Broadly speaking, these termites nest in dry wood,
need no ground contact or water supply, are difficult to control and are
indigenous to tropical climates but have been found along the eastern coast to
Sydney and Canberra, apparently transported through infected furniture. They
can be found in any part of a building, also in paper articles and furniture.
They can be introduced into a building by an introduced piece of second hand
timber ( eg., furniture ) or by flight.
What do I look for?
Small heaps of Frass ( dry faeces and discarded materials). They
consist of gritty, sandy pellets hard and smooth ranging in colour from light
to dark but smaller than pinheads.
This is unlike black ant debris which contains fibres and dead
parts of insects.
Detection is very difficult as they get their moisture from the
timber itself. Therefor they do not need to to come into contact with the
ground which would make detection easier. Nor do they employ the telltale
galleries of the subterranean termite. They also have small colonies and
usually the first sign of activity is when the timber collapses.
What do I do?
It is really important that this problem gets identified
correctly as their treatment is totally different to treatments normally
employed. The West Indian Drywood termite, Cryptotermes
brevis, is a notifiable "disease", under the Disease
in Timber Act 1975 and so treatment will be undertaken by and paid for by the
government. The other two drywood species, Cryptotermes
primus and Cryptotermes
domesticus are of minor significance.
Like in all cases of timber pest, call your Heritage technician,
but especially in this case because it really is one of the most destructive
drywood termite species known.