A room-by-room field guide to spotting termite damage before it spreads — the six signs that actually mean something, and the ones people misread.
Most people don't go looking for termite damage. They find it by accident — a vacuum attachment that punches through a baseboard, a windowsill that flexes under a houseplant, a little pile of what looks like sawdust that keeps reappearing on the same shelf. By the time the damage is obvious, the colony has usually been working for a while.
The good news is that termites leave a fairly specific set of clues, and once you know what they look like you can check your own home in about twenty minutes. This is the field guide: the six signs that actually indicate termites, where to look for each one, and how to tell real evidence from the things that look alarming but aren't.
The Six Signs That Actually Mean Termites
| Sign | What it looks like | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Frass (drywood droppings) | Tiny oval pellets ~1mm long, ridged, uniform tan-to-brown, no odor | Active drywood colony directly above where it's falling |
| Kickout holes | Pinhead-sized round holes in wood, often with frass below | The exit point drywood termites push waste through |
| Mud tubes | Pencil-width earthen tunnels on foundations, walls, or piers | Subterranean termites traveling between soil and wood |
| Blistered or bubbling paint | Paint that looks like it has water damage over solid-seeming wood | Termites tunneling just beneath the surface |
| Hollow-sounding wood | A dull, papery sound when you tap trim, framing, or a door frame | Galleries eaten out behind an intact-looking surface |
| Discarded wings | Small piles of equal-length translucent wings near windows or lights | A swarm — reproductive termites have entered or left |
If you find any one of these, it's worth an inspection. If you find two, you almost certainly have an active infestation.
Where to Look, Room by Room
Windows, doors, and sills. Drywood termites love window and door frames — the wood is exposed, weathered, and easy to reach. Check for frass on sills, kickout holes in the frame, and doors or windows that have started sticking (galleries and moisture changes distort the wood). Discarded wings collect on sills because swarmers are drawn to light.
Attic and roofline. The attic is the single highest-value place to look in most Southern California homes. Bring a flashlight and check the rafters, roof sheathing, and fascia from inside. Run the light at a low angle across the wood — kickout holes and gallery blistering throw shadows that a straight-on view misses.
Baseboards and lower walls. Tap along baseboards and listen for the hollow, papery sound of eaten-out wood. Press firmly — surface that gives or crumbles is a red flag. This is also where you'll see blistered paint from termites working just under the finish.
Garage, crawlspace, and foundation. For subterranean termites, the story is at ground level. Look for mud tubes running up the foundation, garage framing, or crawlspace piers. Any wood in contact with soil — fence posts, deck supports, stored lumber against the house — is a common entry point.
Drywood vs. Subterranean: The Signs Differ
The two termite types that matter in Southern California leave different evidence, and telling them apart early points you toward the right treatment.
Drywood termites live entirely inside the wood they eat and don't need soil contact. Their signature is frass — those uniform pellets pushed out through kickout holes — and they're most common in attic framing, eaves, and window frames. Subterranean termites nest in the soil and build mud tubes to reach wood while staying protected from the open air. Their evidence is at grade: tubes on foundations and piers, and damage that tends to follow the grain and stay near moisture. Our guide to drywood vs. subterranean termites walks through the distinction in more detail, since many homes have both.
What's Easy to Misread
Not everything that looks like termite damage is. Frass gets confused with sawdust (irregular and fibrous, from beetles or drilling) and with rodent droppings (larger, darker, tapered). Blistered paint can be plain moisture damage — which brings up the most common mix-up of all: termite damage versus wood rot. They look nearly identical from the outside but need completely different fixes, and treating one when you have the other wastes time and money. Our post on dry rot vs. termite damage is the diagnostic guide for that exact situation.
For the full checklist of early warning signs — including the ones homeowners most often walk past — see 5 warning signs of a termite infestation.
If You Find Damage, Don't Repair It First
The instinct is to replace the damaged board and move on. Don't — at least not yet. Repairing or repainting over active termites does nothing to the colony behind the surface, and you'll lose the evidence an inspector needs to identify the species and locate the source. If you find frass, leave the most recent pile in place (or photograph it next to a coin for scale) so it can be identified. The scope and cost of the repair depend entirely on how far the damage has spread, and that's what an inspection determines.
A free inspection confirms whether what you found is active termites, which species, and how extensive it is — with a written report and treatment options matched to the findings. There's no obligation, and it's the difference between guessing and knowing.