Termites do not eat ants. Termites are strict plant-matter feeders whose entire digestive system is built around breaking down cellulose, the tough structural fiber in wood and other plant materials. They have no biological reason or ability to consume ants or any other insects.
What Termites Actually Eat
Termites are detritivores, meaning they feed on dead or decaying organic material. Cellulose is their sole nutritional target, but they consume it in many forms: live and dead wood at various stages of decomposition, dry leaves, grasses, lichens, humus, and even fungi. They can only digest cellulose because of a symbiotic relationship with bacteria, protozoa, and fungi living inside their gut. Without these microorganisms, termites would starve even while chewing through a plank of wood.
Different termite species specialize in different cellulose sources. Subterranean and drywood termites focus on wood, breaking down both cellulose and lignin with the help of enzymes produced in their digestive tract. Subterranean species also consume soil particles and the organic matter mixed into soil. Mound-building termites take a different approach entirely, cultivating fungal gardens underground and eating the fruiting bodies those fungi produce. Some termites will feed on paper, cardboard, or fabrics, but only because these materials contain cellulose. None of these feeding strategies involve animal protein of any kind.
Termites and Ants Are Enemies, Not Predator and Prey
The confusion likely comes from the fact that termites and ants interact constantly, but as rivals, not as predator and prey. Ants are one of the most significant natural predators of termites. Many ant species raid termite colonies for food, and termites have evolved elaborate defenses specifically to survive these attacks.
Soldier termites are the colony’s front line against ants. Their heads are often enlarged and heavily armored, and their mandibles come in several specialized forms: snapping jaws that deliver rapid strikes capable of killing small arthropods, piercing mandibles, and crushing mandibles designed to latch onto attackers. Some soldiers can kill or seriously injure individual ants with a single strike.
One group of termites, called nasute soldiers, has abandoned mandibles altogether in favor of something more unusual. They have a nozzle-like structure on their head called a nasus, which works as a biological gun. When an ant approaches, the soldier fires a toxic, glue-like secretion that coats the attacker. This secretion hardens rapidly on contact with air, gumming up the ant’s legs, blocking its breathing holes, and sometimes killing it outright. The sticky substance also triggers a grooming reflex in ants, which only spreads the glue further across the ant’s body. The chemical cocktail in this secretion, a mix of specialized terpene compounds unique to termites, doubles as an alarm signal that recruits more soldiers to the area.
Some termite species even have workers or soldiers that essentially act as living bombs, rupturing internal glands to release a burst of sticky secretion that coats nearby predators. This suicide defense sacrifices one individual to protect the rest of the colony.
How to Tell Termites and Ants Apart
If you’ve found insects in or around your home and aren’t sure which one you’re dealing with, three quick physical differences can help you identify them. Termites have straight antennae, while ants have distinctly bent or elbowed antennae. Termites have a broad, thick waist with little visible narrowing between body segments, while ants have a pinched, narrow waist. And if the insects have wings, termite wings are all the same length (front and back pairs are equal) and roughly twice the body length. Ant wings are shorter overall, and the front pair is noticeably longer than the back pair.
These differences matter because the two insects cause very different problems. Termites destroy wood structures. Ants can be nuisance pests or, in the case of carpenter ants, can excavate wood for nesting, but they don’t eat it. Knowing which insect you’re looking at determines what kind of treatment makes sense.