How to Get Rid of Winged Termites

Have you been seeing termites with wings flying around your home? As spring approaches here in Iowa, termites will begin to swarm again to look for new homes and food sources. Causing a staggering $5 billion in damages in the United States alone every year, termites are the most destructive pests in the country. Finding termite swarmers on your property is almost always bad news. So how can you get rid of them? Read on to learn from the termite control team at Springer Professional Home Services!

Do I Have Flying Termites in My Home?

You might hear termites with wings referred to as swarmers, alates, or reproductives depending on who you talk to. Termite swarmers are geared to spread to suitable locations and grow their colonies elsewhere. It’s easy to confuse them for ants if you haven’t seen before, so we’ve laid out the main differences between flying ants vs termites:

• Termites have a lighter coloration than most flying ants
• Ants have pinched waists and slender bodies, while termites’ bodies are broad and rounded
• Termites have equal-sized wings, but ants have larger forewings than their hindwings

There are two reasons for finding termite swarmers on your property: either the swarmers are checking out your property for a potential settling site, or you have an existing termite infestation that’s large enough to force them to spread. The former is concerning, the latter is serious.

Get Rid of Flying Termites in Iowa

If you have been seeing flying termites around your house, you can take these precautions to keep them from finding a way inside:

1. Keep your firewood off of the ground and far away from your home
2. Move mulch away from the siding and foundation of your home
3. Find and fix any leaky pipes that could cause water damage in wood
4. Make sure that your drainage systems are diverting water away from your home

These steps will prevent new swarmers from finding your property suitable to infest. However, you should check around your home for termite damage to see if your swarmers are new or not. if the swarmers that you have come from an active infestation, you could have some serious damage on your hands.

Springer Professional Home Services Handles Termite Removal

If you find termite damage inside your home or are nervous about the presence of winged termites, reach out to your local termite exterminators for an inspection. The termite removal team at Springer Professional Home Services has seen termite infestations of all sizes around Iowa and are equipped to both remove them from your home and defend your property from them going forward. Get in contact today for a free quote!