Different looking debris

[randynavarro]

I'm not familiar with this debris.

All wood around the areas probed solid. Everything dry. No exit/entry holes--just this stuff.

Click to Enlarge

57.17 KB

Click to Enlarge

61.56 KB

However. . . right outside this area, the old cedar siding is severely rotted. No evidence of bugs in the siding either. Just rot.

Click to Enlarge

43.1 KB

Any ideas what this could be?

[Scottpat]

The color looks like dry wood termites.

[Bill Kibbel]

Was there any ant body parts in the debris?

[Steven Hockstein]

Sawdust looks pretty clean. I noticed a new window on the exterior shot. Were there recent interior renovations performed? Could it be from construction?

[Tom Raymond]

In the first pic the subfloor looks way newer than the floor joists.

[kurt]

It looks like carpentry sawdust, or the mother of all ant infestations.

Maybe repair dust after attempting to eradicate the mother of all ant infestations.

[rdhutch]

My guess is sawdust.

Drywood termites leave fecal pellets, not dust.

I have found similar debris from ants on monolithic slabs, but never on crawl spaces or supported slabs.

Most ant infestations like this would usually include ant body parts, especially carpenter ants.

[hausdok]

Nah,

It's carpenter ant debris. Look at the fibers - tiny thin fibers pulled away individually by ants and then discarded away from their nest. They like to keep their galleries clean. Once found enough of that to fill a wheelbarrow. Ants had hollowed out the rough framing sill below a south-facing window and turned it into a n incubator for their egg sacs.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[John Kogel]

I second, correction, fourth the ants motion.

They have been in residency for a long time. Damp cedar suits them just fine but I'll bet they are in the subfloor as well.

[randynavarro]

Typically, when I see this much debris, there are dead ants or body parts or something.

There were no fecal pellets.

The home has basically been untouched for years so construction debris is out of the question.

I'm going with carpenter ants, 'cuz it's got to be something! Regardless a PCO has to treat the attic for carpenter ants anyway - that debris was much more "recognizable." I'll write they need to look at the crawl space also and treat there.