What’s the Difference Between Termites and Ants?
Many insects can look identical when staring at them with the naked eye. You can hardly tell the difference between particular creatures, even though they are not the same bug. When it comes to termites and ants, this can always be a similar factor. While ants can be rather annoying and carry diseases, termites can destroy homes. Therefore, it is wise to know the difference and understand what each of them can do. This is why we have specific facts to help pinpoint their differences.
Appearance:
From looking far away, these insects can be similar. However, if you were to look close enough at each of them, you may start noticing differences. When it comes to termites, they have a broad waist. They also show a straight, bead-like antenna. At the same time, ants have narrow waists and segmented elbowed antennae. Their wings differ as well. Termites offer two sets of wings, while ants have large forewings and tiny hind wings. Termites are also usually visible unless swarming, while ants are seen everywhere, including one’s home.
Diets
When looking at these two bugs, termites are the types of bugs that we all know to feast on wood. Therefore, homes have such problems with these specific bugs. They will eat wood down to whatever they can. This destroys homes, fences, porches, or anything that has been built with that type of material. As for flies, flies will eat almost anything that they can find. So if you happen to lay rotting fruit or any opened food out on your counters, fly’s will surely come around.
Visibility
A termite’s habit will mostly depend on the type of termites. For familiar sights, if you’re noticing discarded wings or wood damage, you may be experiencing a termite infestation in your home. When it comes to ants, they can be more noticeable, especially if there is food around. Like what was talked about before, ants will find their way to open food for ripening fruit. You are also likely to find ants near openings in your home or any cracked areas that they can quickly enter from.
What Attracts Them?
Ants swarm heavily when it is mating time. This means that you could see something that could be resembled a flying ant. This could be precisely what you are dealing with. When looking into a carpenter ant, those that swarm do have wings and look like flying termites. Flying ants and termites have different body shapes, antennae, and even wings.
Termites Can Look Like Ants
Termites can easily be mistaken for ants and vise versa. This can happen, especially when they are flying around in their swarm. As we talked about beforehand, there are differences between the two; they are slight but make a huge difference. With either of these bugs, they have a difference of what they do or don’t do. If you are experiencing either of these bugs, they are known to swarm in packs.
Make sure that when you are dealing with these different insects to call us here at IMEL. At IMEL, we are here for any infestation that you can think of. When it comes to ants or termites, these different bugs can’t both be quite the pain. It also doesn’t help that they usually are in packs and can tear apart your house. That’s why we are here for you; we want to make sure that we can help you with any infestations that you may have. Give us a call as soon as possible so we can get the job done and ease your stress of infestations.
