Tens of thousands of formosan termites swarmed New Orleans on Wednesday night, leading many people to believe that the apocalypse had struck the city.
The termites were attracted to bright and well-lit devices, which included car headlights, homes, and streetlights. The insects were expected to hit at the beginning of May, but it has been an unusually cold few weeks, and they only made their first appearance on Wednesday night.
The Formosan termites were introduced to the United States of America from the Far East during World War Two when they were brought over in crates and various wood products. New Orleans normally sees the creatures appear along Lake Pontchartrain and at the naval shipyard in Algiers.
These huge swarms gather and stay in the area because they are only able to fly 300 yards in search of a mate. The pair then drop to the floor and burrow a nest if they are successful, but most of them are unable to find a mate and proper shelter.
These colonies normally consist of around five million insects, and it takes around five years to reach a size where the colony can create a version of the termite with wings to restart the flying cycle.
Of course, this wasn’t the first faux apocalypse to hit the globe over the last 12 months. The Mayan Apocalypse was supposed to hit earth on December 21 but never materialised, and joined a long list of failed apocalypses.
In 1997, Chuck Shramek stated that an alien UFO was following the comet Hale-Bopp as it passed by Earth. Shramek stated that you could only enter the alien ship, which wasn’t designed to kill us but save us from the impending end of the world, if you killed yourself first. Unfortunately for them the apocalypse didn’t follow.
Were you in New Orleans when the termites hit?
