Flying termites are just common termites that are in their winged life stage. This phase is part of their reproduction cycle. While they are breeding adults at this stage and don’t cause significant damage themselves, they create thousands of termite wood-chewing offspring. Flying termites seek new locations for their colonies. It you find winged termites around your home or indoors, it may be an indication that there is termite infestation in a part of your home. There are ways you can identify, kill and prevent flying termites in and around your home.
Identifying Flying Termites
When it comes to identifying winged termites, you need to be able to distinguish a flying termite from a flying ant, as the two are often mistaken for one another. Both of these insects look similar but flying ants have three-segment bodies, while termites have two-segment bodies. Flying termites have two long same-sized sets of wings, and ants have a small and big set of wings.
Finding Flying Termites
If you find flying termites indoors, then it could be a sign of infestation, as they could have built nearby colonies. Look for mud tubes or tracks where the termites burrow into the ground. These are usually found in dark, moist areas that have access to wood, and you can look in places like the basement, cracks in the foundation or the underneath siding. Flying termites can occasionally be seen entering and leaving these mud tubes. Sometimes you will find wings instead of the insect’s body. This is because flying termites drop their wings after mating, and the females then go to burrow in mud to lay eggs. You can look for shed wings on window sills and along baseboards.
Ways to Exterminate Flying Termites
If you have a termite problem that is is mainly outside, then use a bug zapper. Termites get attracted to light, so a bug zapper will be an effective way of killing flying termites. Place the electric bug zapper outside the house and near the termites, while keeping the lighting around the house to a minimum to avoid attracting them to your home.
If you see flying termites, you can hit them down and kill them just like that. You can also use vacuum cleaner to vacuum them up, and a liquid spray like a local insecticide to spray on the winged termites and kill them.
Flying termites can be a sign of a nearby active termite colony. Killing the swarmers alone will not solve your termite problem if you have one; you need to find the colony and destroy it for complete termite extermination. Liquid termiticide sprays and baiting systems provide the best methods to extinguish the colony and prevent flying termites. Termiticide can be sprayed around the foundation of your home, in holes or cracks in the walls, and in any areas you have seen termites. Baiting systems will starve the whole colony as they attract the termites and then kill them. Place baits in the soil around your home’s foundation, separating each of them to be at least 1 foot apart.