Drywood termites are found throughout Texas, with the heaviest concentrations along the Gulf Coast. Unlike the more common subterranean termites, drywood termites don’t need soil contact or moisture from the ground. They fly directly into your home, nest inside the wood they’re eating, and can go undetected for years. Three species are established in the state, and knowing what to look for is the fastest way to catch an infestation before it becomes expensive.
Species Found in Texas
Texas is home to three drywood termite species, each with slightly different habits and appearance.
The most common is Incisitermes snyderi. Its swarmers are about 7/16 inch long, light yellow with clear, transparent wings, and they swarm at night. If you find small winged insects around porch lights or interior light fixtures during warm months, this is the most likely culprit.
Cryptotermes brevis, sometimes called the West Indian drywood termite, produces swarmers that look similar to I. snyderi. The easiest way to tell them apart is by their soldiers: Cryptotermes soldiers have distinctive black, square-shaped heads with very short mandibles, while soldiers of both Incisitermes species have dark yellow-brown heads with strong mandibles that project forward.
The third species, Incisitermes minor, is slightly larger at about 9/16 inch. Its swarmers have dark bodies with yellow, brown, or colorless wings, and they swarm during the daytime. If you see winged termites inside your home in broad daylight, this species is the likely source.
Where They’re Most Common
Drywood termites thrive in warm, relatively dry conditions, which makes much of Texas suitable habitat. The highest concentrations are along the Gulf Coast, from Brownsville through Corpus Christi, Houston, and east toward Beaumont. Cities like Galveston, Port Arthur, and the Rio Grande Valley deal with drywood termites regularly. But infestations occur well inland too, carried into new areas through transported furniture, lumber, and picture frames. If you’ve moved used wooden furniture or building materials into your home from the coast, you may have brought drywood termites with you.
How to Tell Drywood From Subterranean Termites
Most termite damage in Texas comes from subterranean termites, which live underground and build mud tubes up foundation walls to reach wood. Drywood termites behave very differently, and the distinction matters because the treatment approaches are completely different.
Subterranean termites need constant soil contact for moisture. They build pencil-width mud tubes as protected highways between their underground colony and the wood in your home, and they eat along the wood grain, leaving soil and mud packed into their feeding galleries. Drywood termites need none of that. They enter your home by air during swarming season, bore directly into exposed wood, and seal themselves inside. They require far less moisture and never touch the ground.
The clearest way to tell them apart is by what they leave behind. Subterranean termites use their feces to build mud tubes. Drywood termites push their fecal pellets out of the wood through tiny kick-out holes, leaving small piles of what looks like sand or sawdust below infested wood. If you see mud tubes on your foundation, you have subterranean termites. If you find tiny pellet piles on a windowsill or floor with no visible mud, drywood termites are the likely problem.
Signs of a Drywood Termite Infestation
Drywood termites eat across the wood grain and create hidden galleries inside structural timber, furniture, and trim. Because the colony lives entirely within the wood, there are no external mud tubes or obvious entry points. That makes early detection tricky, but there are reliable signs.
The most common indicator is frass, the small fecal pellets that drywood termites push out of their galleries. Each pellet is roughly one millimeter long, oval-shaped with six concave sides and rounded ends. Under a magnifying glass they look like tiny elongated footballs. Their color ranges from light tan to dark brown or black, depending on the wood the termites are consuming. Because the pellets are pushed through small kick-out holes, they accumulate in cone-shaped mounds directly below the infested wood. These mounds look remarkably like scattered sand or fine sawdust, and many homeowners sweep them up without realizing what they are. If the pile reappears after cleaning, that’s a strong sign of active termites above.
Swarmer wings are another giveaway. After drywood termites land and pair off, they shed their wings. Finding small, transparent, equal-length wings on windowsills, in light fixtures, or near doorframes (especially in spring or early fall) points to an active colony nearby. You may also notice tiny holes in wood surfaces, roughly the diameter of a pencil lead, where termites have pushed frass out.
Treatment Options
The Texas Department of Agriculture recognizes three approaches for drywood termites: spot treatment, fumigation, and physical removal of infested wood. The right choice depends on how widespread the infestation is.
Spot Treatment
When the infestation is limited to a single piece of furniture or a small section of trim, localized treatment can work. This typically involves injecting a borate-based product into the infested wood or applying it to the surface. Spot treatments are far less expensive than fumigation, but they only work if you can identify every infested area, which is difficult with termites that live hidden inside wood. In Texas, tentless (localized) treatments run roughly $2.90 to $15.40 per linear foot of treated area.
Whole-Structure Fumigation
For widespread infestations or cases where colonies can’t be precisely located, tent fumigation is the standard. The entire home is sealed under a gas-tight tarp, and a wood-penetrating fumigant fills the structure. It’s the only method that reliably reaches every colony, including those hidden deep in walls, attic framing, or roof sheathing. Most pest control professionals in Texas consider tenting the most effective treatment for drywood termites.
Fumigation in Texas typically costs $0.96 to $2.90 per square foot. For a 2,000-square-foot home, that translates to roughly $1,900 to $5,800. You’ll need to vacate the home for two to three days, remove food and medications, and make arrangements for pets and plants. It’s disruptive, but for a confirmed multi-site drywood infestation, it’s the surest path to elimination.
Wood Removal
If the infested wood is an isolated piece of furniture, a removable shelf, or a section of non-structural trim, physically removing and replacing it eliminates the colony entirely. This is the simplest option when it’s practical, but it rarely applies to structural infestations.
Preventing Reinfestation
Drywood termites enter homes through any exposed, untreated wood. Attic vents, eaves, window frames, and fascia boards are common entry points. Sealing cracks and gaps around these areas reduces access. Screening attic and foundation vents with fine mesh (20-gauge or smaller) blocks swarmers from entering during swarming season.
Treating exposed wood with a borate-based preservative during construction or renovation creates a long-lasting chemical barrier that kills termites as they attempt to bore in. If you’re building or remodeling in a Gulf Coast community, this step is worth discussing with your builder. Inspecting used furniture, antiques, and salvaged lumber before bringing them inside is another practical precaution, since transported wood is one of the main ways drywood termites spread to new areas.
Annual inspections by a licensed pest control operator familiar with drywood termites are especially valuable in high-risk coastal counties. Because these termites leave few visible signs until colonies mature, professional inspections catch problems that homeowners typically miss.