[lowlight]

In the past 2 days, I've caught about a dozen of these little bastards flying around my apartment. They only seem to show up at night, flying around the living room. I found a smaller one crawling on my arm at one point... Most are in the 3/4 inch range in size.

I just wanted to know if anyone is familiar with these, because I'm not sure if they are just flying into our windows, or if I need to be concerned that they may be coming from within my apartment. It is weird that they would just suddenly start showing up in droves, flying into our windows in the last 2 days. This is the first time I've seen them in over 2 years of living at this location...

[jayinhongkong]

Looks like one of the local moths to me. Are the wings dark brown?

[lowlight]

You can see from the pic that the wings are translucent, not opaque and dust-covered like most moths.. Also the body looks nothing like a moth's.

My best guess is that they are termites, still in their flying stage. I am looking into it, but I was hoping that someone here might have some insight to offer

[lowlight]

Yeah I am thinking that they're termites - apparently they fly indoors before and during rainy weather. Better spray some insecticide before they take hold! This will be a good opportunity to get rid of those silverfish as well... damn humidity turns out homes into insect paradise

[jayinhongkong]

There's actually a type of flying insect we've always called a moth here with dark brown (but translucent) wings. It does look like the termites on the page you posted a link to though, and we did get a lot of heavy rain today, so maybe that's what you have. We have screens on all our windows here, so we don't get too many bugs in our apartment.

[zenlogo]

Yes, they are termites. They are swarming as they like moist weather. A sure-fire indicator of a termite is if you see them loose their wings, once landing. Assuming you are in a concrete apt. I wouldn't worry. Though they could do damage to areas with wood like window sills.

[lowlight]

Just sprayed our place with Permethrin... ran out halfway through though

We keep a pretty dry place, running a dehumidifier most of the time, and A/C during the summer months. So far bugs haven't been a problem, just a nuisance when you step on a big juicy silverfish in the middle of the night going to the bathroom, or having one of these termites crawling on your arm while watching TV at night...

Thanks for the advice

[mjk]

We had them as well, first time about a week ago when we sat with light on and open window. At least 20-30 made it into the apartment before we managed to close all windows. Last weekend we had a few more, but this time we were better prepared.

Most of them loose their wings the moment they land, and start crawling around.

If they are termites, would you think they can do any harm to furniture? I am not sure I managed to kill all of them...

[zenlogo]

If you are spraying pesticides indoors I would suggest you make it well ventilated and cover the aquarium!

[DanielandHayley]

you could borrow our cats...they like nothing better than insects/flying creatures to hunt (and usually eat)whenever anything gets into our apartment!

One of our cats was hunting something that looked similar to the insect pictured last night...she caught it and duely ate it. natural pest control!