Spring Swarmer Termites

Spring and termites almost go hand in hand.  The swarms of termites are coming, whether we like it or not.  Thousands of winged termites are trying to find a new home and unfortunately your home looks welcoming.  These swarming termites are looking to build a new colony in your home.  Many times, homeowners don’t even know they have termites until this time of the year.  These termites may have been feasting on your home for years and the homeowners never even knew it.
Termite colonies start small, and when they find a good place to enjoy life, they grow. Workers gather food while the queen is laying eggs. Eventually, the colony needs more workers than the queen can produce.  In that case, the queen then makes a secondary reproductive line.  These are called “sub-queens” and they start laying eggs just like the queen, helping to increase the size of the colony.  The colony needs a good recourse of food, which is wood. Or aka, your home.  Termites take the wood and return to the colony to share the food.  As the colony grows, termites are keeping their species alive.  This is where the termite swarm comes in to play.  Only mature and established colonies can send out swarmers.
In order to start a new colony, termites have to have swarmers.  These swarmers, ensure that the species will live on.  Eastern Sub-Terranean termites are the type of termites we see here in the spring.  Once a colony reaches it limit of workers, the queen starts producing eggs that are her “swarmer” eggs.  While the queen is producing her swarmers, the worker termites are building a tunnel for the swarmers to get to the surface and fly.  Swarmers have wings and they fly, but minimally.  The only reason they can fly is to mate.  They have the hopes of meeting a mate and then digging into the ground to start a new colony.
When you see hundreds of swarmers near your home, don’t panic.  The ones you see are not the ones who are doing the damage to your home.  They are just a tell-tale sign that there is a colony nearby.  If you see these “swarmers” you will need to contact a professional to take care of the problem with a termite treatment plan.  Contact an Exterminator professional at 800-525-4825 to help rectify this situation.