Oh No, Is This What I think It Is?

I came across this scene while inspecting an outdoor kitchen.  It is becoming an all-too-familiar sight.  Sure enough, when I met with the pest service to examine the area, they confirmed it: drywood termites. 

Unlike the subterranean variety, these termites don't come from underground but fly in to establish their nests. In this case, since the cabinets were relatively new, they may have arrived in the wood used to build the outdoor kitchen. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to tell if the wood was previously infested until the termites eventually bore tiny holes (kick-outs) and begin pushing their frass (waste material) out from their chambers. It was explained to me that they expel these pellets through these holes (see pic below) when they feel they are running out of space. The color of the pellets is determined by the type of wood they are eating.

---

If there is a positive side to this species, it's that they eat very slowly and take many years to do significant damage - unlike their subterranean cousins. In a typical case, these termites may be in the wood for anywhere between 2 to 10 years before damage like this is even noticed. Even in these pictures, the damage looks much worse than it is in reality. If you could look inside these panels, you would find that very little of the wood has actually  been eaten. 

The most common methods for eradicating drywood termites are tenting the property or injecting the cabinets with a foam pesticide.