Help I think I have White Ants ??

[juzzac]

Hi Everyone, I have purchased this house I am currently living in about 6 months ago and most of the windows were painted closed, today I decided to try and free them up, so i could repaint them and have working windows again, I noticed one section of the window panel was very rotten and when I cleared some of the rotten wood out of the way i noticed i heap of very tiny white coloured ants which I suspect are white ants, I have taken the best possable pic of them as i can as they are tiny, can anyone identify if this is infact white ants?

Thanks Justin

[TermiMonster]

I'd say it's wood rot, but a bit hard to tell from the photos. If it's only around the bottom of the window sashes, that should confirm it (termites don't restrict their eating habits only to the bottom of the window sashes/sills.
Good luck,
TM

[juzzac]

Thanks Termimonster,
Did you see the other photos of the little white insects ? do they look like white ants ??

[Moe in QLD]

I tend to agree with TM, especially regarding how it's hard to tell from the photos but just looks like rot to me as well

Vacuum up all the rotten bits and see if there's any tunnels

good luck

[robgran]

Termites don't look like ants, although the flying members of the colony look like ants with wings. The timber eating ones are off-white, almost a little translucent. They like dark, moist places and build galleries of clay-like material to climb up concrete stumps or brick foundations.

The usual test to see if your house has an infestation is to poke the skirting boards with a screwdriver. If they have been eaten out they will give easily.:o

You could also look under the house and around foundations to locate any of the galleries.
The DPI probably has a fact sheet with pictures of what to look for.

Any soil or damp timber against the outside of the house is an invitation.

Rob

[damian]

It's hard to tell from your pics, there is no sense of scale. The creatures in pic one certainly look like termites but not coctotermies which are the bad ones.

The species that will wreck your home all need access to soil and moisture, so look for the access as suggested above or call a pest person. You may have arborial termites (which is what they look like to me but caveat...) which do eat wood but don't do the sort of terminal damage the bad ones do.

They tend to eat skirting boards, joinery etc because the wood is easier for them to deal with. Frames and floors come later, unless it's pine but your place look old enough to be hardwood.

2c

[Azat]

Look for mud they alway bring mud up with then to keep moist.
we had them in our house but the pervious owns killed them .
i found old termite evidence with lots of dry mud ,if they wether still there it would have not been dry