What makes sawdust

Call What Is Sawdust? Sawdust is accumulations of small wood shavings and slivers that generally tend to be the same color. Carpenter ants. Carpenter bees. These pests produce sawdust by excavating wood as they are constructing galleries in the wood. Drywood termites push their fecal pellets out from the wood they feed on and the fecal pellets often accumulate beneath the infested wood and give the appearance of a pile of termite sawdust.

Subterranean termites do not produce sawdust either. Instead of being solid, their feces are in a liquid form and used by the termite workers as a component of mud tubes and nests they construct. Their droppings will be inconspicuous and not confused with sawdust or wood shavings.

Could these be a type of termite, and if so, what is the best way to kill them? The appearance of frass is a sign that insects — potentially termites - are infesting your wood.

So if you see what looks like sawdust in or around your home, you should contact a termite control professional for an inspection of your home. Here's some further information on termite sawdust frass , where it's most likely to be found and the steps you can take to help protect your home from termites.

Drywood termite swarmers are usually pale brown in appearance, though they can also be dark brown or light, yellowish-tan. Their size depends on their role in the termite caste system.

Soldiers protecting the colony tend to be three-eighths of an inch long, while both male and female reproductives are about one-half inch in length. Drywood termites can be difficult to detect. They don't require contact with soil and live deep inside wood found in structures or furniture. The colonies can be made up of 1,, insects.

Because of their largely hidden habitat, they are rarely seen except during the summer and fall, when flying reproductives, called swarmers, leave the nest to create new colonies. Fortunately, drywood termites are also detailed insects that like to keep their tunnels and colony areas clean and free of fecal matter.

These are divided into two major groups depending on the specific type of beetle and the type of lumber they attack. True powderpost beetles attack the sapwood of freshly cut hardwoods such as oak, ash, hickory, walnut, mahogany and similar species. Damage is generally confined to the sapwood portions the portion of the lumber from the outside edge of the tree of lumber though damage may occur in heartwood.

True powderpost beetles rarely attack wood that is more that 5 years old. New lumber will support beetle growth and development but most true powderpost beetle infestations disappear on their own as the wood ages.

Varnished and cured lumber is not attacked by these beetles, and softwoods such as pine, spruce and fir used for house framing, are not attacked. The false powderpost beetles are a more diverse group.

The few species usually found indoors are known as the furniture beetles, deathwatch beetles, "woodworms" a European term , anobiid beetles and other common names. These beetles attack both hardwoods and softwoods conifer tree lumber. The damage is similar to that described earlier. The larvae live inside the wood and make powder-filled tunnels and the adults emerge, leaving small "shot holes" in the wood surface. False powderpost beetles are most common in wood that is more than 10 years old.

They prefer to feed in sapwood but may feed in all wood, especially wood left undisturbed in cool, moist locations. Moisture is the key component: false powderpost beetles only feed in wood with a high moisture content such as that stored in damp basements or on dirt floors in barns or on the ground outside.