How to Control Drywood Termites

Drywood Termites feast on dry wood. 

That could be the wood used to build your home as well as wood used to construct furniture, old instruments, antiques, etc. Termites are different from Subterranean Termites as these can be indoors and live without water. 

If you have Drywood Termites, it will be obvious by the piles of ‘sawdust’ you see outside of the wood.  But these piles of ‘sawdust’ are not sawdust at all – they are the fecal pellets of the termites boring into your wood.  Yes, what you see when you think it is sawdust is termite poop piling up. 

Drywood Termites do not like to live with their mess, so they form what are called ‘kick-out’ holes to push these fecal pellets out.  If there are a lot of Drywood Termites doing a lot of damage, there could be multiple kick-out holes and multiple sawdust piles.  Whatever wood the termites are eating and destroying will be the same color of the fecal pellets.

Drywood Termites kick out holes controlled by Greenbug

As soon as you witness this damage, you want to arrest it.  Treating for Drywood Termites involves filling the tunnels with Greenbug by inserting it through the kick-out holes.  There is no escaping the tunnels and the Greenbug will control them easily.  The only unknown is how many tunnels there are and therefore how much Greenbug is needed to do the trick.

Materials needed:

Greenbug Ready to Use or

Greenbug Concentrate, properly diluted

Greenbug Termite Injector and/or

Greenbug Termite Syringe

Or you can purchase the Greenbug "I've Got Drywood Termites" package.

  • Locate all areas infested with Drywood Termites and determine the locations of the kick-out holes.
  • Using a Greenbug Termite Injector or a Greenbug Termite Syringe (depending on the size of the hole), inject Greenbug Ready to Use or Greenbug Concentrate properly diluted into the kick-out holes.
  • Wait a few minutes and re-inject.
  • Keep repeating until no more Greenbug Ready to Use or Greenbug Concentrate properly diluted can be injected and then seal the holes with a small piece of scotch tape.
  • Monitor the area that has been treated for several days to see if any additional effort is needed.

One treatment is often adequate but keep an eye out for any developing piles of sawdust.  As soon as you see a pile forming, address it as soon as possible to minimize future damage.