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What
is Termite?
Termites are social insects which behave similar to ants and
bees. They live in colonies and divide their work among specialized
members known as Castes. Due to poor abdominal sclerotization
termites appear white. Although they look similar to ants and
people often get confused and call them "white ants",
they are more related to cockroaches, where both of them have
protozoa in their digestive tracts. Just like cockroaches, termites
are one of the most ancient insects. They appeared on earth
about 200 million years ago. |
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Types
of Termites
Termites can be broadly classified into three groups based on
the location of their nests - subterranean, drywood and dampwood
termites. Both drywood and dampwood termites form small colonies
(with the size of about few hundreds individuals) and live entirely
in wood without contact with soil. Drywood termites only attack
dry, sound wood, while dampwood termites usually attack damp
and decay wood.
Subterranean termites build nests in the soil, they attack
woods that are directly in contact with soil, and they also
construct shelter tubes (mud tubes) when foraging above ground.
These shelter tubes or galleries are made with saliva-moistened
soil, partly digested woods and feces, and can be built over
non-woody materials. Termites use these tubes to maintain moisture
and protect them from predators. If the moisture of above-ground
wood is high enough they can build sub-nests that are without
contact with soil, most of these aerial nests can be found on
the rooftop.
The colony size of subterranean termites is very large especially
for Coptotermes formoanus. They
can have more than million members in a single colony. They
are also very active that they can forage over 100 meters from
the nest. Due to their large population size and aggressive
nature, subterranean termites are the most destructive pests.
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Food
Preferences and Damages
Any cellulose-containing materials like living or dead wood,
paper, cardboard, fiberboard and cotton fabrics are the food
of termites. In order to reach the food sources termites will
try to penetrate and damage some non-cellulose materials including
plaster, stucco, PVC pipe, underground cable, even some softer
metals like lead, copper and aluminum.
In brief everything other than concrete in your house can be
damaged by termites. However termites can pass through concrete
by some small, pre-existing cracks and joints. |
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Wooden doorframes and skirting boards
in your home are favourite 'food' for termites. The resident
in this flat does not know there were termites present
in his home until this wooden doorframe is hollowed out
by termites. |
| Damaged Door frame |
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Castes
System
Termite colony consists of Reproductives, Soldiers and Workers |
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1.
Reproductives
Alates
or Swarmers are winged reproductives.
They will become new kings and queens after swarming (moving
in large number) in late spring and early summer every year.
When they mate, the queens can produce up to 10,000 eggs per
week. They live for a decade or even longer, so in their lifetime
they can produce 30 - 60 million eggs! If colonies are large
enough secondary reproductives exist. They are wingless, smaller
in size and lay fewer eggs than the queens. However, every colony
may have hundreds of secondary reproductives. All the reproductives
are groomed and fed by the workers. |
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| Thousands of alates swarmed out of their
colony to light sources. Unfortunately, this was only
a washing basin with water in it. This is one of the method
to catch alates - old but effective. |
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Swarming / sink |
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Alates swarmed out from a wooden skirting
board. The dead bodies and wings left on the floor are
signs of termite infestation.
The skirting was so badly damaged that it was replaced
after the swarming.
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Swarming / skirting |
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2.
Soldiers
They are wingless, blind and sterile with large and harden brown
head. Usually, they are larger than the workers. In most species
the heads are equipped with two very large mandibles for defense.
Since their jaws are evolved they are unable to feed themselves,
so they are also fed by the workers. |
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| Termites in their nest: the larger ones
with brown heads are soldiers and the smaller ones with
white heads are workers. |
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Worker / soldier |
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3.
Workers
Worker is the most enormous caste. Similar to soldiers they
are wingless, blind and sterile but with soft and white body.
The workers are responsible for all the works including foraging
food, constructing mud tubes, repairing nest, grooming the queen
and larvae, and the most important one - feeding
the whole colony. The success of Sentricon* Termite Colony
Elimination System lays in making use of this habit to eliminate
termites in your house. |
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GUESS WHO???
Which castes do they belong to? Point to the diagram and
see if you get the correct answer! |
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| Life Cycle |
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| *Trademark
of Dow AgroSciences, LLC |
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Termites
VS Ants
There are three major differences in appearance between Termites
& Ants: |
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Termites |
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Ants |
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1. |
Termites have
straight bead-like antennae. |
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Ants have
elbowed antennae. |
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2. |
Termites do
not have waists. |
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Ants have
waists. |
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3. |
Reproductive
termites have two pairs of wings. Both pairs are equal
in size and have the same appearance. This is why they
belong to the order 'Isoptera' (iso means equal ; ptera
means wings) |
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Ants have
two pairs of wings. Their forewings are larger than hindwings. |
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