Weather Shaped Swarms

More than half (57 percent) of PMPs characterized the 2021 swarm season as average, found the PCT survey. But depending on location, weather helped or hindered termite swarms, they said in follow-up interviews.

“This year, we have had a tremendous amount of rain, and I don’t think it’s put a damper on the activity. I think if anything, it’s kicked it up more,” said Jaime Vasquez, Matador Pest Control in South Florida.

In Arizona, July was one of the wettest months in years. The rain cools off the hot, clay soil and brings out the termites, explained Bill Trott, Bill’s Pest & Termite Control. “If we can get the rain and the break in the heat on the desert floor, we traditionally have some great swarms. This year was a prime example of that,” he said.

In Dallas, Texas, it was a “different” kind of termite season for William Moham, a service technician for Arrow Exterminators and who previously owned his own pest control company. “We got a freeze here in Texas that we haven’t gotten in I don’t know how many years,” he said of winter storm Uri, which slammed into the state last February. He thinks this was why termite swarms were fewer.

Late-spring cold snaps likewise knocked down termites in Kentucky, so instead of a traditional swarm season, the termites “came in waves,” said Brandon Tarrant, Black Diamond Pest Control.

Others said termite populations tend to run in cycles, with down years followed by up years. Drywood termite activity was unusually high in Southern California. “I haven’t seen this much activity in 12, 14 years with the drywoods. It was really crazy this fall,” said Troy Hook, Green Flash Pest and Termite Control.

Climate change may be having an impact. “Our weather patterns are changing, and I see the termite reacting to the changing weather patterns,” said Hook. Swarm seasons for drywood and subterranean termites overlap now in his market, whereas before they occurred at distinctly different times. Hook recalled sitting at a stop sign two years ago and having both drywood and subterranean termite swarmers land on his windshield.

Formosan termites, especially, have PMPs on alert. Vasquez saw more evidence of these termites in 2021. Even while doing a general pest perimeter treatment, he noticed Formosan swarmers in a customer’s sliding door track. In Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Hook helped identify a “massive” Formosan nest in a home. He expects to find more homes infested with this novel termite come May when they start to swarm