Appearance All termite species segment a fairly akin appearance, with a pale dyed cylindrical body, and a darker chief with large lips. However, there are some small differences between dampwood and drywood termites that might aid in identification.



Dampwood reproductive termites stretch in mass from half a creep to five eighths of a crawl. The "soldier" termites may be as large as three quarters of an edge. The kings and queens are darker than soldiers, being brownish in affect all over the body, while soldiers have pale cream bodies with darker coffee heads.

Drywood termites tend to be rather smaller. The soldier termites are pales cream incline with tanned orifice and heads, and grow to around three eighths of an inch, while the reproductive termites grow to around half an inch in span, and are light to shadows brown in shade.

Life Cycle Both dampwood and drywood termites form the brimming colonies that messenger the beginning of the reproductive round for a new termite pair. The group also means that one or more new infestation colonies will be bent.

However, the two species diverge in provisos of when they most "wish" to throng. The pinnacle brimming months for drywood termites are January through May, while dampwood termites can swarm from deceased jump through to the plummet months.

Another difference between the two is that drywood termites do not have "employee" termites in their colonies. Younger reproductive and soldier termites wait as employees until they achieve maturity. This could be positive information for identification purposes, as each species (and each class of termite within a species) differs somewhat in appearance.

Perhaps the most significant difference-in terms of the break they do-between dampwood and drywood termites is their territory. Both types nest in woodland, but have different territory preferences.

As their names advocate, each lettering of termite has locale preferences based on their wetness substance wants. Dampwood termites genuinely move to lumber with senior dampness filling, while drywood termites prefer firewood with lower humidity stuffing.

This difference is because drywood termites actually can live off water they themselves goods when digesting the bran they supply off. Dampwood termites do not have this metabolic volume, so they must live in a question which provides them with an outside water informant.

This doesn't necessarily mean they'll inhabit different types of timber, however. What does mean is that if you have a termite infestation, you're more likely to have a glitch with dampwood termites if the infestation is located in kindling that's in commerce with overkill wetness from a plumbing leak, meager ventilation or drainage, or other dampness sources such as congested guttering.

All this means that depending on where you live, you may be flat to infestation with a different species. Dampwood termites, for example, are most often found in muggy coastal and subtropical regions of America, including California, Florida, South and North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

One of the most important differences in conduct for dampwood and drywood termites is that when treating for dampwood termites, you must also assess the fund of the dampness in the wood that the colony inhabits.

If you live in a question that is obviously humid this maybe of a difficult, but if the overkill moisture is caused by a leaking tweet or other structural deliver in your home, you will should to have that question preset to make clearly that the termite number doesn't persist.

Another emanate is that if you detect dampwood termites as the find of your obstacle, you have foster options for dropping the likelihood of reoccurrence of the infestation. You can, for example, enhance ventilation and drainage in your home, to diminish the moisture gratify of wood and make the home excluding hospitable for dampwood termites.

Removing moisture sources can be particularly valuables, and may mean that you can handling and stop dampwood infestations minimally with the locale modification methods. These kinds of measures are not feasible if drywood termites are your conundrum, but treating your home will be real in slaughter the colony and preventing infestations in the potential.