Swarming termites have local homeowners uneasy

Some area homeowners might have wished it was an April Fools Day prank - but bug control companies say it's not - termites are swarming - an indicator of an expensive problem. <br><br>News on Six

Monday, April 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Some area homeowners might have wished it was an April Fools Day prank - but bug control companies say it's not - termites are swarming - an indicator of an expensive problem.

News on Six reporter Emory Bryan says Tracey Sherman didn't know her house had termites - until she and her husband noticed some unfamiliar bugs over the weekend. "He callled me into the room and said what are all these bugs, and they were covering the floor. They were all up on the wall by the windowsill and I said they look like swarming termites, John." She was right, and an inspection found termites crawling up the inside of a wall - where they emerged underneath a window.

Robert Sanders with Mother Natures Pest Control: "They'll start working on these inner walls and a lot of times they won't show any evidence, sometimes they will, in this case, they didn't show any evidence until they started swarming." Termites live deep in the ground and they're active all year, but every spring they begin to swarm. It's often the first sign of trouble for homeowners."

Termites swarm just a day or two each year, each spring in warm weather just after a rain. They're swarming all over Tulsa now - a process termites use to establish new colonies. "When that happens, the colonies will release all of their swarmers, their job is to leave the colony, drop their wings, find a mate, and get back into the soil before they die, if they succeeed, a new colony will form."

The exterminator estimate was $1100 - an expensive treatment that many Tulsans will find they need over the next few days. Just because termites don't swarm inside a house doesn't mean it's free of termites.

Many exterminators offer a free inspection to look for hidden pockets of termites