April showers bring May flowers. April also brings swarming termites.
A termite swarm starts small - a few specs of mud on the wall. You wipe the mud away, but it is back the next day. The cycle repeats a few times. This colony of termites has been feeding on your house for at least a year, and now they are well fed and looking to multiply.
Treating termites is serious business. I have yet to see an Over-the-Counter solution that is effective for very long. Termites will VERY RARELY just leave a structure on their own. I have seen it, but only once. If you see termites, treat them. If you think you might have termites, call us to inspect. If you have no idea about your home’s termite potential, call us.
Our unwelcome guests are known as Eastern Subterranean Termites. As they are subterranean, a feeding colony can go undetected for years, until they swarm. The reproductives, known as alates, move up into the tubes in late winter with wing buds and are whitish in color. After a month or two, the swarmer bodies "tan" to a dark color, and they grow two wings per side, equal in length. Termites are of the Order Isoptera. Remembering my 4 years of Latin, I know Iso means equal and ptera means wing. Since they are weak flyers, they usually gain as much height as possible on the wall and build a mud protrusion called a swarm castle. One day, sometimes the day after rain, the temperature is right and POP - hundreds of alate termites emerge - INTO YOUR BATHROOM.
This termite swarm experience is not pleasant. It is downright unnerving. It is not, however, uncommon. A quick vacuum will take care of the swarmers. They will not start eating anything in your home. Our part of North Texas has 4-8 termite colonies per acre, and each colony can forage up to 200 feet. In a perfect storm scenario, a couple of different colonies can feed on a home simultaneously. We have two types of homes in the Metroplex – Homes that have had termites and homes that will have termites.
You might ask why I keep mentioning mud. Termites are exceptionally sensitive to dehydration. They bring soil into the walls and build shelter tubes by cementing soil particles together with saliva. These shelter tubes maintain humidity and allow the workers to forage in safety. Remember that the alates started as whitish in color and then tanned to a dark body? Almost all insects are whitish just after they molt. The chitin in their exoskeletons (chitin, like our fingernails) tans as it is exposed to air and makes the roaches brown and crickets blackish. Our local species of termite cannot live above ground without their mud tubes as their exoskeletons never tan as workers.
You say these termites have been feeding for years. Is my house going to fall down?
Since many people ask the question, here is the answer: Eastern Subterranean Termites consume about one linear board foot per year. This is a slow rate compared to other species.
If you, or someone you know, have experienced a termite swarm this Spring, our experts can assess and treat the building correctly. With well over 100 years of termite experience amongst our team, we know slab construction, historical building practices, soil composition, and trusted treatment techniques.
We know termites. We know how to treat the problem areas and fully protect the structure. We make it so this does not happen again (at least for 20 years or so). We fix problems other companies have tried to deal with.
Please keep Entex Pest front of mind for termites and all pest issues.
Just call or email. We can solve it.