Signs of termites in Adelaide homes: what to look for

What termites look like when they show themselves

Subterranean termites in Adelaide spend most of their life hidden. They live in colonies underground, travel through mud-lined tunnels, and feed inside timber from the inside out. By the time they damage a piece of structural framing enough for you to notice, they have usually been there for months or years.

The good news is that termites do leave signs above ground if you know where to look. The bad news is that those signs are subtle, and most homeowners notice them too late. This guide walks through the signs that pest inspectors look for during an Adelaide property inspection, in roughly the order they are most commonly found.

The dominant Adelaide species

The species responsible for most structural termite damage in Greater Adelaide is Coptotermes acinaciformis. It is aggressive, builds large underground nests (often within 50 metres of the structure it is feeding on), and is happy in both clay and sandy soils. It is the species responsible for the bulk of the $15,000 to $45,000 termite repair bills typical of Adelaide property remediation.

A secondary species worth knowing is Schedorhinotermes intermedius, which is more sporadic but does occur in foothills and Adelaide Hills properties. Drywood termites (Cryptotermes species) are very rare in South Australia, and damp-wood termites are a tropical species not found in Adelaide.

This matters because Coptotermes leaves a specific signature: shelter tubes from soil up onto timber, internal galleries running with the grain, and a preference for moisture-conducive areas like wet skirtings, leaking eaves, and damp subfloors. Knowing the signature helps you recognise what you are looking at.

Sign 1: Mud tubes (the most diagnostic sign)

If you see a brown, pencil-thick mud trail running up the side of a foundation, retaining wall, brick pier, or external wall, stop and book an inspection. That is a shelter tube, and it is the single most reliable indicator of active subterranean termite activity.

Termites build these tubes to keep themselves humid as they travel between the soil and a food source. The tubes are made of soil, saliva, and faeces, and they are surprisingly fragile. If you break one open and it is moist inside, with live termites visible, the activity is current.

Common locations on Adelaide properties:

• Up the inside of a slab edge, where the brick veneer meets the slab
• Up the face of a stump in the subfloor of pre-1980s homes
• Through a small crack in the mortar of a retaining wall
• Up the inside of a pier or column under a deck
• Across the surface of a garage floor heading toward stored timber

A tube can be active or abandoned. Active tubes are moist, dark, and rebuild quickly if broken. Abandoned tubes are dry, crumbly, and stay broken. An inspector will note both and recommend follow-up either way, because an abandoned tube means activity was present and the colony may still be in the area.

Sign 2: Hollow-sounding timber (the tap test)

Termites eat timber from the inside out. They leave a thin veneer of paint or surface timber intact while consuming the structural core. A piece of skirting that looks normal can be a hollow shell with nothing solid behind the paint.

The tap test is the standard diagnostic. Tap suspect timber with the back of a screwdriver or knuckle. Sound timber gives a solid, dull thud. Termite-damaged timber gives a hollow, drum-like sound. The contrast is striking once you have heard both.

Where to tap-test in your home:

• Skirting boards, especially in wet area rooms (bathroom, laundry, kitchen)
• Architraves around windows and external doors
• Internal door frames at floor level
• Timber lintels above garage and rear sliding doors
• Stair stringers and treads in two-storey homes
• Built-in timber wardrobes and pantry shelving

If you find a section that sounds hollow, do not break it open. Termites flee disturbance, and breaking the timber gives the colony a chance to relocate before an inspector can confirm the extent. Book the inspection first.

Sign 3: Frass (drywood termite droppings) and discarded wings

Subterranean termites do not produce piles of frass in the way drywood termites do. What you will see in Adelaide is more often a small pile of fine, six-sided pellets only in cases where there is direct exposure of an active gallery to the air. More commonly, you will see discarded wings, especially in late spring or early autumn.

Termite swarms (alates) take flight from mature colonies during the warm, humid evenings of Adelaide's spring and summer. The swarm season runs roughly from October through to February, with peaks after warm rain. After the flight, the alates shed their wings and pair up to start new colonies. You will find:

• Piles of identical, transparent, 8-12 mm wings on window sills, especially near external lights
• Wings scattered across an exterior path or deck in the morning after a swarming evening
• Wings caught in spider webs near eaves or external corners

The wings themselves cause no damage. What they signal is a mature colony close by, and that colony has been there for years, not weeks. Book an inspection within the week.

Sign 4: Blistered or rippled paint

When termites consume timber close to a painted surface, the moisture they release and the structural collapse of the wood behind the paint causes the paint to blister, ripple, or peel. Adelaide homeowners often mistake this for water damage or simple paint failure and repaint over it.

What to look for:

• A blister or bubble in interior paint that is dry to touch but feels soft when pressed
• A surface ripple along a skirting board that follows the grain of the wood underneath
• Paint that flakes off in irregular patches and reveals a tunnel pattern in the timber beneath
• Slight discolouration of paint around timber joints, especially in moisture-prone rooms

The difference between paint failure and termite-related paint failure is what is behind the paint. If the timber is sound, you have a paint problem. If the timber tap-tests hollow under the blister, you have a termite problem.

Sign 5: Sagging or warped timber and stuck doors

This is the late-stage sign. By the time termites have caused enough internal damage for floors to sag, doors to stick, or ceilings to bow, the structural integrity of the affected timber is significantly compromised.

Telltale presentations:

• A door that swung freely six months ago now sticks at the top or bottom
• A window that opens and closes inconsistently throughout the year
• A noticeable sag in a floor in one specific area, especially over a sub-floor void
• A skirting that has dropped fractionally below the bottom of an architrave it used to meet
• A door frame that has visibly twisted out of square

These signs can also indicate normal building movement, foundation settlement, or moisture-related timber swelling. The diagnostic is to combine the visual sign with a tap test of the surrounding timber and an inspection underneath (in the subfloor, or roof void above) to look for galleries.

