It’s just about that time of year again in Houston.  The azaleas are blooming, the birds are chirping, and soon the Termites will be swarming.  If you’ve ever encountered a termite swarm in your house you know how unsettling it feels to witness hundreds of termites flying and crawling around your home.  As disturbing as the swarm is it’s really only a symptom of a much larger problem hidden in the walls or flooring of your home. The swarmers are nothing compared to the unseen hundreds to thousands of worker termites eating the wood inside the walls.

However as some of you may know many ant species swarm as well and they look very similar to termite swarmers. As you can see in the diagram there are several ways to discern whether your swarmers are ants or termites.  The easiest way is to determine if the swarmer you are looking at at has a pinched waist.  If it has a skinny waist then it’s an ant.  Conversely if it has a fat waist it’s a termite.  A fat waist means that there’s no discernible partition or break between the abdomen and thorax of the insect.

Either way it’s best to have a pest control professional from Hunter Pest Control come out to make recommendations on your treatment options.