Termite Season Is Now In Chattanooga, They Will Swarm

Hello everybody. It’s Mike Stewart again here with Erik Gardner of the Volunteer Rid a Pest podcast. And we’ve got some great questions that Erik’s going to answer today. Erik, how you doing?

I’m great. How are you?

I’m awesome. It’s crazy times at this time that we’re recording this, but I understand that not only with all the things that are going on, it is termite season. So what new information can you tell me about termite season and is it true, is it termite season?

Yeah, you know, termites are actually active all year round, 365 days a year. You know, on really cold days, they go down in the ground a little deeper, but they’re like you and I, they’re hungry all year round. So, and what they feed on is wood, the cellulose in wood products. So if they’re feeding on your home on a super cold day, they may go down into the ground until it warms back up. But as soon as it does, they’re right back to business and they’re feeding on the wood in your home.

Now in the spring time, that’s their mating season. And they swarm out. You’ve probably heard of a termite swarm. Well that’s what happens. They swarm out. But that’s really just a symptom of the bigger problem, and that bigger problem is they’re eating your home. And so the swarm will go away, but unless you take proactive measures and treat your home, they’re still going to be eating it. And if you allow that to happen over a period of time, they can do significant damage.

Well I know that termite damage is significant and it has to be repaired. So the goal is to keep them from ever getting to eating the house. And you’re saying that they’re prevalent all year long, even though the only time that we see them visible is during the swarming? And so are they eating the house during the cold weather?

Yeah. Yeah. They feed year round. Like I say, on a cold day if it’s 20 degrees, they’re going to retreat down into the ground because it’s you go down about three feet, it’s going to be 58, 60 degrees in the ground. But as soon as it warms back up, they come back up to the surface and they get eating again. So they’ll shut down for a little while, but in the southeastern United States, we don’t have that much cold weather, and when we do have a cold snap, it’s usually pretty brief.

So they go down into the ground and they can go back and forth between eating your home and down to the warmer area under the ground, the subterranean, to protect themselves during cold weather. So is that mean they’ve got pathways and tunnels between the warm area and your wood of your home?

Yeah. And see, that’s one of the misconceptions about termites. A lot of people think that when they attack your home, they just move in and begin eating it. What actually happens, they have a colony somewhere underground. It can be anywhere from three feet to six or eight feet deep, and only about 10% to 20% of the colony ever leave to go out and forage for food. The other 80% to 90% stay behind in the colony in the ground. So those that go out and forage for food, get the food, which is the wood, and they bring it back to the colony and feed the rest of them. So that’s how a termite colony actually works.

Oh, so they’re living underground and they’re sending out people to go get the food and bring it back to the colony all through the year, right?

All through the year. Yeah. And so they’ve got a huge network of tubes and tunnels that they crawl through. So once they get into your home, they’ve got the network there. They can continue to build on that network and have anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of termites feeding on your home.

Well, this is a question I have. If the colony is the majority of them are staying underground, what is the job of the guys underground?

What they’re doing is taking care of the queen. She is the chief reproductive. She