Tennessee’s warm, humid climate supports a wide variety of flying insects, from harmless nuisances to destructive pests. Whether you’re trying to identify something buzzing around your porch light, swarming near your foundation, or biting you at a backyard cookout, here’s what you’re most likely dealing with across the state.
Mosquitoes and Other Biting Fliers
Mosquitoes are the most common biting flying insect in Tennessee, especially active from late spring through early fall. They concentrate around standing water, wooded areas, and anywhere people gather outdoors. Their bites show up as small, raised, itchy bumps, though some people develop larger patches of redness and swelling. Beyond the annoyance, Tennessee mosquitoes carry diseases. La Crosse virus circulates every summer in East Tennessee, causing dozens of diagnosed infections each year. West Nile virus also shows up periodically across the state.
Horseflies and deerflies are the other major biters. They’re larger, faster, and their bites are more painful than mosquito bites because they slice the skin rather than pierce it. You’ll encounter them most often near water, livestock, or wooded trails during the hottest months.
Bees, Wasps, and Hornets
Stinging insects are everywhere in Tennessee from spring through fall. Paper wasps build their open, umbrella-shaped nests under eaves, deck railings, and porch ceilings. Yellowjackets nest in the ground or inside wall voids, becoming especially aggressive in late summer and early fall as their colonies peak in size and food becomes scarce. Bald-faced hornets build large, enclosed paper nests in trees and shrubs.
A key difference worth knowing: bees leave their stinger behind and can only sting once, while wasps and hornets sting multiple times. Most stings cause immediate pain, redness, and localized swelling that resolves within a few hours. For people with venom allergies, the reaction can be far more serious.
Termite Swarms
If you see a cloud of small, winged insects emerging from the ground near your home’s foundation, you may be looking at a termite swarm. Termite swarm season in Tennessee runs from roughly March 1 through June 30, with the heaviest flights between March 20 and May 1. The timing shifts by region: Memphis sees swarms starting in early March, Nashville from mid-March, and Knoxville and East Tennessee from late March. Swarms launch on the first warm day (above 70°F) after a soaking rain.
Eastern subterranean termites are the most widespread species. Their swarmers fly during the daytime after rain, typically between March and late May. Memphis and Shelby County also have an established population of Formosan subterranean termites, one of the few inland infestations in the country. Formosan swarmers are yellow-brown, about half an inch long with hairy wings, and they fly at dusk in May and June, piling up under porch lights and streetlights.
The most common first sign of a termite problem isn’t the insects themselves. It’s piles of identical, translucent wings on windowsills, in bathtubs, or caught in spider webs. Swarmers shed their wings within minutes of landing, often leaving no insects behind. If you’re trying to tell termite swarmers from flying ants, look at three features: termites have straight antennae, a thick waist, and four wings of equal length. Flying ants have elbowed antennae, a pinched waist, and front wings noticeably longer than the back pair.
Periodical Cicadas
Tennessee is one of the few states where both 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas occur. The state hosts three 13-year broods and twelve 17-year broods, which means mass emergences happen fairly regularly somewhere in the state. These aren’t subtle events. Millions of large, red-eyed insects emerge from the ground over a period of weeks, fly clumsily through the air, and produce a deafening chorus.
Brood X, the largest 17-year cicada emergence in the country, primarily covers East Tennessee. Brood XIV, another 17-year brood, emerged in 2008 and returned in 2025. Brood XIX, a 13-year cicada, had a massive emergence across much of the state in 2011 and returned in 2024. These insects don’t bite or sting. They’re loud and numerous, but they’re harmless to people and cause only minor damage to young trees.
Spotted Lanternfly
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive species that’s gaining a foothold in Tennessee. First detected in the U.S. in 2014, it showed up in Davidson and Wilson counties in 2023. As of 2025, it’s been confirmed in six Tennessee counties: Davidson, Wilson, Sumner, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Sullivan. It isn’t widely established yet, but the state is actively monitoring for new detections.
Spotted lanternflies are striking to look at, with gray forewings spotted in black and bright red hindwings. They’re technically planthoppers, not flies, and they feed by sucking sap from over 70 species of plants. Their preferred host is tree of heaven, but they also attack grapes, apples, hops, maples, walnuts, and poplars. The feeding itself doesn’t kill trees directly, but it stresses them and makes them vulnerable to other damage. As they feed, they excrete a sticky substance called honeydew that coats surfaces beneath infested trees and promotes the growth of black sooty mold, a real nuisance in residential areas.
Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
If shield-shaped, brownish-gray bugs are flying into your house in fall, they’re almost certainly brown marmorated stink bugs. This invasive species produces two generations per year in Tennessee. The second generation of adults starts seeking shelter as temperatures drop, squeezing through gaps around windows, doors, and siding to overwinter inside homes and other structures. They don’t bite or cause structural damage, but they release a pungent odor when disturbed or crushed, and they can show up in large numbers indoors.
They resume activity in spring, flying back outside to feed and reproduce. In agricultural areas, they’re a significant crop pest, damaging fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants.
Moths and Other Nighttime Fliers
Tennessee is home to hundreds of moth species, most of them harmless. A few are worth knowing about. The spongy moth (formerly called the gypsy moth) is an invasive defoliator. Males are brownish with black markings and a wingspan of about 1 to 1.25 inches. They fly erratically during the daytime searching for mates, which makes them more noticeable than most moths. Their caterpillars can strip hardwood trees bare during outbreaks.
The box tree moth, another invasive species, is active in Tennessee from April through October depending on temperatures, with multiple generations per year. Adults are highly mobile fliers with white wings bordered in brown. Their caterpillars target boxwood shrubs, a staple of landscaping across the state.
Seasonal Patterns to Expect
Tennessee’s flying insect activity follows a predictable rhythm. Early spring (March through April) brings termite swarms and the first mosquitoes. Late spring into early summer (May through June) is peak time for periodical cicadas in emergence years, Formosan termite swarms in the Memphis area, and the ramp-up of wasp and bee colonies. Summer (July through September) is when mosquitoes, horseflies, and stinging insects peak. Fall brings the brown marmorated stink bug invasion indoors, along with late-season yellowjacket aggression as colonies compete for dwindling food.
Fire ants also take flight in Tennessee, typically in spring or early summer, one or two days after a rain when conditions are warm, sunny, and calm. Their mating flights usually cover a mile or less, though flights of up to 12 miles have been recorded. If you see dense swarms of small, reddish-brown winged ants rising from the ground on a sunny post-rain day, that’s likely what you’re witnessing.