West Indian drywood termite (Cryptotermes brevis) is a globally distributed timber pest and is invasive in Queensland, Australia, causing widespread damage to structures and large economic impacts in control and repair costs. Despite this, the knowledge of which specific timbers are susceptible to attack is limited and requires investigation. Two six-week feeding trials were performed, exposing seven important Australian commercial timbers to C. brevis attack before assessing colony success. Radiata pine, a southern pine hybrid and shining gum timbers performed comparably to hoop pine, the known host, suggesting that these timbers will permit termite attack similar to that seen with hoop pine. The hardwood species of silky oak and spotted gum were more termite resistant and could potentially be alternative naturally resistant material where this termite species is prevalent. Hoop pine plywood performed similarly to the natural timber, indicating that the manufacturing process had little effect on termite susceptibility. No obvious trends could be associated with West Indian drywood termite susceptibility, preventing any predictive ability on untested timbers, though valuable data were gained on the selected species that may benefit termite management strategies.

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