Table of Contents
The short answer
Termites are found by their traces, not by sight. Four are worth knowing: pencil-width tubes of dried mud running up a wall, a foundation or a door frame; timber that sounds hollow or papery when you tap it; small piles of identical discarded wings on a window sill or near a light; and, less often, tiny hard pellets like coarse sand beneath a piece of wooden furniture. If you find any of these, photograph it, leave it exactly as it is and do not spray it.
What happens next is specialist work. The insects you might see are a small part of a colony that lives in the soil or deep inside the timber, and a can of insecticide does not reach it. Several other problems also look like termites, a slow water leak above all, so the first step is to have the signs confirmed by someone who inspects for termites.
IHR Dream Cleaning's pest control service lists cockroaches, bed bugs, ants, rodents and flying insects. Termites are not on that list, so this guide does not describe a termite treatment of ours. If you suspect termites, describe the signs when you book and send photos, and we will confirm whether it is a job our team takes on before anything is arranged. If it is not, you will know to go straight to a termite specialist, and the sections below set out what to ask one. For the other pests a villa sees, start with household pests in Abu Dhabi.
What termites are, and the two kinds that matter
Termites are small, pale, soft-bodied insects that live in colonies and feed on cellulose: wood, paper, cardboard and the paper face of gypsum board. They are often called white ants, but they are not ants, and ant treatments do nothing to them. They avoid light and dry air, so they travel inside the wood or inside tubes they build from soil, and they eat timber from the inside while leaving the painted surface in place. That is why damage is usually well advanced before anything shows.
Subterranean termites: the kind that comes up from the ground
The colony lives in the soil, often some metres from the building, and can number many thousands of insects. Workers forage outwards through the ground. Where they meet a foundation they come up through cracks, joints and the gaps around pipes, or they build mud tubes over the surface until they reach timber. They have to stay in contact with moisture, so the tubes are their lifeline. Mud tubes, mud packed into cracks and soil inside damaged wood are the signature of this kind, and it is the kind most likely to trouble a villa that sits on irrigated ground.
Drywood termites: inside a single piece of timber
A drywood colony is small and lives entirely inside the wood it eats, with no link to the soil and no mud tubes. It is met more often in furniture, including pieces that arrived already infested, and in door or roof timber. Its sign is frass: hard, dry pellets of even size, pushed out of pin-sized holes and collecting in a small heap below. Which of the two kinds you have decides the treatment, and telling them apart is the first job of an inspection.
The signs in wood, door frames and walls
You need a torch and the handle of a screwdriver. Work around the ground floor, low down, and start with the rooms that have an outside wall, a bathroom next door or a store of cardboard.
Mud tubes
A mud tube is an earth-coloured, slightly flattened tunnel about as wide as a pencil, stuck to the surface and usually running upwards from floor level. Look on the inside and outside of external walls, in the corners of store rooms, behind stored boxes, along the top of skirting, up the legs of door frames, at the back of fitted wardrobes and around the points where pipes come through the floor. Outside, check the base of the boundary wall, wooden posts and the trunks of palms.
Related signs are a line of dried mud filling the joint between skirting and wall, and small spots of mud on a painted wall or a gypsum ceiling, where termites have sealed a hole they made. An old, abandoned tube is dry and crumbles to dust. One in use is slightly damp inside and is repaired within days if it breaks. Leave that test to the inspector.
Hollow-sounding timber and blistered paint
Tap along door frames, skirting, window boards and the plinths of fitted units with the screwdriver handle, paying most attention to the lowest hand's width. Sound timber gives a solid knock. Eaten timber sounds dull, hollow or papery, and the surface may give under gentle pressure from a thumb. Paint over damaged wood often blisters, ripples or sinks along the grain, because only a thin skin is left with nothing behind it.
If the surface has already broken, look at the pattern without digging further. Termite galleries run with the grain, and those of the ground-dwelling kind are lined with dried mud. A door that has started to stick, or a frame that has worked loose, can be a sign as well, though humidity and a dropped hinge are far more common causes; those are explained in sticking doors, loose hinges and sagging cabinet doors.
Discarded wings and flying termites
A mature colony sends out winged adults to found new ones. They leave in numbers, usually in warm, humid weather and often after rain, fly towards light, drop their wings and pair off. What remains is a scatter of small, translucent wings, all the same size, on a window sill, in a light fitting, caught in a cobweb or beside a patio door. Sometimes the insects themselves are still there.
Where you find the wings matters. Wings indoors, in a room whose windows were shut, suggest the termites emerged inside the house. Wings on an outside sill tell you only that a colony is somewhere nearby, which is a reason to check the house and not yet a reason to treat it.
