Is it a flying ant or termite? Flying ants or termites in the home are rarely a good sign, and this is particularly true if they are seen indoors during the winter. Whether the sighted insect is a winged ant or a termite, the wings depict the insect to be of a reproductive male or queen—the only members of an ant colony that can reproduce. Ants and termites swarm to mate, after the males die and the queens drop their wings to seek a nesting site. A flying ant seen indoors in the winter means that the ants are nesting within the structure. Termites will swarm in the winter if there are warm areas of infested buildings.
Finding a winged ant or two indoors during the summer does not necessarily mean there is a problem, but if winged ants are seen in the home during the winter months, there is a strong likelihood that there is a carpenter ant nest within the structure. While some carpenter ants are significantly larger than termites, one of the largest of all ant species, other types of this ant are quite small, thus size is not generally an accurate distinguishing factor. Carpenter arts are more likely to be seen out in the open than are termites. While both carpenter ants and termites can be very destructive to structures, the two species differ in that fact that termites eat the wood in which they tunnel, while carpenter ants only nest in it; they do not eat it. Thus another distinguishing factor of carpenter ants is the frass (wood dust, soil, and insect parts) that is often found beneath openings to the nest.
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/deltabc-1.983313/blog-flying-ants-or-termites-1.2022947