The Winds of Change Bring Flying Termites

Yes, it’s that time of year when flying termites please to bask in the glory of seasonal winds.

We’d like to start off with an incident – While on their way to the office; a group of our technicians were alarmed to find their vehicles covered with flying termites.

So you know by now that most termites are blind, wingless and quite pale in color, almost transparent. But did you know that swarming termites or Alates are reproductives with black pigment, produced with wings and eyes? They exist with a sole purpose to find a mate of the opposite sex, build up a home in a decayed log of wood where the female can lay a couple dozen of eggs. The babies are raised just to take over the new colony. The chain continues with the newest brood taking control and maintenance of the sites. The queen then wanders around producing millions of eggs for the next 2 to 3 decades.

They usually get attracted to humidity and if you’re located in South East Queensland, it’s very common to find them, especially from November to February.

The season favors their move. They tend to leave their nests on trees, bush-land and even your home to fly and assemble new colonies. Brisbane has witnessed incredible humid for the past many weeks, and you might have noticed them in a bunch.

This is, however, just a teaser! The fright begins when a termite colony attains a certain size and maturity and thousand of them start growing wings – all set and ready for their once in a life time flight. During the first few months before getting ready for their big flight, these reproductive termites are taken care in the best way and provided with the best of foods. It’s only when they are ready and the weather conditions are perfect, most after rains and when it’s humid, thousands and thousands of them take flights in the quest of starting new generation.

Brace yourself to see these flying termites swarming around lights, where they meet the same kinds, swarming from their own colonies and contribute to more alates that make a new nest to begin a colony of their own.

Termite Treatment.

As a home owner it’s worrying to find yourself surrounded by bands of winged termites. The fear of having your home come under attack could trouble you day and night. Given the fact that alates can’t fly a couple hundred meters from their nest, they can’t do any harm to your property, not just yet, unless you find them crawling and flying out of holes and cracks in your walls and ceilings. It’s time to get active! Collect a couple of samples put them inside a ziplock bag and store it in the freezer. Get in touch with us for a thorough termite inspection so that we can check if there’s a large colony of termites at work on your house and offer free advice in your best interest.

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