Are these termites, and do we need to act now?

13 years ago

Hi, we live in the SF Bay Area (Nor Cal). Yesterday, while clearing out the crawl space, I found a cardboard box that are infested by these insects. Are these (in the image below) the infamous drywood termites? The weird thing is, only this one empty box was infested, and the neighboring cardboard boxes are all intact. I've thrown away that one box already. Do I have reason to believe that the termites are else where too?

Another question is, do termites cause damage fast (if they do exist elsewhere in the house), or can we wait for a while before we get the treatment? (Mainly, we are doing kitchen remodeling and are a little overwhelmed right now.)

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Comments (4)

brickeyee
13 years ago
Sure look like termites.
golffing
13 years ago
These are termites. I believe Subterranean. If they are in the crawl space than they are there. You can look for TUBES (mud tubes) up your foundation walls along the perimeter of your house for more evidence of infestation. Termite damage is fairly slow, but it might be less expensive to treat now than later.

Here is a link that might be useful: New Interiors
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bus_driver
13 years ago
Even if the insects in question are not termites, the conditions in the area favorable for them are also favorable for termites. Reason enough to have professional evaluation.
And those do look like subterranean termites.
ionized_gw
13 years ago
This is not my own knowledge, but cardboard is reputed to be termite candy. Treat or not, you should get it out of the crawl space.