Check out this video I found on youtube. Notice how the swarmers are pouring out of a single hole. For more information on Termite Swarms, please see the previous post by clicking here.
We’ve had a few termite swarm calls this week.
What is a termite swarm?
A swarm consists of thousands of black insects that are about 3/8 inch long, with white/smoky colored wings that are longer than their body and are of equal length. What this means is that it’s the time of the year when termite colonies send out reproductive termites (future kings of queens of a colony).
Where do termites swarm?
Termites have rudimentary eyesight; they do not intend to swarm inside. They really want to find their way to the warm, moist soil and start a new colony. Nevertheless, when these flying termites leave the colony, often they will often swarm by the thousands inside homes. If thousands of termites swarm inside, they have already infested the home and have been eating the wood inside the walls.
Many times the homeowners don’t know they have an infestation until they experience swarming termites inside the home. Keep in mind that seeing only a few swarming termites inside your home does not necessarily indicate an infestation. They may have flown in from a swarm outside; a few swarmers could have gotten in around door jambs, windows, or ridge vents on the roof. They will die within a few hours since they cannot get back to the soil.
According to the LSU Ag Center, there are an average of ten colonies of subterranean termites per acre in Louisiana, and 300,000 termites per colony. A colony can live for 25 years! These numbers are for the native species only. Formosan termites have millions of termites in a colony and eat over 1,000 pounds of wood per year!
If there is a swarm in your neighborhood, or if you have lots of swarming termites inside your home, call us for a free inspection and estimate for treatment.
Joe went to an eight year old home in Gonzales this week where termites had swarmed. The home was immaculately kept and the foundation slab around the home was visible. However, the homeowner had hundreds of dead termite swarmers on the floor in her dining room. She did not know where they were coming from until Joe showed her the 1/8 inch holes in her sheetrock where the termites, who had been eating in her wall for over a year, decided to swarm out!
She was mortified!
Then she and Joe went outside to look for the termite mud tunnels (of which Joe found six) coming from the soil, going up her slab and into the wall. Upon breaking open the tunnels, Joe found that her home was being attacked by eastern subterranean termites (reticulitermes). Her husband told Joe that he often checks the home for termite tunnels, and he couldn’t believe they had termites and tunnels on the home!
This is why you should have a professional inspect your home!
The treatment cost for this particular home is less than $500, and the annual renewal fee is $150. Had these homeowners kept the original termite treatment contract that was in place when the home was built, it is unlikely that they would have termites now, or the expensive damage to their walls. Their home would have been inspected annually by a trained professional.
This is truly a case of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Foreign invaders! I went to a local home this week on a complaint that the eaves of the house were infested with termites. What I found was Argentine Ants, which look like many other types or species of ants. 
The difference being that Argentine Ant colonies are very large, have multiple queens, and will travel hundreds of yards from the nest in trails to infest your home and rob your pantry. In the case of the home I went to, they were infesting the wet, rotten wood in the eaves of the home. In my industry, they are one of the more difficult ants to eradicate from the home. They were first discovered about 30 years ago in Florida, and are believed to be imported here (like most other insects in the USA), Argentina being the primary source for these ants.
I arranged for one of our technicians to completely spray the outside of this home and the exposed eaves with a product called Termidor®. It is likely that a follow-up visit will be needed, since Argentine Ants are numerous and determined.
Joe Arceneaux, BCE
Wow! Another creepy insect to tell you about. Roddy, one of our ace senior technicians, went to a client’s house this week who had inch-long, caterpillar-like creatures appearing on her kitchen counter every day, about a dozen at a time.
Roddy brought them to the office, and I identified them as meal worms. There are many different species, shapes and sizes of meal worms. However, the biology is the same. A meal worm is the larval stage of a beetle that lives on everything from dried cereals to potatoes. You usually bring them home in the products you buy from the grocery store, with the eggs from the insect and early larval stages already developing. By the time you begin to see them crawling around on counter tops and cabinets it is time to throw away all the products in that cabinet, since they will all be infested. Once you see the meal worms crawling around, they are looking for a place to pupate (make their cocoon) and metamorphose into adult beetles. Once the adult beetle comes out of the pupal stage, it finds another beetle, mates and lays very tiny eggs on the food products from whence they came, and the cycle starts all over again.
