The most common sign of termites in furniture is tiny pellet-like droppings, called frass, collecting underneath or inside the piece. These droppings are often the first visible clue because termites do most of their damage hidden inside the wood, leaving the outer surface looking perfectly normal. Other telltale signs include small holes in the wood, a hollow sound when you tap the surface, and piles of discarded wings nearby.
Frass: The Most Reliable Indicator
Termites that infest furniture (almost always drywood termites) eat through wood and push their droppings out through tiny holes they chew in the surface. These droppings, called frass, are hard, six-sided pellets roughly 1/32 of an inch long. To the naked eye, they look like fine sawdust or grains of sand. Under magnification, each pellet has a distinct oblong, hexagonal shape that distinguishes it from actual sawdust.
The color of frass matches the wood the termites are eating. Light-colored wood produces pale pellets; dark wood produces darker ones. You’ll typically find frass in small piles that accumulate in predictable spots: on the floor directly beneath the furniture, inside drawers, or on any horizontal surface inside the piece. Because drywood termites actively push their droppings out of the wood, a fresh pile of frass means an active infestation, not old damage.
Small Holes in the Wood Surface
The holes termites use to eject frass are called kick-out holes. They’re tiny, roughly the diameter of a pencil tip, and easy to overlook on a piece of furniture you’re not examining closely. You may also see slightly larger swarm holes where winged termites emerged from the colony. Check the underside of furniture, the back panels, inside drawer joints, and any unfinished wood surfaces. These holes are often the only external evidence that termites are active inside.
Hollow Sound When You Tap
This is one of the simplest and most effective tests you can do at home. Knock or tap across the surface of the furniture in multiple spots. Solid wood produces a firm, dense sound. Wood that’s been hollowed out by termite galleries sounds noticeably hollow or papery, even when the outer surface looks completely intact. The contrast can be striking: a dining table leg might look flawless but sound empty inside. If you find a hollow-sounding area, press firmly with your thumb or a blunt tool. Severely damaged wood will give way or feel soft.
Discarded Wings and Swarmers
Drywood termites reproduce by sending out winged swarmers that emerge from the wood, fly a short distance, and shed their wings after landing. These swarms are small, typically only 10 to 100 individual termites, so they’re easy to miss entirely if you’re not home when it happens. What you’re more likely to find afterward is a small pile of translucent, shed wings on the floor near the furniture, on windowsills, or caught in spider webs. The wings are all roughly the same size and shape, which helps distinguish them from other insect wings.
Swarmers are attracted to light, so check around windows and light fixtures near wooden furniture. Finding wings or dead swarmers near a specific piece of furniture is a strong indicator that the colony is living inside it.
Visible Wood Damage
Surface damage is usually the last sign to appear because termites work from the inside out. When it does show up, it can include buckling or bubbling paint, sunken areas where the wood has been eaten thin, or crumbling wood along edges and joints. Drywood termites eat through both the soft and hard layers of wood, creating smooth, sculpted tunnels (galleries) inside the piece. This is different from subterranean termites, which tend to eat only the softer layers and leave a layered, almost honeycomb-like pattern of damage with soil in the galleries.
If you can access a broken or exposed area of the wood, look at the internal structure. Drywood termite galleries are clean and smooth, often with fecal pellets visible inside. Subterranean termite galleries contain soil and mud. This distinction matters because it determines what kind of treatment will work.
Which Termites Infest Furniture
Drywood termites are the species responsible for nearly all furniture infestations. Unlike subterranean termites, which live in soil and need ground contact, drywood termites live entirely inside the wood they eat. The wood itself provides all the moisture they need to survive. This means they can colonize a piece of furniture that has no contact with the ground at all, including items on upper floors of a building.
This is especially relevant for antique or secondhand furniture. A piece can harbor a drywood termite colony for years before any external signs become obvious. Before purchasing used wooden furniture, inspect it carefully for kick-out holes, frass accumulations inside drawers, and hollow-sounding wood.
How to Inspect a Piece of Furniture
Start by placing the furniture on a light-colored surface or sheet of paper so you can spot any falling frass. Pull out all drawers and examine them individually, checking the inside corners, the underside, and the runners. Turn the piece over if you can and inspect the bottom, the back panel, and any unfinished wood. Use a flashlight to look into joints and crevices.
Tap systematically across every surface, listening for changes in sound. Pay special attention to legs, which are often solid wood even on veneered furniture. Run your fingers along edges and joints, feeling for soft spots or crumbling wood. If you find frass, note whether it’s in a fresh-looking pile (suggesting active termites) or scattered and dusty (possibly old damage). A fresh pile directly below a kick-out hole is the clearest confirmation of a live infestation.
Treatment Options for Infested Furniture
Individual pieces of furniture are much easier to treat than structural wood in a building. The most common approaches target the colony directly inside the piece.
- Heat treatment: Termites cannot survive sustained high temperatures. Professional heat treatment raises the temperature of the wood high enough to kill all termites and eggs inside. For smaller items, some pest control companies use localized heat chambers.
- Freezing: Small furniture pieces can sometimes be treated by exposure to extreme cold over several days. This is less commonly available but effective for items that can be placed in a commercial freezer.
- Borate treatments: Borate-based products can be applied to bare, unfinished wood surfaces. Borates work by disrupting the bacteria in termites’ digestive systems that help them break down cellulose. The treatment doesn’t kill instantly but eliminates termites as they continue eating the treated wood. Borate only works on unfinished wood because it needs to penetrate the surface.
For valuable or antique pieces, a pest control professional experienced with drywood termites can assess whether the infestation is treatable or whether the structural damage is too extensive. Furniture with severe internal hollowing may not be worth saving if the wood has lost its structural integrity, regardless of whether the termites are eliminated.
Keeping Furniture Protected
Finished wood is naturally more resistant to drywood termite colonization than raw wood. Painted, varnished, or sealed surfaces make it harder for termites to find entry points. If you have unfinished wooden furniture, applying a finish or sealant closes off the bare wood that termites need to access. Keeping indoor humidity low also helps, since even drywood termites prefer some moisture in their environment. Store wooden furniture away from known termite activity, and inspect secondhand or antique pieces thoroughly before bringing them into your home.