Almost everything Mobile homeowners know about termites — mud tubes on the foundation, soil treatments, bait stations in the yard — is about subterranean termites, the natives and the Formosans that dominate this coast. Drywood termites break every one of those rules. They never touch the soil. The whole colony — king, queen, workers — lives inside the very piece of wood it’s eating: a window frame, a rafter, the leg of an antique dresser. No mud tubes, no ground contact, nothing for a soil barrier or an in-ground bait station to intercept.

That’s why the ID changes everything, and why the tell is worth learning:

• Frass — the pellet piles. Drywood termites keep their galleries clean by pushing fecal pellets out through pin-sized “kick-out” holes. The pellets are hard, dry, six-sided, about the size of poppy seeds, and range from straw to dark brown. They collect in tidy little cones on windowsills, floors, and shelves directly below the hole. Subterranean termites never leave these — their sign is mud.
• Where they show up. Drywoods ride the humid coastal band of the Gulf. In our area that means the beach communities, Dauphin Island, waterfront homes along Mobile Bay, and the older wood-frame housing stock in Midtown and Oakleigh — attic framing, fascia, window and door frames, porch trim.
• How they arrive. Two main routes: swarmers slipping in through attic vents, gable vents, and unscreened soffits on warm evenings, and infested wood carried in the front door — secondhand furniture, salvage lumber, a yard-sale find, a picture frame from a beach house cleanout.

The good news, honestly stated: drywood colonies are much smaller and slower than the Formosan colonies Mobile is notorious for — thousands of termites rather than millions, and years to do what a Formosan colony can do in months. Nobody should scare you into same-week decisions over a drywood find. But “slower” isn’t “harmless,” and a structure can host several separate drywood colonies at once, which is exactly the question a licensed operator has to answer before anyone talks treatment.

Drywood work in Mobile follows a logic worth understanding before the first operator walks in:

• Frass confirmation first. Under a hand lens, drywood pellets are unmistakable — hard, six-sided, uniform. That distinguishes them from carpenter ant debris (which is fibrous and full of insect parts) and from plain sawdust. An operator who quotes without looking at the frass is guessing with your money.
• Mapping the extent. Probing trim and framing, tapping for hollow wood, checking attic rafters, fascia, and window frames, sometimes a moisture meter to rule subterranean activity in or out. The core question: one contained colony, or activity in multiple areas of the structure?
• Localized wood treatment — the path for contained infestations. The operator drills into the galleries and injects a borate or foam product directly where the colony lives, then seals and monitors. It works when the infestation really is where the evidence says it is — which is why the mapping step matters so much.
• Whole-structure fumigation — the path for widespread or inaccessible infestations. The structure is tented and treated with a fumigant gas that penetrates every piece of wood at once. It’s a bigger job requiring an ADAI fumigation-certified operator, days of preparation, and time out of the house — and it’s the honest recommendation when drywood activity shows up in several places.
• Prevention that sticks. Screening attic and gable vents, sealing exterior cracks and joints, keeping paint and sealant intact on exposed wood, and inspecting secondhand furniture before it comes inside.
• A written scope. Findings, photos, the reasoning for spot treatment versus fumigation, and re-service terms. Pricing is the operator’s, set after inspection — which is why this site doesn’t publish prices.

One Mobile-specific note: because Formosan and native subterranean termites are so dominant here, some “drywood” finds turn out to be subterranean after all — and the treatments don’t interchange. A soil treatment does nothing for a colony living in a rafter; gallery injection does nothing for a colony commuting from the yard. Species first, then plan, then quote.

• “Show me why this is drywood and not subterranean.” The answer should involve pellets you can see — not vibes. Six-sided pellets and no mud means drywood; mud tubes and soil contact means a different page entirely.
• “What’s your ADAI license number?” Every legitimate Alabama operator has one, and the Pesticide Management Section in Montgomery — (334) 240-7240 — can confirm it. Fumigation work requires its own certification category, so ask about that specifically if tenting is proposed.
• “How do you know the infestation is only here?” This is the question that separates spot treatment from fumigation. Ask what was probed, what was tapped, and what the attic looked like.
• “If we spot-treat, what’s the follow-up?” Localized treatment should come with a monitoring plan and clear re-service terms in case activity shows up elsewhere later.
• “Could this have come in with furniture?” If yes, the piece itself may need treatment or removal — and it changes what prevention looks like going forward.