If you have termites, you may notice one or more of the following:

• Swarmers: Termites often swarm in early Spring and after a rain shower to start new colonies. The swarming event can be brief, so even if you do not see flying termites, you are likely to see the discarded wings around window sills, doors, heating vents, bathtubs and sinks after a swarm takes place. Termite swarmers use their wings to move away from their original colony. Their wings break off and they pair up and find locations with a wood source where the male and female can begin a new colony. Whether you see the swarm or think there might have been one, call Black Diamond asap!
• Live insects: keep an eye out for soft-bodied, light-colored insects about the size of a grain of rice. Termites avoid light, so they are seldom visible in open areas
• Mud tubes: Foraging worker termites, the ones that eat wood to feed the rest of the colony, must stay in moist conditions and away from natural enemies like ants. To get across barriers between the soil and the wood above, termites construct small, meandering mud tubes from moist soil and excrement. The tubes are about the diameter of a pencil, though they can become wider. Tubes can be seen on foundation walls or inside walls, on plumbing pipes and spanning crawl spaces between the ground and the subfloor. These termite highways are a sure sign that termites are or have been in the home.
• Damaged wood: Termites eat wood from the inside out along the grain, so damage often isn’t visible until it becomes significant. Termite inspectors often will tap to listen for hollow-sounding wall studs, baseboards and floors. If the wood gives way, it may reveal a hollowed-out honeycomb pattern. The wood also will include some mud similar to mud tubes, plus live termites.

Yes. Termites never sleep—they are always eating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Termites swarm in the spring. The "swarmers" emerge from their nest, then land to shed their wings and mate to begin new colonies. Swarming termites are a sure sign that there is an infestation nearby.

Swarming termites and ants look similar and are easily misidentified. The clearest way to distinguish them is to examine the wings. Termite Swarmers have two sets of wings of equal length. The front pair of wings on a swarmer ant is longer than the back pair. There are other distinguishing characteristics: An ant will appear to have two indentions and three sections on its body, whereas a termite appears to have one indention and two sections on its body. Ants also have a joint in their antenna while termites do not. But here’s the biggest difference: Ants are usually just a nuisance. Termites damage your home.

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