Termites don’t announce themselves. There’s no smell, no noise most people notice, and no obvious mess. A colony can work through the structural timber inside your walls, floors and roof for years while everything on the surface looks completely normal. That’s what makes them Australia’s most destructive pest. Around 1 in 3 homes will be affected at some point, and nationally they cause more damage each year than fire, storm and flood combined. Standard home and contents insurance doesn’t cover any of it.
The upside is that termites do leave evidence — you just have to know where to look, because it’s rarely in the middle of the room. This guide walks through a termite home inspection the way a technician would: area by area, working from the ground up.
Why Termites Go Unnoticed for So Long
Termites are built to avoid detection. Subterranean species are behind the vast majority of damage in Sydney homes. They travel between the soil and the timber they’re feeding on through enclosed mud tubes, never crossing open air if they can help it. They’ll often eat timber from the inside out, leaving a thin, intact outer shell of paint or wood that looks completely fine until you tap it or press on it. A skirting board can be structurally hollow for months before anyone notices anything’s wrong.
That’s the reason a proper check isn’t a walk-through glance — it’s a slow look at the specific spots where termites are forced to expose themselves.
Start Outside: The Perimeter and Subfloor
This is where a colony first makes contact with your house, so it’s the most useful place to start.
- Foundation walls, piers and brick veneer — look for pencil-width to finger-width mud tubes running up from the soil. These are the shelter tubes termites build to travel safely between the ground and the timber above, and they’re one of the clearest, least ambiguous signs of an active colony.
- Weep holes — the small gaps at the base of brick veneer walls, there to let moisture escape, are also a favourite termite entry point. Check them for mud packed inside or partially blocking the opening.
- Retaining walls, garden beds and mulch against the house — soil, garden beds or mulch piled up against an external wall gives termites a hidden, moist path straight to your timber, and is one of the most common self-inflicted risk factors we see on inspections.
- Old tree stumps, fence posts and stored timber — any dead wood in contact with the ground near the house, including firewood stacked against a wall, can be an active termite food source and a launching point into the building itself.
- Subfloor (if you have one) — with a torch, check timber bearers and joists for mud tubes running along their length, or for timber that looks discoloured, sagging or unusually soft.
Inside the House: What to Check Room by Room
- Skirting boards and architraves — press or tap along the timber with the handle of a screwdriver. Solid timber gives a firm knock; hollowed-out timber sounds dull or papery. Also look for slight rippling or blistering in the paint or timber surface — this is often the outline of a mud tube or feeding gallery just beneath.
- Door and window frames — doors and windows that have started sticking or are suddenly harder to open aren’t always just seasonal swelling. Termite damage to a frame can distort it in exactly the same way, so if it’s a new problem, it’s worth a closer look rather than assuming humidity.
- Walls and ceilings — small blistered or darkened patches in paint, faint rippling in plasterboard, or a ceiling that’s started to sag slightly can indicate termite activity in the wall cavity or roof space above. It’s easy to mistake for water damage, which is exactly why it often gets missed.
- Roof void / ceiling cavity — if you can safely access it, check exposed roof timbers, especially where they meet brickwork or masonry, for mud tubes running up structural members. This is a common, hard-to-see entry route that a visual walk-through of the house will never catch.
- Discarded wings — a small pile of shed, papery wings near a window or door frame points to a termite swarm nearby, particularly after a warm, humid evening. It’s worth flagging even if you can’t see the insects themselves anymore.
A Note on Droppings (Frass)
Some overseas guides list small pellet-like droppings, called frass, as a key sign of termites. That’s accurate for drywood termites, which are a lesser issue in the Sydney area. The species we deal with most here — subterranean termites such as Coptotermes acinaciformis — don’t leave frass behind at all, because they never leave the enclosed safety of their mud tubes and galleries. If you’re inspecting a Sydney home, mud tubes and hollow timber are the signs to prioritise; frass isn’t a reliable indicator either way.
When to Look More Closely
Termite activity isn’t evenly spread through the year, but it’s rarely completely dormant either. Warm, humid stretches — especially spring and early summer after rain — are when colonies are most active and most likely to swarm, which is often when people first notice something’s wrong. That said, a colony can be quietly established and feeding well before or after that window, so an inspection timed around “swarm season” alone isn’t enough on its own.
The Limits of a DIY Check
A careful self-inspection is genuinely worth doing and will catch obvious activity — but it has real limits. Termites are specifically good at staying inside walls, subfloors and roof cavities that a visual check from inside the house simply can’t reach. Professional inspections use tools that go beyond what a torch and a screwdriver can tell you. Moisture meters pick up the elevated moisture readings termite activity leaves in timber. In some cases, technicians also use termite detection dogs or thermal imaging to flag activity giving off no visible surface signs at all.
Australian Standard AS 3660.2 recommends a professional timber pest inspection at least once every 12 months for most homes, and more often — sometimes every six months — for properties in known high-risk areas or with a prior history of termite activity. Given how much damage can accumulate in a single undetected year, that inspection interval is worth treating as a minimum rather than a nice-to-have.
If You Find Something
The one rule that matters more than any other: don’t disturb it. Spraying what you find, knocking down a mud tube, or attempting any DIY treatment scatters the colony and drives it deeper into the structure. That makes proper treatment significantly harder and often more expensive. Leave the area alone, take a photo if you can do so safely, and get a professional inspection booked in.
Suspect termite activity, or just due for your annual check? Krisco Pest Control carries out licensed termite inspections across Sydney, using the specific detection methods a torch and a screwdriver can’t replicate. Call +61 405 950 748 or visit www.krisco.com.au to book an inspection.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I get a termite inspection in Sydney? At least once a year under Australian Standard AS 3660.2, and every six months if your property is in a higher-risk area or has had termite activity before. Sydney’s climate and the amount of older timber-frame housing in the region put a lot of properties into that higher-risk bracket.
Can I check for termites myself? Yes, to a point. Checking the perimeter for mud tubes, tapping skirting boards and architraves, and keeping an eye on sticking doors and rippled paint will catch obvious activity. What it won’t catch is a colony confined to a subfloor, wall cavity or roof void you can’t easily see into. That’s where a professional inspection earns its cost.
Do termites make noise? Occasionally you might hear a very quiet clicking or rustling from inside a heavily infested wall in a still room. It’s subtle and easy to miss, though, so it’s not a reliable way to detect an infestation on its own.
Is a mud tube always a sign of an active colony? Usually, yes, though a tube can occasionally be abandoned. Either way it means termites have been active at that spot, so it always warrants a proper inspection rather than being assumed harmless.
What’s the single most reliable early sign? Mud (shelter) tubes on foundations, piers or subfloor timber. They’re the one sign that’s genuinely hard to explain away as something else, which makes them the first thing worth checking for around the base of your home.
Krisco Pest Control provides licensed termite inspections and pest control services across Sydney, NSW. Call +61 466 221 256 or visit www.krisco.com.au.