This article consists of pictures, videos, and information you need to know about Alate termites or commonly known as flying termites in Sydney, Australia.

What are flying Termites? 

The following is a brief video about flying termites and alates in Sydney Australia taken by Gerard Dallow from Micropest Pest Control Sydney.

My name is Gerard Dallow from Micropest Pest Control in Sydney. I have to be in the pest control industry for over thirty-five years and have accumulated extensive knowledge about termites in Sydney and Adelaide.

Flying termites are the future Kings and Queens of new termite nests. When termites fly, it is called a swarm. In Sydney, a single termite nest can have as many as four swarms during summer. Starting late November and finishing around the middle of February. Termites swarm in the evening around five or six o’clock; termites need high humidity when swarming, so they usually swarm just before an impending storm.

My customers are forever ringing me up, telling me they have flying termites in the house, which ends up being flying ants. Ants generally swarm during the day, are smaller than flying termites, and are black in colour instead of brown.

Out of all the thousands of swarming termites, only several pairs will succeed in starting a new termite nest. So if one nest swarms four times a summer and starts up several new nests each swarm, that works out to be twenty – eight new nests a year from one nest. Please take into consideration that one termite nest lasts for about twenty-five years or so that makes over the life span of the termite colony they can swarm seven hundred times staring up approximately four thousand nine hundred termite nests.

An alate or flying termites life span once it leaves the constant humidity of the termite nest lasts around twenty minutes; this all depends on the humidity outside the nest. As soon as they fly out from the termite nest, they look for a damp, moist environment to start a colony. Retaining walls, trees, railway sleepers, and damp sub-floors of houses are a few ideal spots to start. Because they have only twenty minutes to live, they start their new nest not too far away from the mother nest, usually within one hundred meters. It takes approximately several years for a termite nest to cause any economic destruction.

This is the main reason why when you have a termite infestation in your house, or building not only bait the existing termites but also apply a residual termite treatment. A baiting termite treatment system does not protect your house at all. You can safely bet if you have a termite infestation in your house, there are several more nests within a hundred-meter radius with the termite nests at different stages of maturity. A residual termite treatment is the only way of any reasonable protection from future attacks from nearby termite colonies.

The flying termites that haven’t started a new nest, their wings drop off their body. The wingless body of the flying termite lasts five or ten minutes longer then desiccates and dies. Alates are attracted to light, so it is quite common to find discarded wings and alate bodies inside the house around lights and external light fittings.

It’s reasonably safe to assume if you have found wings or termite bodies around the house a termite nest is very close, which makes it definitely the right time for a termite inspection. Very important to note just because you have found termite wings or bodies around the house does not mean you have termites eating your house.

After a big swarm its feeding time for all the flying termite groupies.

This article was written about flying termites by Gerard Dallow.