If you see late-stage signs, the priority shifts. The inspection is not just diagnostic at this stage; it is the precursor to a structural assessment and a treatment plan. Visit our signs of termites checklist on the termite pest page for the inspection scope.

Sign 6: Audible clicking inside walls

A less-known but real sign. Soldier termites bang their heads against gallery walls to communicate alarm to the colony. In a quiet room at night, you can sometimes hear a faint, rapid clicking from inside a wall or skirting board. It sounds like very soft, dry tapping, repeating at irregular intervals.

This is rare to hear, but it is unambiguous. Place an ear against the suspect surface in a quiet room with no air movement. If you hear the click pattern, you have an active colony in the structure. Book an inspection promptly.

Conducive conditions: the silent precursor signs

Termite activity is unlikely to show up without conducive conditions. An Adelaide inspector spends a meaningful portion of their on-site time looking at what makes the property attractive to termites, even if no active signs are present yet. These conditions raise the risk of activity in the next 6-12 months:

• Garden bed mulch banked above the slab edge or weep holes (covers the AS 3660 termite barrier)
• Timber-to-soil contact: stumps, posts, fence palings, deck bearers, retaining wall sleepers
• Persistent moisture in the subfloor (poor cross-flow ventilation, a leak from above, low ground levels)
• Trees and stumps within 5 metres of the structure, especially eucalypts
• Wood piles, dead timber, or untreated landscape timbers stored against the house
• A leaking external tap, downpipe, or air-conditioning condensate line saturating the soil near a foundation
• Cracks in the slab, brickwork, or rendered surfaces that bypass any installed termite barrier

If your property has three or more of these, your termite pressure is elevated and an annual professional inspection is the minimum we would recommend.

What an Adelaide termite inspector actually does

An Adelaide termite inspection follows AS 4349.3 and references AS 3660 where relevant. The scope:

• External perimeter walk-around looking for shelter tubes, conducive conditions, and existing barrier status
• Subfloor inspection (where accessible), checking bearers, joists, stumps, ventilation, and ground levels
• Roof void inspection, checking framing, sarking, and signs of activity in upper-storey timbers
• Internal room-by-room tap test of suspect timbers
• Moisture meter readings of timber in wet areas and any tap-test-positive locations
• Tree and stump survey within 50 metres of the structure
• Photo documentation of every flagged finding for the written report

An inspection takes 60 to 90 minutes for a typical Adelaide residential property and the written report follows in 24 to 48 hours. The report categorises findings by severity and recommends further investigation or treatment where needed.

Adelaide swarm season and what to do if you see one

Subterranean termite swarms in Adelaide peak from October to February. Warm humid evenings after rain are the classic trigger. A swarm typically lasts 30 minutes to a few hours, with alates emerging in a column from a small opening in the ground, a paving crack, or a structural gap.

If you see a swarm:

1. Do not spray, vacuum, or destroy the emergence point. The colony itself is below ground; the emergence point is just a doorway.
2. Photograph the swarm and the location.
3. Try to collect 6-10 of the winged termites in a small jar with rubbing alcohol or methylated spirits. The inspector can identify the species from the specimens.
4. Note the time of day and the rough temperature and weather conditions.
5. Book an inspection within the week.

The swarm itself causes no damage. What it tells you is that there is a mature, established colony within roughly 100 metres of where you saw the swarm. That colony has likely been there for 3-7 years. The next step is locating its current feeding site (which may or may not be your property) and assessing whether your property is at risk.

Common questions

Are termites the same as white ants?

Yes. "White ant" is the colloquial Australian name for subterranean termites. They are not biologically ants (they are in the order Isoptera, related to cockroaches) but the name has stuck. If a tradesperson or family member says "white ants", they mean termites. The same inspection scope applies.

Do new homes get termites in Adelaide?

Less often, because post-2000 Adelaide homes typically have AS 3660-compliant termite barriers built in at construction. But yes, new homes do get termites if the barrier is breached (commonly via garden beds banked over the slab edge, additions that bridge the barrier, or plumbing penetrations that compromise the protection). New-home owners should still inspect annually to maintain barrier warranties.

How long does termite damage take to develop?

A mature colony can cause significant structural damage within 6-18 months once it has bridged into a property. The colony itself takes 3-5 years to become reproductively mature, so by the time you see swarming alates from a colony, there has usually been damage somewhere for 1-3 years already. This is why early detection through annual inspection is so valuable.

Will a termite barrier alone keep my home safe?

No. A barrier is a deterrent and a detection aid, not an impenetrable wall. Barriers can be bridged by garden bed soil, breached by plumbing penetrations, or compromised by structural additions. Most barrier warranties specifically require an annual professional inspection to remain valid. Skipping the inspection voids the warranty.

Can I treat termites myself?

For confirmed activity in a home, no. DIY treatment almost always disturbs the colony, scatters the workers, and makes professional treatment harder and more expensive. The recommended sequence is: inspection by a licensed timber pest inspector, then treatment by a licensed termite specialist using AS 3660-compliant chemistry. See our termite treatment options guide for what comes after a positive inspection.

The bottom line

Most Adelaide termite damage is preventable. The window between first detection and serious structural damage is wide enough that an annual professional inspection catches activity early in the vast majority of cases. The signs above are what you, as a homeowner, can look for between inspections.

If you see mud tubes, hollow-sounding timber, swarming wings on a window sill, or any of the late-stage signs, book an inspection within the week. The cost of an inspection is small. The cost of catching termites late is not.

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