· By Marcus Fenwick · 1 min read
Termite swarm season: what you’re seeing
Why winged insects appear by a window on a warm spring morning, how to tell what they are, and what to do next (calmly).
On a warm morning after spring rain, many houses here see a small cloud of winged insects by a window or a door. It is a swarm: a colony sending out its young to start new ones. It looks alarming and it isn’t dangerous, but it is worth a call.
Ant or termite?
Winged ants and winged termites swarm in the same weeks. Termites have straight antennae, a thick waist and four wings of the same length; ants have elbowed antennae, a pinched waist and shorter back wings. A clear photo is enough for us to tell.
What to do
Sweep them up or vacuum them, keep one or two in a jar, and call for an inspection. Don’t spray: it won’t reach the colony, and it can make it harder for us to find where they came from.
What we’ll look for
Mud tubes on the foundation, soft wood at the sill, damp in the crawlspace. Most of the time the answer is a treatment round the foundation and a little less moisture under the house.