# Please help identify. Thank you!



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Welcome to our merry website!

That looks like a flying termite. It's different from a flying ant, because ants have much skinnier "waists" in the back.

That means that you have termite colony nearby. If you see them crawling out of a hole or holes in the ground or in some wood, there's the colony. Sometimes you find them flying in from somewhere else to take up residence where you are.

They can also get blown long ways by storms.

Where are you? Just city/county and state are enough. The reason is that termite issues can vary a lot by location.


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## Riverfisher (7 mo ago)

DoomsDave said:


> Welcome to our merry website!
> 
> That looks like a flying termite. It's different from a flying ant, because ants have much skinnier "waists" in the back.
> 
> ...


These are in Citrus County Florida in an old building (1930s) with wood slat walls inside and wood lap siding. The building is elevated above the ground with a crawl space with dirt floor underneath. Are you able to tell what species these are?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Riverfisher said:


> These are in Citrus County Florida in an old building (1930s) with wood slat walls inside and wood lap siding. The building is elevated above the ground with a crawl space with dirt floor underneath. Are you able to tell what species these are?


I can't really say, as I'm not a termite professional.

In general, there's two broad categories: subterranean and dry wood. Subterranean types build nests in the ground and feed on wood on the surface of the soil, or sometimes quite a distance above it. They can't take exposure to the air well, so they build "tubes" made of mud and saliva to commute to the wood they're feeding on. They're most common in the eastern U.S.

Dry wood types live in the wood they're feeding on and usually have much smaller colonies. They're more common out here in the west, though I suspect there's overlap.

I'd look at the foundation of the building in question.

Below is a picture of a termite tube in what appears to be the crawl space of a house.










These are tubes on a foundation.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

Looks to be Dry Wood other than the color being different than your pic .









Termites 101: A Guide to Different Termite Types– PestWorld


What do termites look like? What are the signs of termites? Learn about different termite types like subterranean termites, drywood termites and Formosan termites.




www.pestworld.org


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Riverfisher 

See if you can get a really close picture of the bug's head. If you can't, tell us: are the antennae sticking out of the head straight, or do they have an "elbow bend" in them? If the former, it's a termite. If the latter, it's a flying ant. Yours looks like a termite but I want to be totally sure.


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

Hard for me to tell, the wings look like a termite as I don't see short ones, but the body looks like an ant, at least it doesn't look like the fliers we get here in Tn.






flying termite vs ant at DuckDuckGo


DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.




duckduckgo.com





Here is a picture guide to help, btw did you find it inside the house or outside?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

I'm gonna bet it's a termite. Those antennae are nice and curved, no elbow bend. 

Ants and termites have some things in common, including causing fright in people, but they're very very different in many ways, like dogs and cats are different from fish or reptiles.


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## digitalplumber (Jul 8, 2011)

flying termite florida picture at DuckDuckGo


DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.




duckduckgo.com


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## Riverfisher (7 mo ago)

Antenna look curved with no elbow bend. Looks like termites. They are in dry wood so I am hoping they are dry wood and not subterranean.


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## carpdad (Oct 11, 2010)

2nd on termite. Search for "male termite with wings" then go to images. Ants have really narrow connection between the middle part and belly. Termites, it looks like, don't have the narrow connection. In nj and likely suspect is under ground termites that build mud tube from ground. I read in past there are termites that don't need such under ground nest but that was south-west. Search for termites in your area and to treat your home is up to you. I can't imagine Florida conditions but least I'd regularly do is treat around foundation, inside and out, with sprays and dust.


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

If it is a termite, the real worry is if you found a whole bunch of them "inside" the home, flying around coming out from somewhere in the home and a lot of dropped wings on windowsills inside...

If it was an outside flyer, nothing to be of concern with, just means there is a colony somewhere in the neighborhood.


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