The Problems with Termites

This isn’t the best news for the homeowner to hear, but there are no solitary termites. Unfortunately, they don’t live alone. In fact, these little beasts can eat you out of house and home, and can number from as little as 100 to well over one million. Beyond the babies that are essentially harmless to the homeowner until they grow, termites are far more socially organized than most of us expect.

They live in a caste system that excludes the nymphs, and there is a strict social structure that tells each member of the caste what its function is within the termite society as a whole. Basically, there are three castes that are the workers, those responsible for reproduction, and the soldiers. And these little pests really know how to look after their queens.

In some tropical species the king and queen can live for up to ten years and the queen can grow so large and swollen with eggs that it’s impossible for her to move around. And she can really lay those eggs as well—in some cases as many as 30,000 a day. Apart from these reproductives, all the other castes are sterile and wingless with white bodies. Typically, the worker constitutes the most in the caste and they have the smallest bodies. These workers build and provide for the nest and they groom all the other members of the colony. The soldiers of certain species are equipped with huge jaws that are designed for the defense of the colony, and some even have long snouts from which they can eject a sticky substance that can render an enemy helpless. All the species of soldiers have greatly enlarged heads. Most termite colonies have only one single royal pair that supplies all the offspring.

But the real purpose of this article is to tell you what termites feed on, and if you haven’t already guessed or didn’t already know, their primary source of food is wood. That’s their main dish but they can also eat almost anything that contains cellulose. Of course, that’s the bad news for the average homeowner that has an infestation of the hungry and rapidly reproducing pests, and to keep things moving in their nests, digested cellulose is distributed among workers . Some species feed on special molds that they cultivate while others eat a fluid secreted by a beetle that lives as a special guest within their community.

To prevent termite damage, its best to avoid using wood in the foundation of anything that you’re trying to build. Cracks can develop in such foundations which can lead to the wooden parts of the structures inside.  The soil around the foundation can be treated as well as the interior and the crawlspaces. Remember too that most worker termites cannot live without moisture so the air around a building site or existing home should be kept as dry as possible.     

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