It happens on a warm, still evening, usually a day or two after rain. The outside light is covered in insects, there are a few of them bumping around the lounge room, and by morning there is a scatter of little wings on the windowsill and along the skirting board.
If that has just happened at your place, the most useful thing anyone can tell you is what NOT to do.
Do not spray them
The can under the sink is the first thing most people reach for and it is the wrong move. A swarm of flying termites is not the problem. It is a symptom of a colony that is already established somewhere nearby, and the alates you can see are the ones leaving it to start new colonies elsewhere.
Spraying them kills the handful in front of you, scatters the rest, and destroys the one thing a technician actually wants: an undisturbed picture of where they came from and where they were heading. It can also push activity deeper into a wall or a subfloor, which makes the treatment longer and dearer.
Leave them alone. Shut the internal doors, turn the inside lights down, and if you can, take a photo.
Flying ant or flying termite? A ten second check
Plenty of what swarms around a light in spring is a flying ant, and that is a completely different and much less expensive problem. Three things tell them apart, and you do not need a magnifying glass for any of them.
- The wings. A termite alate has four wings, all roughly the same length, and they look too big for the body. A flying ant has a longer front pair and a shorter back pair.
- The waist. An ant has an obvious pinch in the middle. A termite is straight sided, more like a grain of rice with wings.
- The antennae. An ant has a distinct elbow bend in them. Termite antennae are straight and look slightly beaded.
If the wings are equal and the body has no waist, you are looking at termites.
What the wings on the windowsill actually mean
Alates shed their wings almost immediately after landing, which is why you often find the wings and never the insect. A small pile of them along a windowsill, in a light fitting or against a sliding door is worth taking seriously for one reason: it means they got inside.
What it does not automatically mean is that your house is being eaten. A swarm can come from a stump, a fence post, a tree, a neighbouring property or a pile of timber in the yard. The house next door is just as likely a source as your own wall.
The honest position is that a swarm tells you there is a mature colony within flying distance, and flying distance is not far. It is a reason for an inspection, not a reason to panic and not a reason to assume the worst.
When do they actually swarm?
In this part of Queensland alates typically fly from about October through to March, with the heaviest activity through the warmer, wetter months. A warm early spring can bring it forward into September, which is why this is worth reading now rather than in November.
The trigger is usually a combination of warmth, humidity and still air, most often in the day or two after rain and most often around dusk. That is also why it tends to happen to several houses in a street on the same evening. If your neighbour mentions it, take it as a prompt.
What to do in the first 24 hours
- Do not spray, sweep or vacuum them up straight away. Leave a few and leave the wings where they are.
- Photograph what you can see, including where the wings are sitting. It is genuinely useful.
- Note which room and which window. The side of the house matters.
- Turn off outside lights for a night or two. Alates fly towards light and you are currently advertising.
- Do not tap, poke or open up anything that looks suspect. Disturbing a working gallery scatters the colony and can cost you the treatment.
- Book an inspection. Not next month. Spring is when this gets decided.
Why Moreton Bay gets it worse than most
CSIRO puts it plainly: the risk of termite attack on mainland Australia increases the further north you go, and the highest risk sits in the subtropics. South East Queensland is squarely in that band.
Moisture is the other half of it. Subterranean termites are moisture dependent, and this region supplies it. Domain reported in March 2026 that Brisbane saw around a 30 per cent increase in termite service calls following recent rainfall, and 2026 has been a warm, wet year.
Where you are changes what we look for. On the Bribie Island side it is sandy, free draining ground and older timber beach houses with subfloors. Around Caboolture it is the river flats, where the ground holds moisture instead of shedding it. In Morayfield it is slab on ground housing where landscaping has crept up over the slab edge. Out at Burpengary it is the shed before it is ever the house.
What actually happens next
An inspection covers the accessible areas of the building: the subfloor if there is one, the roof void, the perimeter, the garden beds, the fence lines, any outbuildings, and the timber that sits closest to the ground. Moisture meters and thermal imaging do the work where a torch cannot go.
The Australian Standard treats twelve months as the maximum gap between inspections. If a swarm has just come through your house, that clock starts now.
The bit people find out too late
Termite damage generally sits outside standard home insurance. It is treated as a maintenance issue rather than an insurable event, which is exactly why the annual inspection is the cheap part of this and the repair is not.
If you have had a swarm, or found wings, or you simply cannot remember the last time anyone looked, book a termite inspection. If you are not sure whether what you are looking at is even a termite, send a photo through and you will get a straight answer rather than a sales call.
Call Steve on 0431 126 973, or get a quote here.
Written by Steve Ford, owner of Eliminate Pest Control. QBCC licence 15516351. Servicing Caboolture, Morayfield, Burpengary, Bribie Island, Sandstone Point and North Brisbane.
