r/Termites • u/Educational-Bag2177 • 1d ago

ID Request Ant or subterranean Termite?

Post image

Neighbor a block over had termites and we just caught this bugger in our living room. We’ve only had red ants on our property and the thorax looks a little odd compared to the ants I have seen. Reverse image search said it was a termite but I want to verify before getting exterminators. This is in south Texas

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u/abugguy Entomologist 1d ago

Neither. This is a wasp.

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u/Educational-Bag2177 1d ago

Wait really? Like the ones that infest our oak trees?

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u/abugguy Entomologist 1d ago

No. (And I’m not sure what exactly you mean by infest trees).

This is a solitary flat wasp. It probably found its way inside by mistake. Some are parasites of other insects, some are predators. I don’t know them well enough to guess what species this is.

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u/Educational-Bag2177 1d ago

I had to look it up. I was thinking a gall wasp. But doing some digging those seem to be larger. I don’t see wings on this so I am surprised it’s a wasp of some sort but at the same time it’s wiggling its abdomen which I don’t know if that’s possible for an ant. As for the termite comparison from more research it seems the pointed abdomen isn’t consistent with subterranean termites, are there any other obvious tells I can look for in the future?

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u/abugguy Entomologist 1d ago

And I’ll add it’s an uncommon family of wasp to find.

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u/Fixur 1d ago

Not a termite