Most people associate monsoon rains with India or exotic locations in the Far East, but the state of Arizona has its own monsoon season in July and August. If you live in Arizona you already know that. Another thing Arizonans might know is that, along with the monsoons, there comes a more sinister cycle — a proliferation of termites.

Rain triggers termites to swarm. The swarmers, Also known as alates, are a special class of termites with wings. They are specially designed for two functions: scouting new hives and mating.

In arid regions like Arizona, termites get their moisture from the soil. That’s why swarming termites tend to stay put through the dry months of the Arizona year. Rain for winged termites spells opportunity to make their move. That’s because without water swarming termites will die in just a few hours from dehydration. That’s easy to do in Arizona — except during the monsoon season.

Unfortunately, the prime hive location swarmers look for are the homes of human beings. As we all know, termites love wood. They chew it, they eat it, they bore tunnels through it and they establish their multifaceted hive-homes within. Termites in Phoenix slowly but surely weaken the structure of a house, gnawing through wood, weakening key support structures, damaging wooden portions of foundations, crawl spaces and more.

Arizona’s largest city, Phoenix, is something of a termite Mecca. Surrounding suburbs, such as Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale and Glendale are communities well-known to fight ongoing battles with termites. It’s easy to understand why. Termites go where the wood is! They also love warm-climate environments. Mother Nature even helps them out once a year with the July-August monsoons.

Anyone who sees swarms of winged termites inside the home almost certainly already has an infestation deep within the structure of the house. Seeing swarmers hanging around outside is a less likely indicator that you have a termite problem. These are probably new swarmers exploring for new digs. If your lucky, they haven’t chosen your house yet.

But another almost sure sign of infestation are discarded swarmer termite wings inside your home. Other significant signs are incidences of blistered wood and termite droppings. If you find any of the above, contacting a professional exterminator right away is an extremely good idea. The longer termites run amok inside your home, the more damage they do, and that can run to tens of thousands of dollars.