Homeowner Guides

Drywood Termite Swarm Season in the LA South Bay: Swarmers vs. Flying Ants

Published October 15, 2026Updated October 15, 2026

It's a warm, bright afternoon in the fall. You notice a few small winged bugs on the windowsill, and a little pile of loose wings next to them. The obvious question is whether you have termites.

You might. Around the LA South Bay, this is the time of year western drywood termites swarm. They're not the only insect with wings, though, and telling them apart is easier than most people expect. A termite has a broad waist, straight antennae, and two pairs of wings about the same length. A flying ant has a pinched waist, elbowed antennae, and front wings longer than its back wings.

If they look like termites, don't panic, and don't vacuum them up and forget about it. Save a few in a sealed bag or jar, note where you found them, look at nearby wood for small six-sided pellets, and have a licensed provider inspect. The provider decides what treatment fits, if any, after the inspection. One swarm doesn't automatically mean your house needs to be tented.

A quick word on who's writing this. We're Dean and Dave, the co-founders of South Bay Pest Pros. We started it after our own frustrating experiences trying to find a pest control company we could rely on. We're a free referral service. We don't inspect or treat anything ourselves. We match you with a licensed, independent provider who serves your city.

When do drywood termites swarm in the LA South Bay?

According to the University of California Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM), people most often notice drywood termites when they see the flying adults, called swarmers. Those fly during the daytime in summer and fall. The University of Florida's species profile of the western drywood termite narrows it down. In Southern California, it reports swarms from late September through November, usually on bright, sunny days with temperatures around 80–100°F.

So if you live in Torrance, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, San Pedro, or anywhere else in the South Bay, late summer and fall are when to keep an eye out. Warm, sunny afternoons are the main window.

A couple of things help narrow down what you're looking at. Drywood swarmers fly in daylight, while the larger dampwood termites tend to show up at lights after dark. Subterranean termites follow their own schedule. UC IPM says they often fly on clear days after a soaking rain, in spring or fall. Our termite page explains drywood vs. subterranean in more detail.

Flying termites vs. flying ants: how to tell them apart

UC IPM points to three features that separate ants from termites: the waist, the wings, and the antennae. A zoomed-in phone photo usually shows all three, which is handy when the bug won't hold still.

Feature	Drywood termite swarmer	Flying ant
Waist	Broad and thick. The body looks like one even tube	Pinched and narrow, like an hourglass
Antennae	Straight, not elbowed	Elbowed, with a clear bend partway along
Wings	Two pairs, front and hind about the same length, extending well past the body	Two pairs, front wings longer than hind wings
Wings after landing	Shed soon after the flight, leaving piles of loose wings on sills	Also shed after mating flights, so piles of wings alone aren't proof
Body color	Brown body with smoky, dark-veined wings (UC IPM describes the drywood alate this way)	Depends on the species: commonly black, brown, or reddish
When you see them	Daytime, summer and fall. Late September–November in Southern California per the University of Florida	Varies by species. Many fly in warm weather
What they leave behind	Small, hard, six-sided pellets	Carpenter ants leave shredded, sawdust-like debris, often with insect parts in it

One catch: UC IPM notes that both insects drop their wings soon after flying. If all you've got is wingless bodies, go by the waist and antennae. Leaning toward ants? Our ant page picks up from there.

What a swarm actually means

It's a mating flight, not the colony moving out

Swarmers are the colony's winged reproductives. They leave to pair off, drop their wings, and try to start new colonies in other wood. The colony they came from stays put, and most swarmers die soon after the flight. If they came from inside your house, the usual explanation is a colony in the wood that's mature enough to produce them.

Inside vs. outside

Where you find them matters a lot.

If they're coming out of a wall, a window frame, a baseboard, or the attic hatch, that points to a likely colony in the structure. Get a licensed inspection.

A few on the patio is a different story. UC IPM notes that winged termites don't necessarily mean the building where you found them is infested. They could have come from a fence, a neighbor's eaves, or a dead tree limb.

Frass and pellets: the sign of an established colony

Drywood termites spend their whole lives inside the wood and don't need contact with soil. As they feed, they push their droppings, often called frass, out through tiny "kick-out" holes. UC IPM describes those holes as less than about 2 mm across. The pellets pile up on whatever surface is underneath.

Look for small piles of hard, granular pellets on sills, baseboards, attic floors, or under exposed beams and eaves. Up close, each pellet has six flattened sides. UC IPM calls those six-sided pellets diagnostic for drywood termites.

There's a limit to what pellets can tell you, though. UC IPM cautions that pellets alone can't show whether the infestation is still active or how far it extends. That's why a provider inspects instead of quoting from a photo you text them.

Why older South Bay homes are at risk

Drywood termites are common along the Southern California coast, and a lot of South Bay housing gives them what they like.

Older wood-frame homes. In the beach cities, Hollywood Riviera, Palos Verdes, San Pedro, and older Torrance and Gardena tracts, many houses still have original framing, rafters, and trim that were never treated against termites.

