubes mean subterraneans. Carton material, spongy chewed matter in a wall void, suggests Formosans. An inspector reads this evidence like a label: it determines whether the answer is fumigation, soil treatment or baiting.

Send Us a Photo

Identification is free and it decides everything downstream. Photograph the insect or the evidence next to a coin for scale and send it with a quote request, or call (407) 476-3589. We would rather identify a harmless ant for free than let a Formosan colony eat in peace.