Another sign of rainy season - the termite nuptial flight! After the first big rains we get tons of winged termites, trying to find a mate and start a new colony. After the flight these alates shed their wings and die. It’s an amazing effort and investment, all for reproduction! Even with doors fully closed, we get lots on wings inside the house. My toes and Nibbles to give scale. And a close up, revealing how dirty our kitchen floor is (note the splotch of extremely old marinara sauce). The birds also go crazy during this time. For them it’s a spontaneous feast, they can’t eat this winged plenty down fast enough.
This happens every year and I really love it (David feels polar opposite - he likens the skies turning black with flying insects to a biblical plague, in a bad way, but I think they really are amazing- it’s just one afternoon/evening and the sky fills with them). We do constantly have a low level of termite infestation, they seem to be slowly but steadily eating through all the wood in Gamboa, our house included. Every once in a while we try to get them out of a particularly bad spot. But mostly we coexist, recognizing that completely getting them out of the house would be pretty much impossible, marveling at their monumental reproductive displays every spring.
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