Attics, eaves, and fascia. This is prime drywood territory: dry wood, out of sight, and often not looked at for years. Drywood colonies are small (UC IPM says usually fewer than 1,000 individuals), can be spread out across a structure, and take years to mature. A home can have more than one colony without obvious damage.

Exposed wood. Decks, pergolas, siding, window frames, and fences can host colonies that send swarmers toward the house.

Coastal weather. Salt air and marine-layer dampness wear down paint and sealant over time. That leaves cracks and open joints where a swarming pair can get in.

None of this means your house has termites. It just means swarmers or pellets in an older wood-frame home deserve a professional look.

What not to do

Vacuuming them up and calling it done. Vacuuming itself is fine. Just save a few in a sealed bag first, photograph where they came from, and check the wood nearby for pellets. The swarm is a clue, and getting rid of it doesn't fix anything.

Assuming one swarmer means tenting. A single swarmer doesn't tell you how big an infestation is, or even whether you have one. Let the inspection drive that decision.

Spraying store-bought products into the wall. UC IPM notes that the products needed to control drywood termites aren't available to the general public. A surface spray won't reach a colony deep inside the wood.

Putting it off until next season. An active colony keeps eating. Termites aren't a same-day emergency, but if you're seeing active signs, schedule an inspection soon.

When a licensed inspection makes sense

It's worth getting an inspection if you notice any of these:

Swarmers coming from inside the house, especially from a wall, window frame, or the attic
Piles of six-sided pellets that keep coming back after you clean them up
Loose wings collecting on the same windowsill
Wood that sounds hollow, or paint that blisters over wood
An older wood-frame home that hasn't had a termite inspection in years

UC IPM says judging how far a drywood infestation extends takes experience and is best left to a professional. Published LA-area price ranges list a termite inspection as usually free. Your provider confirms any charge before the visit.

How the process typically works

1. Inspection first

A licensed provider typically inspects the accessible areas: attic, eaves, crawlspace, and window and door frames. They're looking for pellets, kick-out holes, shed wings, and damage. They'll confirm which termite you're dealing with (drywood, subterranean, or something else) and how widespread the activity looks.

2. A recommendation: localized or whole-structure

UC IPM groups drywood termite control into two categories.

Localized (spot) treatment targets a single board or a small group of boards. It can work well when the colony is limited and easy to reach. The tradeoff, per UC IPM, is that it's hard to be sure every hidden colony was found.

Whole-structure treatment, most commonly fumigation (tenting), treats all infestations at once, including the ones nobody can reach. It also means moving out for several days and doing some prep work.

Your provider recommends one approach based on how extensive and accessible the activity is. Dave ran an Enviro-Master franchise for ten years, and between that and our own experience as customers, we've seen how service companies actually operate. A provider who's confident in a recommendation should be able to explain it in plain terms. Ask them to.

3. A written scope and price

Before any work starts, your provider should give you a written scope: what they found, what they'll treat and how, what's excluded, and what happens if pellets or swarmers show up again. Your provider quotes after inspecting. South Bay Pest Pros doesn't quote or do the work.

For a rough sense of cost, these are the typical LA-area ranges on our termite page, based on published Los Angeles pricing guides as of September 2026:

Inspection: usually free
Spot treatment: about $250–$1,500
Fumigation: about $2,000–$6,000 for a typical home

What you actually pay depends on the size of the property, how bad the infestation is, and the treatment method.

4. A second opinion is reasonable, especially for tenting

Fumigation is a big job, with real cost and real disruption. Getting a second inspection before you commit is completely reasonable. Our guide to questions to ask before signing a pest control agreement walks through what to cover.

Check the license and the branch

California's Structural Pest Control Board (SPCB) licenses structural pest control companies by branch. Termite work generally involves two of them. Branch 1 covers fumigation (tenting). Branch 3 typically covers termite inspection and localized treatment without fumigation, under the heading of wood-destroying organisms. Branch 2 is general pest work, and a company that holds only Branch 2 isn't the right fit for termites.

If a provider recommends tenting, ask who holds the Branch 1 license for the job.

Before a provider joins our network, we look up their company registration on the Structural Pest Control Board license search and confirm it's current and covers the branches for the work they take on. We'd still like you to check it yourself. It takes a few minutes, and our license-check guide shows you how. More answers are in our FAQ.

If you're seeing swarmers this fall

A handful of wings on a windowsill isn't a crisis, but it's not something to forget about either. Bag a few bugs, check for pellets, and get someone licensed to take a look.

If you're anywhere in the South Bay, from El Segundo and Manhattan Beach through Hermosa, Redondo, Torrance, and Gardena down to Palos Verdes, Lomita, and San Pedro, we can connect you with a licensed local provider.

Request your free match →

The form takes about a minute. A licensed, independent provider serving your area follows up, inspects, and quotes before any work begins. Curious how the referral side works? Read how South Bay Pest Pros works.

South Bay Pest Pros is a free referral service serving the LA South Bay. We do not perform pest control and are not affiliated with Pest Pros Pest Solutions in Northern California. This article is general homeowner information, not legal or real estate advice.

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