Beware! Christmas Flies can destroy your life!

Most of you at some point of time must have seen “Christmas flies” flying around; but I guess that only a handful of you must have heard their colloquial name. You generally tend to spot loads of “Christmas flies”, flying around in the month of December hence they have coined their name. Many assume that “Christmas flies” are harmless insects. This misconception is mainly due to the lack of awareness on this insect over the ages.

I too was one of those people who used to think, “Oh! What the heck I have better things to do that try to figure out from where or how Christmas flies come from”. Alarm bells rang when I noticed that some sought termite was attacking the wooden sections in my house. My first reaction was to spray “Mortine” on those attacked areas. All most instantly a few “white ants” (this too is a colloquial name for a kind of termite which is white in colour) affected by the poison came out of the affected areas in the wood. It was then that I realised that “white ants” were the culprits behind the damage and that I would need to consult a pest controller before too long. However, my suspicion was aroused when my eye caught swarms of “Christmas flies” coming out of those very perforations in the wood. My suspicion was confirmed after I did some research on the internet.

The appalling truth is that “white ants” (Termites) eventually turn into “Christmas flies” which are also referred to as “Alates” or “Swarmers” (as they have wings). Termites usually prefer to feed on dead plant materials, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, or soil however due to their wood eating habit they can cause horrendous structural damage to wooden sections of buildings.

Large numbers of winged termites (Christmas flies) swarming from wood or the soil often are the first obvious sign of a nearby termite colony. Swarming occurs in mature colonies. A "swarm" is a group of adult male and female reproductives that leave their colony in an attempt to pair and initiate new colonies. Winged termites (Christmas flies) are attracted to light and shed their wings about an hour after flight; therefore shed wings in window sills, cobwebs, or on other surfaces often may be the only evidence that a swarm occurred indoors. Other signs of termite presence include mud tubes and mud protruding from cracks between boards and beams. Therefore the presence of winged termites (Christmas flies) or their shed wings or mud tubes inside a home should be a warning of a termite infestation.

Have termites attacked your house as well?