Colonies are made up of many individuals, including a king, queen, workers, and soldiers. Interconnected, irregular cavities and tunnels are lined or partly filled with claylike mud material. The tunnels often follow soft parts of annual rings, producing a wafered appearance. Damage is most common near ground or foundation or in wood close to or in contact with the ground. It is usually not evident on unbroken surfaces.
Termites attack almost any kind of wood.
Old house borers are in the large family of longhorned beetles. They have grayish hairs and markings on the thorax, and wing covers over the abdomen. They have 3 pairs of tiny legs behind a hardened head capsule. Large oval holes that connect to tunnels that deeply riddle coniferous sapwood. The tunnels are filled with fine, loose powder that may fall from holes at the surface, creating cone-shaped sawdust piles.