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| Just saw this debris on the window sill a couple of days ago. I swept it up and saw a tiny hole and the next day it was back. Is this termites or carpenter ants or ???
I have called the different termite companies and schedule appointments to come out and look. I wonder if it a waste of time.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by barbcollins (My Page) on Tue, Apr 24, 12 at 8:06
| Do you have squirrels? |
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| More like carpenter ants (or boring beetles) if anything. Termites eat the wood, carpenter ants excavate galleries to live in. |
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| Without any indication of scale, I'd consider the possibility that it is caterpillar frasse. (Or maybe a trendy breakfast cereal.) Are there soft plant materials nearby? Where do you life? Just how big are those pellets? (Put a coin next to that pile, take another picture and post it.) Look UP, not down for clues. |
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| Sorry about that. I should also mention that it is on the inside window sill, not the outside. Clare  |
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| Look for carpenter bee holes in the wood. They are close to 1/2 inch in diameter. |
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| Could carpenter bees get inside the house? Thanks everyone for the replies. |
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| Well, it isn't carpenter bees. They wouldn't be inside, and their leavings are sawdust, not those pellets. They also do not attack painted surfaces.It may be one of a number of wood eating insect larvae. If this is coming out of a small hole, try plugging the hole with some wood putty and see if another hole appears or the problem goes away. |
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| "They wouldn't be inside, and their leavings are sawdust,not those pellets." That depends on what they are working through, and if thy have found path (or made on) inside. "They also do not attack painted surfaces." I will remember that the next time I have to repair a painted surface with holes in it from carpenter bees. |
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| That depends on what they are working through, and if thy have found path (or made on) inside Brickeyee, I certainly respect your insight. My comment about the leavings is based on the years that I have had carpenter bees damaging the exposed rafters of my back porch. I have swept up literally pounds of bee leavings, and have never seen anything resembling the pictures. Always sawdust. I suppose it's possible that bee larvae could leave something like that, but I've never seen it. As to paint, I don't have personal experience there, as my porch rafters are unpainted, but defer to the University of KY entomology dept. I suppose it would be better to say that paint is a deterrent, as nothing is absolute. |
Here is a link that might be useful: UK carpenter bee page
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| How big is the hole? Sure doesn't look like termites, on the bright side, but that doesn't mean a termite company won't say it is. Make them produce a termite before tenting the house. :) |
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| "Make them produce a termite before tenting the house." I bet that some of them keep termites in their pockets. |
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| I'm guessing they wouldn't know one if it carried a sign. But to be fair, my experience with exterminators is with buying and selling homes where you kinda get stuck when someone says "termites!" and some guy coming to my door trying to convince me my neighborhood had a wasp problem. (I figure if there's a wasp nest somewhere that bothers me, I can manage it myself. Otherwise they're my buddies. Bees in the walls, though--that gets outsourced!) |
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| If the carpenter bee encounters rotted wood in its tunneling that is what appears in the frass. Glue from tunneling in to plywood often provides some interesting frass also. I have a customer with a painted overhang from a bay window that has been attacked multiple times by carpenter bees. Every year or two a new one bores in and I get called. Dursban puffed in the opening, then close it off a few days later (pictures for the record).
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| If you have honey bees in the walls, call a beekeeper first. |
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- Posted by Jumpilotmdm (My Page) on Fri, May 4, 12 at 8:55
| It's not termites. |
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| It's not bees aptosca, you have Drywood Termites. |
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- Posted by christophern (My Page) on Mon, May 14, 12 at 4:28
| It's not termites. It's not bees aptosca, you have Drywood Termites There are 2 specific answers, besides the bees thing. Call a pro and get some SOUND advise. |
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- Posted by Frankrizal (My Page) on Tue, May 15, 12 at 1:38
| I think those are not termites. May carpenter ants, I've seen houses who's been eaten by termites and in your photo it looked different. |
Here is a link that might be useful: real estate in Philippines
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| Once again... If your droppings look like this you have Drywood Termites  |
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| sorry...picture didn't post...hmmm Once again... |
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| I had guys from the major companies, Clark, Orkin, Terminix, Western come out and look at it. They all said it was termites. Now they may have said that because they want the business. We live in an area where termites are common. DH has seen evidence of them in the attic. We have seen swarms of them fly by. Our neighbor, a couple of years, back had piles of rotting wood from trees he cut down. When he move the old wood termites flew out and, of course, toward our house. It has been 22 years since we had the place treated so going to have it tented to be on the safe side. I just hate all the prep work you have to do and moving out for 3 days is a real pain. |
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