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Are these termites or winged ants?

We went to open our windows today and found a huge surprise. After pulling back our curtains, we found about 50-100 winged insects crawling all over the inside of the windows and curtains. We quickly went to the internet and looked up termites. It doesn't match up to what we're seeing in the pictures and descriptions. They say if the antennae are straight, it's a termite. These antennae are straight. But it also says if there is a "waist" (or a non-straight abdomen), it's an ant. Well our infestation has "waists" so now they're not termites.

I've included a couple pictures. One is an upclose shot and the other is the top of one of our windows, where the largest collection of the instects are gathered.

Upclose: http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/3440/upclose.jp...

Bunch: http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9932/wowy.jpg

Any ideas?

5 Answers

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  • Lar
    Lv 7
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    those are the male carpenter ants, probably within the week you will be invaded by the queens, even bigger and red/black...by looking at your second picture, inspect the metal tubing that makes of the windows, you may find a small BB sized hole or gap left when they were put together. If those windows open left to right, but are never opened, they can be nesting in the track either above or under the window itself. There are products that have straws attached to treat such voids...you will know if you locate the nest site due to the ants will come pouring out.

    Source(s): me-exteerminator
  • 9 years ago

    the first one is not a termite, and is not carpenter ant neither, just Argentine ant. The second one is a subterranean termite swarmer. Good idea to do a professional inspection at your house.

  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    They look more like some sort of fly to me. They do not look like winged ants we get in the UK and dont look like termites either. normally both of these have double wings termites with two large wings on each side. Ants tend to be slim bodied compared to termites but these seem quite wide.

    http://www.pestking.com/termites_vs_ants.htm

  • ?
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    The picture you posted looks kinda like a termite. Whatever, spray the living cr@p out of them, or vacuum them up. Here's some helpful sites with good pictures.

    http://www.killtermite.com/flying-ants-winged-ants...

    http://plantdiagnostics.umd.edu/level3.cfm?causeID...

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  • 9 years ago

    These are definitely the reproductive stages of ants. I can't say for sure what species it is, though it very likely could be carpenter ants.

    Source(s): I am a professional entomologist
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