Citrus Heights has two very different termites, and they need two very different treatments. Telling them apart starts with where and when you see the signs.
Two termites, one region
Most parts of the country deal with one main termite. The Sacramento Valley deals with two, and they could hardly be more different. Subterranean termites live in the soil and must stay connected to it, foraging up into a home through cracks and mud tubes. Drywood termites live entirely inside dry wood, with no soil contact at all, colonizing attic framing, eaves, and trim. A Citrus Heights home can face either one, or both, and because the treatments are completely different, the first job is always figuring out which termite you have.
The good news is that each leaves distinct signs, and once you know what to look for, you can tell a lot before a professional ever arrives, which helps you act quickly on the right problem.
Subterranean termites: up from the soil
Subterranean termites nest in the soil and build pencil-width mud tubes to travel from the ground to the wood while staying protected and moist. In Citrus Heights they exploit slab cracks, expansion joints, plumbing penetrations, and any wood-to-soil contact around the porch, fence, or crawl space, and the clay-loam soil that cracks in the dry summer opens more paths for them. Their classic signs are those mud tubes running up a foundation wall or crawl-space pier, wood that sounds hollow, and a spring swarm of dark winged reproductives near windows, often after rain.
Because they come from the soil, subterranean termites are treated at the soil, with a liquid termiticide barrier around the foundation and beneath abutting slabs, plus monitoring where appropriate. Correcting moisture and removing wood-to-soil contact makes the home a harder target.
Drywood termites: living in the wood
Drywood termites need no soil and no mud tubes. Winged reproductives fly in, often on warm late-summer and fall evenings, and bore directly into dry, sound wood, setting up colonies in attic rafters, roof eaves, fascia boards, and window and door frames. The unmistakable sign is a small pile of hard, six-sided fecal pellets, often mistaken for sawdust or coffee grounds, beneath a tiny kick-out hole in the infested wood.
Because the colony lives inside the wood, drywood termites are treated in the wood: local treatment of accessible galleries for limited infestations, or whole-structure fumigation when the activity is widespread. That's a different toolkit entirely from soil treatment, which is why correctly identifying the termite matters so much.
Termites or ants, and what to do
A swarm indoors is often the first sign, and people routinely mistake termite swarmers for flying ants. Termites have a straight, thick waist, straight antennae, and four wings of equal length; ants have a pinched waist, bent antennae, and front wings longer than the back. Timing helps too: a spring swarm leans subterranean, a late-summer or fall swarm plus pellet piles leans drywood.
If you see swarmers, mud tubes, pellet piles, or hollow-sounding wood, save a sample and get an inspection rather than guessing, because the wrong treatment wastes money and leaves the real colony working. A local pro inspects the slab, crawl space, attic, and trim, identifies the termite, and matches the treatment to what's actually there.
Call and describe what you're seeing. We'll match you with a Citrus Heights-area provider.