Most of the termite calls we get start with the words 'I think they are white ants'. There is no such thing. Termites and ants are different insects, they do very different things to a house, and you can usually tell them apart without a magnifying glass.
Look at three things
If you can see one of the insects clearly, or get a sharp photo on your phone, check these.
- Waist: an ant has a narrow, pinched waist. A termite is the same thickness from head to tail.
- Antennae: an ant's are bent like an elbow. A termite's are straight and look like a string of tiny beads.
- Colour: worker termites are pale and soft, almost see-through. Ants are darker and harder.
- Wings, if it has them: a flying termite has four wings of equal length. A flying ant's front pair is clearly longer.
Where you found them matters too. Ants walk about in the open. Termites hate light and dry air, so they stay hidden inside timber or inside mud tubes they build up stumps, piers and walls.
What termite activity looks like
Under an old weatherboard on stumps, the usual sign is a mud tube about as wide as a pencil running from the soil up to the bearers. Inside, look for skirting boards or door frames that sound hollow when you tap them, paint that ripples for no reason, or a pile of small identical wings on a windowsill after a warm, humid evening.
What not to do
This is the part that matters most. If you find live termites, do not spray them, do not pull the timber apart, and do not knock down the mud tubes.
It feels wrong to leave them there. But the ones you can see are a tiny fraction of the colony, and the nest may be under the house, in a tree stump or next door. Spray kills a few hundred workers and warns the rest. They seal off that spot and start feeding somewhere else in the house, where nobody is looking. It also makes treatment harder, because the products we use rely on the termites carrying them back to the nest undisturbed.
What to do instead
- Put back anything you moved and leave the area alone.
- Take a photo of the insects and the damage.
- Note where it is and whether the timber is damp.
- Book a timber pest inspection, ideally within the week.
A few more days will not bring the house down. Termites work slowly, and a calm, correct treatment beats a rushed one. An inspection of a standard house costs $290 with us, and you get a written report with photos either way.