Frass: the pellets under furniture
Drywood termites push their droppings out of the timber. The pellets are under a millimetre long, hard, dry and all alike, and under a magnifying glass each has six flattened sides. They take the colour of the wood, from cream to dark brown, and they collect in a neat heap that comes back a few days after you sweep it away. Look beneath wardrobes, bed frames, chests and wooden ceilings, and on the shelf under a wooden unit.
Walls, floors and stored things
Termites do not eat concrete, blockwork or plaster, but they cross them and pass through a crack about a millimetre wide. On a gypsum wall or false ceiling they eat the paper facing, leaving faint, wandering trails or pinholes plugged with mud. Laminate and parquet attacked from beneath blister or sag. Cardboard is often the first thing to go: lift any box that sits directly on a store-room floor and look at its underside and at the floor beneath it. Books, files and rolled carpets with a jute backing stored against an outside wall deserve the same look.
Termites, or something else?
Many of these signs have a commoner and cheaper explanation, and it is worth ruling that out before anyone quotes for a treatment. Water is the usual one. If the mark sits under a bathroom, beside a kitchen sink or below an AC unit, read water stain on the ceiling or peeling paint first.
| What you see | If it is termites | What else it could be |
|---|---|---|
| Bubbling paint on a frame or wall | A paint skin over hollow wood, mud behind it | Damp from a leak behind the surface |
| Powder beneath wood | Hard, even pellets like coarse sand | Flour-fine dust from wood-boring beetles; blown sand |
| Winged insects at a window | Equal wings, thick waist, straight antennae | Flying ants |
| Soft, swollen kitchen plinth | Galleries along the grain, packed with mud | Board swollen by a slow leak under the sink |
| A door that sticks | Frame hollow near the floor | Humidity, or a hinge that has dropped |
Termites or ants: how to tell them apart
The confusion matters because the remedies have nothing in common. Ant bait does nothing to a termite colony, and a termite treatment for a line of ants is money wasted. Flying ants and flying termites appear in the same weather, so catch one if you can. Press a strip of clear tape over it or tip it into a jar, and photograph it against white paper.
| Feature | Termite | Ant |
|---|---|---|
| Waist | Broad: the body is one width along its length | Pinched: a narrow waist |
| Antennae | Straight, like a string of beads | Bent like an elbow |
| Wings on flying adults | Two equal pairs, longer than the body, shed easily | Front pair clearly longer than the back pair |
| Workers | Pale cream, soft, hidden from light | Brown, black or red, hard-bodied, in the open |
| Where they move | Inside wood or mud tubes | In open trails across floors and walls |
| Timber | Eaten from the inside | Not eaten: ants are after food and water |
Why villas in Abu Dhabi are exposed
A flat high in a tower is rarely reached by termites that live in the ground. A villa sits on that ground, and three features of villas here make it easier for a colony to find the building.
The first is water. Desert soil is dry, and termites need moisture, so an irrigated bed against the house wall is the most inviting ground on the plot. Drip lines, a leaking sprinkler, a planter built against the wall and an AC condensate pipe that drips at the foot of the wall all keep the soil beside the foundation permanently damp.
The second is timber near the ground: wooden door frames set at floor level on the doors to the garden, pergolas, decking, fence posts, a shed, pallets and cardboard on a store-room floor, and the stump of a tree or palm that was cut down and left. Each is food within easy reach of the soil.
The third is later building work. A new building is commonly given a soil treatment against termites before the floor slab is poured. Such a barrier does not last indefinitely, and an extension, a new patio, a re-laid driveway or a trench for irrigation or cables can break it or bridge it with untreated soil. If you own the villa, ask the developer or the previous owner whether a treatment was done and what paperwork came with it. If you rent, ask the landlord.
Homes closed over the summer add time to all of this, because nobody is looking. Check the store room and the foot of each door frame in the week you return.
What to do when you find a sign
Termite damage is slow. It is measured in months and years, not days, so there is no need to move out or to accept the first offer made at the gate. There is equally no sense in leaving it for a season, because a colony does not stop. Work through these steps in the first day or two.
- Leave everything intact. Do not break the tubes, scrape the mud off, pull the wood apart or spray anything.
- Photograph each sign twice: once from a distance to show where it is, once close up with a coin beside it. Note the date.
- Collect a sample if there is one: a few wings, pellets or insects in a small jar, a sealed bag or under clear tape.
- Check the rest of the ground floor in the same way and mark what you find on a simple sketch of the house, inside and out.
- Stop the water. Repair leaks, turn sprinklers away from the walls and move the AC drip away from the foundation. This is harmless and it helps whatever the diagnosis.
- Leave infested boxes or furniture where they are until they have been seen. Carrying them through the house spreads the problem.
