Asked on May 04, 2013

Bugs in the ceiling light fixtures

Cathy P
by Cathy P
My husband was in his man cave(basement) when he noticed a couple of"May fly" looking bugs buzzing around the recessed lighting. his attention went back to hockey. he claims that the next time he looked up there were hundreds of them coming out!! he got the vacuum and sucked them up. i suggested he spray some flying insect killer into a plastic bag and cover the hole to the light fixture with it. he had been intent upon spraying directly into the ceiling,but i was concerned it would short out the power. we live in northern Massachusetts and have never seen this before.any ideas?
  3 answers
  • Cathy P Cathy P on May 04, 2013
    i have to add that my idea did trap and kill about five hundred or more of these flying things!i did figure out that were not termites.....And felt a whole lot better!!!!
  • Well spraying directly into the ceiling shouldn't short anything out if things were done properly, but I would say your idea is the better one. With that you need to find the source they are entering from & quite possibly the leak or what they are so interested in.
  • Cathy, you are correct about the termite issue as you do not really have any issues with them up there due to the deep freeze cycles in the ground. Also saying the look like may flies would rule them out as well. Termite swarmers look more like flying ants and often are mistaken for them. A sure way to tell if they are flying ants or termites is to pick them up with their wings. If the wings fall off they are termites. Ants wings will stay on the bodies. If you can take a photo of a few of them close up so we can see what they look like we can help you identify what they are and why they are there in the first place.