Most calls about “termite droppings” start the same way: someone is dusting the windowsill and sees a small pile of brown grit they don’t recognize. Could be sawdust from a recent contractor visit. Could be drywood termite frass. The two are almost the same color and almost the same texture.
Almost.
The five-second field test
Drywood termite frass — what the bugs push out of the colony — comes out as uniform, six-sided pellets about the size of a poppy seed. Look at it under a phone flashlight at a low angle. If every grain is the same shape and color, it’s frass. If the grains are irregular (some fluffy, some chunky, some longer than wide), it’s sawdust.
Where the pile sits matters
Sawdust sits where someone was working — under a saw, near a door someone planed, on a contractor’s drop cloth. Frass sits under nothing. Drywood termites push their waste out of the colony through “kick-out holes” — pinhead-sized openings in the wood. The pile shows up directly below those holes. Usually on the windowsill. Sometimes on the floor beneath crown molding.
The smell test
Frass has no smell. Fresh sawdust smells like fresh wood — pine, oak, whatever was cut. If you can sniff it and pick up a wood scent, it’s not frass.
What to do if it’s frass
Don’t vacuum it. The pile is evidence, and a fresh pile in the same spot a week later means the colony is active. We’ll want to see it on the inspection.
Call us, or schedule an inspection. The full termite scope and treatment options live on our termite-control page.
This article is part of the Lakeland Pest Pros Pest Library. The Pest Library covers pest identification, prevention, treatment myths, and commercial compliance — written from the field, not from a marketing department.
