Last week I wrote about carpenter ants. This week it’s termites (whose worst predator is carpenter ants).
Termites have been around for more than 120 million years. They are social insects that are active in the summer. S.
o Homeowners, look out now to avoid joining the crowd that is suffering an estimated $ 5 billion property damage annually.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to know if there are termites in your home. They are usually invisible and the damage caused by eating pulp in wood and wood products such as cardboard and paper can be hidden for years.
There is little evidence that the eastern underground termites of our region are present. These include “inexplicable winged insects called hawkers, also known as” reproductive animals, “which were seen indoors between February and June,” said entomologist Gale Ridge, director of the Connecticut Insect Information Bureau at Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “It is very important to know that termites do not fly at any other time of the year.”
Other signs are the flat long opaque wings, all of the same size, that the hawkers shed. Another sign are the pencil-sized mudguards that termites build to travel over non-wood and wood surfaces such as concrete cellar walls or beams and provide routes from the nest to sources of food.
Termites are less than an inch long and have white, broad, waistless bodies with antennae without “elbows” that resemble a string of pearls. Male and female workers are wingless and averaging 3/8 of an inch in length. They maintain the colony, repair the nest, hunt and forage for food – that is cellulose – and feed future immature workers, soldiers and the king and queen. Soldiers, also wingless, average ½ inch long, and defend the nest. Both can live up to four years. Swarmers (future kings and queens) are about inches long and have two pairs of wings. After mating, the male tears the female’s wings off, suggesting that it is a pair. They build a nest below the frost line in the ground and raise the first group of workers who take on nesting tasks, while the king and queen enjoy a life of leisure and egg production for up to 15 years.
Termites need moist, humid conditions to survive because they lack a protein in their skin (exoskeleton) that would hold moisture and prevent dehydration.
“They’re building a network of tunnels and galleries that are sealed from the outside air and maintain high humidity,” said Ridge. “Termites are very elastic in their ability to survive. Under certain conditions, workers can switch and become reproductive organs to establish a colony of satellites in a building that is constantly leaking water. “
How can you find it? “Termites are social and opportunistic,” said Ridge. “Multiple colonies in an area will be linked and there will be a high level of communication, like villages with connecting roads. With termites, it’s tunnels and galleries. ”Foraging is a random search, she added. “They zigzag underground and increase the chance of discovering food like a building.”
They are also resourceful when facing their worst enemy. “If carpenter ants discover a termite nest, they can wipe it out,” said Ridge. “That is why termites build protective tubes not only for a micro-habitat with high humidity and for foraging, but also for protection.”
The best nesting sites are new homes, because that’s where, Ridge said, “This is where termite habitats and natural food supplies are destroyed and they can feed on a new home.”
In addition, termites prefer light-colored, softer spring wood over darker, denser summer wood.
To eliminate termites: 1. bait them with pieces of wood interspersed with an “insect growth regulator” to prevent molting, or 2. put a “chemical curtain” around the house, such as termidor, premise or altriset. They will transport it back to the nest and to other nests. Termidor can kill a colony in 24 hours and encourage cannibalism, Ridge said.
Aside from the destruction of your home and cannibalism, what can you dislike?
Contact Harlan and share your questions, problems, and concerns as a consumer. Send him an email at harlan.levy@gmail.com
