Who made this dirt pile in our dining room?

September 7, 2006 6:50 PM

This small pile of dirt appeared under our windowsill in our dining room. Can anyone ID the culprit from the crimescene?
posted by copystar to home & garden (8 comments total)

Are the particles of dirt roundish? Kinda uniform in size? Then you probably have termites.
posted by shifafa at 7:24 PM on September 7, 2006

just what shifafa said, get an up close look and see if they are little turds and start looking up your wall to find the hole they came out from.
posted by Iron Rat at 7:50 PM on September 7, 2006

In Texas it would be an enormous fire ant pile right outside the window. Been there more than once.
posted by kgn2507 at 8:03 PM on September 7, 2006

I might also guess termites or ants.

But I'm going to say the mole people left it there. In tribute. You are now a god of the molemen.
posted by Salmonberry at 8:23 PM on September 7, 2006 [2 favorites]

Dry wood termites, would be my guess.
posted by SPrintF at 8:24 PM on September 7, 2006

Looks like termites to me, too, based, unfortunately, on personal experience.
posted by cerebus19 at 9:33 PM on September 7, 2006

Definitely termites. They entered wood where it was not covered by paint.

That's not dirt, it's their dung.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:52 PM on September 7, 2006

It could be carpenter ants. They excavate tunnels and push the sawdust out into the room. If this is under a window, the wood there may be wet, and they love that.
posted by saffry at 7:05 AM on September 8, 2006