The kind of termites you have starts with what you found, not what you searched
Most searches for kinds of termites start after something has already turned up. The fastest route to an answer starts there too.
Two very different questions hide behind one search
"Kinds of termites" can mean two different things. Sometimes it's a school-project question: how many kinds exist, what are they called. Sometimes it's a homeowner standing over a hole in the skirting board, hoping a list will tell them what they're looking at. This page is for the second person.
Want the taxonomy answer instead? Termite species covers that properly. Here, the fastest route to an answer starts with what you found, not with a list of names.
What did you actually find?
Most searches for "kinds of termites" start after something has already turned up: a tube of dirt on a wall, a pile of tiny pellets, timber that gives way under a screwdriver. Each of those points somewhere different, and none needs a species name to be useful.
Work through what you found first. The kind follows from that, almost every time.
Mud tubes or damage near the ground
A pencil-thick tube of soil and saliva running up a foundation wall, a pier, or a stump means a subterranean colony. This is the kind responsible for the large majority of serious structural damage in Australia. Coptotermes is the genus behind most of it, though a technician confirms that, not a search result.
This is also the kind a soil barrier is built to interrupt. Cut the route between the ground and the timber and the colony struggles to reach the building at all.
Pellets and a small kick hole, no mud anywhere
Hard, six-sided pellets collecting under a piece of furniture or below a small hole in timber, with no mud tube in sight, points somewhere else entirely: drywood termites. This kind never touches soil. A colony can live for years inside a single roof timber or a wardrobe, with nothing at ground level to give it away.
A soil barrier does nothing here. Wrong target, wrong kind.
Soft, wet timber with no mud and no pellets
Timber that crumbles or feels spongy, usually somewhere already damp, a shower recess, a leaking gutter, a deck post standing in wet soil, is the signature of dampwood termites. Find this kind and you've found two problems, not one: the termite, and whatever is keeping that timber wet.
Fix only the termite and the moisture invites the same problem straight back in.
What if you're not sure which one you found?
That's normal, and it's exactly why guessing from a photo is a bad idea. Run it through the evidence tool instead. It works from where you found something and what it looked like. And points you toward the likely kind and what to do next, always ending at inspection rather than at a bag of pesticide from the hardware store.
Why the kind changes what happens next
| What you found | Likely kind | What that means for treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Mud tube, damage near ground level | Subterranean | Soil barrier or baiting can target the route to the timber |
| Hard pellets, small kick hole, no mud | Drywood | Localised treatment inside the timber; a soil barrier does nothing |
| Soft, wet timber, no mud, no pellets | Dampwood | The moisture source has to be fixed alongside any termite treatment |
None of these three calls for a spray from a hardware shelf. Disturbing a colony, in any of the three kinds, tends to scatter it further into the building rather than remove it. And it destroys the evidence a technician would otherwise read. The finding tells you what to expect. It doesn't tell you what to do about it yourself.
One kind is not automatically worse than another. A confined drywood colony in a single wardrobe can sit for a long time without much changing. A subterranean colony already connected to the ground rarely gets less serious by waiting. Neither is a reason to guess. Both are reasons to call a licensed technician and describe exactly what you found.
What "kind" doesn't tell you
None of the three kinds says anything about species, and that's fine. A technician working to AS 4349.3 will usually narrow the genus once they're on site. But the kind is what decides the plan long before that happens. Get the kind right in your own head, from the evidence, and you'll ask the technician better questions and understand the report they hand you afterward.
That's really the point of sorting by evidence instead of by name. You don't need a species to act sensibly. You need to know what you found, and what it rules in or out.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main kinds of termites a homeowner in Australia will find?
Practically, three: subterranean (needs soil contact or a mud tube), drywood (never touches soil) and dampwood (needs timber that's already wet or decaying). Which one you have follows from what you found, not from a species name.
How do I know which kind of termite I have without a photo ID?
Describe exactly what you found: whether there's mud, whether the timber is wet, whether there's a small kick hole with pellets underneath. That description, not a photo, is what lets a licensed technician narrow it down before an inspection confirms it.
Can one house have more than one kind of termite?
It's possible, since the conditions for each kind can exist in different parts of the same property. A full inspection is the only way to know, because the evidence for each kind looks different and turns up in different places.
Does the kind of termite change what treatment works?
Yes, directly. A soil barrier targets a subterranean colony's route to the timber and does little against drywood termites, which never travel through soil. Dampwood termites need the moisture source fixed as well, or the same conditions invite the problem straight back.
Sources
What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.
- Department of Health, Victoria. Pest control — termites
- Standards Australia. Australian Standards (AS 3660 termite management, AS 4349.3 timber pest inspection)