Termite Swarmers

Yep…I think there is a thread on the OT about it. Termite contract protects them from eating your house, but not from flying around your lights.

They get into attics via ridge or soffit vents and such, then into house via recessed can lighting in ceiling. You see them in toilets because they get trapped in there. Others may crawl around once they lose their wings, but dry out and die pretty quickly.

Keep those outside lights off. They will pass you right up!

They were bad last night. Turned all my outside lights off, but forgot to turn off the lights in my pool. This morning there were hundreds of dead termites floating in the pool.

So we just finished an addition and renovation last week and saturday night we found prolly 40-50 termites (no wings) in mutliple bathrooms, laundry, closet, and a bedroom. Have terminex who I am termite bonded with coming out wednesday to look at that and put back in all of my bait stations post reno. How worried should I be? We found a couple more yesterday and today.

Here's a great summary I just copied from the OT thread on Termites.

READ THIS ABOUT TERMITES FROM ARCENEAUX PEST SERVICES
You may have noticed that Formosan termites are swarming in large numbers
recently. The swarmers (alates) are the members of the termite colony that make
a mating flight around Mother's Day annually. They swarm starting at dusk and
are attracted to light and may swarm for several hours a night. The swarmers
attempt to mate and then get back to the soil and start a new colony. An
existing Formosan colony of termites can have several hundred thousand or more
termites. When the colony decides to swarm (based on temperature and humidity)
tens of thousands of swarmers may take flight. They can fly about 300 yards from
their colony but can only live a few hours unless they find a mate and get back
to the soil. Formosan termites are subterranean termites, thus the colony lives
in the soil and attacks houses by making mud tunnels on the foundation of the
home.
As a homeowner you may see some of the swarmers in your home since they can get
in through poorly sealed windows, door areas, attic ridge and turbine vents,
gable vents, bathroom and kitchen vents that penetrate the roof. The swarmers
are smaller than the screen mesh inside the vents. Most of the swarmers will
have shed their wings getting in through your vents. It is very important to
know that swarming Formosan termites CAN NOT infest your home. They MUST get
back to soil after mating to survive. They will die within a few hours of being
inside a home.
Finding 1-50 or so swarmers in your attic area, kitchen or bathroom is no cause
for alarm, particularly if most of the swarmers do not have their wings still
attached. Wingless swarmers usually means you don't have an infestation inside
your home. If you were to have several hundred swarmers with their wings still
attached inside your home then you should call us for an inspection.
I realize that talk of termites can be distressing. Several homeowners
have contacted us so I felt it best to send an email and try to explain how to
best think about Formosan termite swarmers. It has become normal to see a few
Formosan swarmers in our homes and businesses over the last few years. I even
had some swarmers inside my office that came in via the bathroom vent.

That is a good article. Swarmers will freak you out but they don’t eat wood. If you have winged swarmers coming out of your wall you may have a problem, but dead ones in your house are usually just par for the course. Turn out the lights and ride it out.

Something I've always wondered, if you can see the edge of your slab all around the house and ensure no termite tunnels are present, do you really need to worry about termintes?
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Sometimes they come up in the opening near the bathroom plumbing.

quote:

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Something I've always wondered, if you can see the edge of your slab all around the house and ensure no termite tunnels are present, do you really need to worry about termintes?

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The soil under your slab was most likely treated when your house was built but over time that treatment could wear off, especially if it is an older house. Termites can fit through cracks in your slab under your house and come up into an interior wall as well as around your plumbing. However, my house has the slab showing too and I prefer that to having the bricks touch the ground. I keep that sprayed with bifen and keep all bugs from coming in that way.

With Formosan termites it is technically possible for them to nest inside the house within the walls. In order to do this they have to swarm into your house, mate, and find an above ground area with enough wood and moisture to sustain the colony. Unlikely but it does happen. Normally they come up from the ground and bring mud up into the walls to nest there. Subterranean termites must go back down into the ground to nest.