- If you rent, tell the landlord in writing the same day, with the photos. The structure is the owner's, and who pays for treatment is a matter for your tenancy contract.
- Arrange a termite inspection.
Why a spray does not solve a colony
A household insecticide kills the workers it touches, and the colony replaces them within days. The queen and the great majority of the insects are in the soil or deep in the timber, where no surface spray arrives. Killing the few you can see has no effect on the damage being done.
Spraying also works against you. Termites abandon a disturbed or treated spot, seal it off and open a new route, often somewhere you are not watching. The door frame goes quiet, the problem appears to be over, and the evidence an inspector needs to trace the colony has been destroyed.
- Do not pour insecticide, fuel, used oil or garden chemicals into the soil around the house. It contaminates the garden, it is dangerous, and it does not form the continuous treated zone that a proper soil treatment depends on.
- Do not fill, paint over or replace damaged wood before the treatment. New timber is simply the next meal, and the repair hides the trail.
- Do not use an unlabelled product, and do not let anyone who offers a cheap treatment at the door use one in your home.
What a termite inspection and treatment generally involve
This section describes the work in general terms, as it is done across the trade, so that you can follow what a specialist proposes and question it. It is not a description of an IHR service.
The inspection
An inspector works round the building inside and out with a torch and a tool for tapping and probing, and often a moisture meter. Every piece of timber at ground level is checked, together with store rooms, fitted units on outside walls, any roof timber, and the garden: posts, stumps, planters and the irrigation. The inspector is looking for live activity, for old damage, and for the conditions that invite termites, and should tell you which kind of termite is present.
The result should be a written report: where activity was found, marked on a plan or on photos; the kind of termite; the visible damage; the method proposed and the areas it covers; what is excluded; the price; and the terms of any warranty. Hidden damage cannot be measured without opening up the timber, and an honest report says so.
Treating termites that come from the soil
There are two broad approaches, and they are often combined. The first is a treated zone in the soil. A liquid termiticide is applied to the ground along the foundation so that termites cannot reach the building without crossing it. Where there is open soil against the wall, this is done by trenching. Where there is paving or a tiled floor, small holes are drilled at regular intervals, the liquid is injected beneath, and the holes are plugged. Expect drilling noise, some dust, furniture moved away from the walls and a line of plugs when the work is finished. Ask beforehand how the plugs will look on your tiles.
The second is baiting. Stations are set into the ground around the building, or fixed over active tubes, and the workers carry the bait back to the colony. Baiting involves little or no drilling and far less liquid, but it is slower, working over weeks and months, and it depends on scheduled monitoring visits. Which approach suits a house depends on its construction, its paving, its garden and how the termites are getting in.
Treating termites inside furniture or a single timber
Because a drywood colony is contained in one piece of wood, the treatment is local: the galleries are treated directly, the piece is treated with heat, or it is removed and replaced. For furniture of value, ask what the options are before agreeing to dispose of it. Filling a whole building with gas is a specialist industrial procedure with serious risks and is not a routine household service.
On the day and afterwards
You will normally be asked to clear the floor of store rooms and to move furniture and stored items away from the walls being treated. Ask in advance what precautions apply to children, pets, fish tanks, the water tank, the pool and any edible plants near the walls, and how long each treated area must be left. That time belongs to the product used, so follow the figure you are given, not one from a neighbour.
Afterwards, do not undo the work. Avoid digging new beds against the wall, piling soil or mulch over the treated strip, or laying new paving without telling the company first. Keep the report, the plan and the warranty together, because the next owner or tenant will need them.
What to ask any termite company
For a whole-villa treatment, get two written proposals and compare the method and the scope before the totals. These questions separate a considered proposal from a guess.
- Which kind of termite is it, and can you show me the evidence?
- Where exactly is the activity, and will the report mark it on a plan?
- Which method do you propose, and why that one for this house?
- Where will you drill, roughly how many holes, and how will they be finished?
- Which product will be used, is it approved for use in homes here, and may I see its label?
- Under which permit do you carry out pest control in Abu Dhabi?
- How many visits are included, and is there monitoring afterwards?
- What does the warranty cover: a repeat treatment only, or repairs as well? For how long, on what conditions, and does it pass to a new owner or tenant?
- Is the price complete, with VAT, and in writing?
Permits, and the public service for citizens
The Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre states on its pest control services page that it issues and renews work permits for public health pest control activities in the emirate, as published in October 2026. A company that works here should be able to tell you which permit it holds.
UAE citizens have a public route to ask about as well. The terms of the Book a Home Pest Control Service page on TAMM, the Abu Dhabi government services platform, list termites among the nuisance pests that service covers, for citizens only and only within residential houses, as published in October 2026. Who can use the public service, and for what, is set out in municipal pest control or a private company in Abu Dhabi.
