{"id":692542,"date":"2026-06-09T00:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692542\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:31:11","slug":"what-are-those-swarms-of-flying-insects-following-rainstorms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692542\/","title":{"rendered":"What are those swarms of flying insects following rainstorms?"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Following the recent rain<\/a> in Bexar County, residents might notice large groups of flying insects \u2014 but what are these creatures?<\/p>\n

A KSAT Connect user has previously shared a video of flying insects in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The video appears to show a \u201cton\u201d of little flying insects in their backyard. <\/p>\n

Yvonne Scherny<\/a><\/p>\n

What are these???? There a TON of these little things flying around my backyard!!
\nAND, look\u2026. All my summer flowers have fallen over with all the rain! <\/p>\n

High humidity creates favorable conditions for insects to thrive while also attracting them to sources of water.<\/p>\n

When San Antonio receives multiple inches of rain and has lingering humidity and moisture in the air, it can lead to an increase in the bug population.<\/p>\n

Molly Keck, an entomologist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County, previously told KSAT the insects are desert termites.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to worry; desert termites, also known as agricultural termites, are not the kind of insects that eat up your home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not cause damage to plants or structures. They feed on dead and stressed forbes, grasses, and roots,\u201d Keck said. \u201cSometimes cause some damage to turf, but usually because the grass isn\u2019t well watered and the roots are too short as a result of shallow watering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desert termites swarm after a recent rainstorm in the San Antonio area. (KSAT)<\/p>\n

Desert termites are native to the San Antonio area, and many can be seen due to a combination of the right weather conditions and the insects\u2019 biology.<\/p>\n

Keck said desert termites will typically decide to swarm in large numbers. <\/p>\n

The reproductive forms of desert termites fly out of their colonies to mate in the spring and summer months when it\u2019s hot and very humid.<\/p>\n

The winged versions are called swarmers or alates. They leave the colony to find locations for new colonies.<\/p>\n

They may not cause any damage, but large swarms can leave behind a mess of discarded wings.<\/p>\n

If you have desert termites, there\u2019s no need to call a pest control service.<\/p>\n

According to the AgriLife Extension website<\/a>, desert termites play a crucial role in ecosystems by regulating carbon and nitrogen flow. <\/p>\n

The insects process up to half of the dead roots and litter in grass lands, the website states. <\/p>\n

Read also: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2024 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Following the recent rain in Bexar County, residents might notice large groups of flying insects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1147,4,450,451,6613,3,6632,79,452,453,3795,2986,95589],"class_list":["post-692542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-animals","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-insects","tag-news","tag-outdoors","tag-science","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-trending","tag-weather","tag-whatever-the-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}