In the weeks surrounding Mother’s Day each year, a certain species of termite swarms in large numbers across southern Louisiana.
Formosan termites, a species that found its way to the United States following World War II, have been in New Orleans as early as 1966 and reached half of Louisiana parishes by the start of 2005, according to the LSU Ag Center.
Randy Vaeth, East Baton Rouge City-Parish Mosquito Abatement & Rodent Control assistant director, said Formosan termites in Baton Rouge appear to “more prevalent” than in recent years.
“They show up around Mother’s Day and they swarm at night as opposed to the more common subterranean termites, they’re more daytime swarmers,” he said. “It’s heavy this year, but in the past there have been years where we’ve gotten a lot of calls and so it’s kind of hard to make a comparison.”
Vaeth said the termites can be “extraordinarily damaging” to homes and added that many of the traps used to catch mosquitos recently have inadvertently snagged Formosan termites in the process.
“Some of our mosquito traps yesterday had a lot of them in there,” he said. “We use a light to attract mosquitos and the traps had a bunch of Formosa queens and wings in them.”
What to do about them
Unlike the four native species of subterranean termite in Louisiana, Formosan termites swarm at night and are attracted to light that draws them toward homes.
LSU urban entomology assistant professor Qian ‘Karen’ Sun warned that people should avoid using bright lights around their house during May and into June to ward off large nighttime swarms.
Sun said that, even if they make it into the home, Formosan termites struggle to survive in conditions without consistent moisture and the cellulose in wood as a food source.
“They can still make their way into the home because no house is perfectly sealed, but it’s very unlikely for them to thrive inside the home,” she said. “They don’t have the soil, they don’t have the moisture source and they don’t have the food that is required to survive and start new colonies so they will die.”
According to Sun, homeowners can avoid Formosan termite swarms by keeping wood items like mulch and firewood from touching their home.
“The termites rely on high moisture and they feed on wood, so you want to avoid wood-soil contact because those are conducive conditions for their infestation,” she said. “Which means you don’t want to have mulch directly touching the foundation of your house.”
Should they make it into the home, both Vaeth and Sun recommended homeowners contact a pest control company to have it treated to protect from further damage.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls from people being concerned and typically we tell them that unless they’re in your house in large numbers, you don’t have to worry,” Vaeth said. “These swarms are mating swarms, and if they’re inside your house, it’s not a bad idea to contact a commercial pest control company to have an inspection done.”
Sun said that seeing a Formosan termite or two around a house is not a sign that the house is infected with them. They’re often somewhere in the neighborhood though, Sun said, and treatment could be an option as a preventative measure.
“I’d like homeowners to know that just because you see the termite swarmers around your house, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your house is infested,” she said. “They’re probably from somewhere in the neighborhood and it doesn’t mean that your house is in risk, but you want your house infected and treated if you haven’t done so.”
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