What it costs
No fair termite price can be given without an inspection, because the method, the length of wall to be treated and the amount of drilling differ from house to house. The pest control prices on our list, from AED 149 for a studio, are for the insect and rodent treatments on the service page. It is not a termite price. How a quote for any pest treatment should be built, and what it should state in writing, is covered in pest control prices in Abu Dhabi.
Repairing the damage afterwards
The order is treatment first, repair second. Wood replaced while the colony is still active is eaten in its turn. Wait until the company that treated the house confirms there is no live activity in the area, then look at what needs doing.
Most domestic damage is to trim and fittings: a length of skirting, the foot of a door frame, an architrave, the plinth under kitchen units, the back panel of a wardrobe. That is carpentry. Damage to anything that carries weight, such as roof timber, a beam or a staircase, is different and needs a building contractor to assess it before anyone touches it.
Small carpentry is the kind of work described on our carpentry and furniture assembly page: door and hinge adjustment, cabinet and drawer repair and shelf fitting, quoted from photos by item count and complexity. Whether a termite-damaged frame or run of skirting is something our carpenter can put right depends on how far the damage goes, so send clear photos when you book and the scope is confirmed before the visit. Where a frame has been eaten once, ask about treated timber, or a material termites do not eat, for the replacement.
Blistered paint and damaged gypsum board come last, once the timber is sound. Vacuum up wings and pellets only after the inspector has seen them.
Keeping termites away from a villa
None of this replaces a treatment where termites are active. It lowers the odds of a first visit and of a return.
- Keep soil and planting below floor level and leave a clear, visible strip at the foot of every outside wall, so that a mud tube cannot go unnoticed.
- Fix irrigation leaks, aim sprinklers away from the walls and lead AC condensate to a drain. Our gardening visits include a check of the irrigation, with obvious faults flagged.
- Repair plumbing leaks promptly. Damp timber and damp ground draw termites, and the signs of a concealed leak are listed in hidden water leak: signs to look for.
- Keep timber and cardboard off the ground: store boxes on metal or plastic shelving, away from the walls, and never directly on a store-room floor.
- Remove dead stumps, buried offcuts and old timber from the garden.
- Check second-hand wooden furniture for pinholes and pellets before it comes into the house.
- Twice a year, and when you come back from a long trip, spend ten minutes with a torch and a screwdriver handle on the door frames and skirting of the ground floor.
- Before you buy or rent a villa, tap the door frames and ask for any treatment records. The other checks worth making are in the new home maintenance checklist.
Common questions about termites
Are termites dangerous to people or pets?
Not in the way cockroaches or rodents are. Termites do not live on people or animals and are not known for spreading illness through food. The harm is to the building and what is stored in it, and it is the treatment products, not the insects, that call for care around children and pets.
Can an apartment have termites?
It is uncommon above the lower floors, because the ground-dwelling kind has to stay connected to the soil. Ground-floor and podium-level homes with planters or a garden can be reached, and drywood termites can arrive on any floor inside a piece of furniture. In a tower, report what you find to the building management in writing, since the route in is likely to be through common parts of the building.
Can I have just the one door frame treated?
For drywood termites confined to one piece of timber, a local treatment can be enough. For termites that come from the soil, treating one frame kills the insects in that frame and leaves the colony in the ground, which then finds the next frame. The inspection decides which case you have, and that is the reason not to skip it.
Will they come back after treatment?
A treatment protects for a period, not for ever. A treated zone in the soil weakens with time and can be broken by landscaping. A baiting system works only while it is monitored. This is what the warranty and its inspections are for, so read the conditions before you sign and keep to them.
Do I have to throw away infested furniture?
Not always. A solid piece with limited damage can often be treated and kept. Chipboard furniture that has been heavily eaten is rarely worth saving. Either way, do not carry it through the house, give it away or leave it beside the bin before it has been looked at, because that is how a contained problem travels.
Does IHR treat termites?
Our published pest control service covers cockroaches, bed bugs, ants, rodents and flying insects, and termites are not listed. Tell us exactly what you have found and send photos when you book. We confirm whether it is a job our team takes on before a visit is arranged, and if it is not, we tell you, so that you can go to a termite specialist without paying for a wasted visit.
The next step
If the signs point to termites, the order is: photograph, leave alone, stop the water, get an inspection, compare written proposals, treat, then repair. If the signs turned out to be ants, cockroaches or rodents, the pest control service page sets out what our visit includes.
To have what you found looked at, send a booking: choose pest control, say plainly that you suspect termites, describe where the signs are, and reply to the confirmation email with your photos. A visit is arranged only once we have confirmed that the job is one we take on, and payment is online by card, from My bookings on this website, once the price is agreed.