It’s all very gross, however the treatment is pretty basic. Throw away infested products, have a pest management professional perform a residual crack-and-crevice treatment in infested cabinet areas and fog with a pyrethrum aerosol, which will kill all stages of the insect.
Joe Arceneaux, BCE
I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been busy with termite treatments, etc. There is no shortage of pest problems in Louisiana. Tomorrow I will go to an apartment complex to see about their bed bug problem.
As you travel this summer, beware of the bugs that used to be thought of as a “dirty” person’s problem or something you could come in contact with only by staying in “seedy motel”. Well, regardless of your hygiene or the cleanliness of the hotel you are staying in, chances are if you travel much, you will be exposed to bed bugs. Five years ago we never had a “bed bug call” to our office. Not any more, and it is a problem nationwide! Even five star hotels have had bed bugs issues!
Bed Bugs (cimex letularious) are oval shaped, nocturnal, brown to red-brown in color, wingless and flat. The top surface of a bed bug looks crinkled. They range in size from ¼ inch to 3/8 inch in length. They prefer human blood but will feed on any warm blooded animal. The bed bug has a sharp beak that pierces the skin of the host. While feeding it injects a fluid that helps in obtaining blood. The bite and the fluid cause welts and redness. A female bed bug can lay up to 500 eggs which will have a life cycle of 5 weeks to 5 months each depending on temperature.
When traveling, do the following to reduce the chance of being bitten, or worse bringing bed bugs home with you in your luggage.
If you have bed bugs at home, call a professional pest control company and let them advise you on how to eliminate the infestation. There are chemical and non-chemical techniques available.
Joe E. Arceneaux
Board Certified Entomologist
Arceneaux Pest Management Service
Denham Springs, Louisiana
225.791.9911 or www.arceneauxpest.com
Joe recently wrote an article which appeared in a local paper regarding the dangers of using wood mulch in flowerbeds next to your home. You may read the article in its entirety below.
Why Mulch and landscapers keep Termite Companies Busy
Understanding subterranean termites may be the most important thing you can do to protect your home from the damage they cause. Termites cause One Billion Dollars to Louisiana homes and businesses every year according to the LSU Ag Center. There are at least 10 colonies per acre and each colony may have up to 300,000 termites. Formosan termite colonies may contain 1 to 10 million termites per colony. Formosan termites can eat 1000 pounds of wood a year!
Termites do not build mounds like we see on the Nature Channel. The termites we deal with in Louisiana are subterranean and all you will see is a small mud tunnel on the slab or pillar of your home. The colony is deep underground, out of sight; they eat wood in your home from the inside out. Usually, damage is done before you know it.
Having your home professionally treated is paramount. Just as important is not using any mulch or cellulose of any kind next to your home. Nurseries and landscapers love to sell and apply this termite causing product. Termites eat wood, mulch is wood. When you pour mulch around the base of your home, in time, you will get termites. Often, the mulch is placed on top of the soil that your termite company treated at the base of your home. By the way, termites will eat cypress mulch and so-called treated mulch.
What should you do? Have your home professionally treated and maintain your contract for annual inspections. Pull any mulch you currently have away for from your home 12 inches or more. Consider pine straw, straw mulch or decorative rocks. My favorite is rocks.
Please call 225-791-9911 to schedule a free inspection and estimate today.
Joe E. Arceneaux
Board Certified Entomologist
Owner, Arceneaux Pest Management Service
Wow! Formosan termites are swarming all over Baton Rouge, Gonzales and Livingston. I have been to several homes this week with swarmers. The amber colored and 3/8 inch long insects swarm from their colony at dusk from the end of April to the end of June each year. Their goal is to make new colonies in the soil and begin to consume wood. A mature colony can eat 1000 pounds of wood a year! If you own a home, make sure it has been treated for native and formosan termites. Home owner’s insurance does not pay for termite damage.
Joe E. Arceneaux
Board Certified Entomologist