Well-dispersed and uniform needle-like tellurium nanowires (NWs) have been fabricated in high yield by an environmentally-friendly hydrothermal method. It is found that beta-cyclodextrin ligands and reaction temperature play a great role on the morphology of Te NWs. Uniform needle-like Te NWs can only be obtained at suitable concentration of beta-CD and reaction temperature. A possible mechanism for the formation of the needle-liked Te NWs is discussed based on the experiment results briefly. High quality single Te NW field effect transistors are prepared through photolithographic patterning. By optimizing electrode and surface treatments, the NW FET has a high carrier mobility of 299 cm2V(-1)s(-1), which is the highest value ever reported for Te NW-based FETs. The performance is influenced by purity, crystallinity, surface species of NWs and metal contacts of NW device.