Joke Of The Day
Two termites walk into a bar. One asks, "Is the bar tender here?"
Did you know...
- Approximately 1 in 16 homes in Illinois has termites.
- A termite queen lays approximately 30,000 eggs per day (that's about 1 per second).
- The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
- Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.
- In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like nuts or popcorn.
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Appearance:
| Larger than subterranean termites, up to one-half inch long; no worker
caste in the colony.
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Habits:
| Create colonies in wood, with no connection to the ground necessary; often found in attic wood; need very little moisture.
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Diet:
| Wood and occasionally other cellulose material.
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Reproduction:
| Nymphs pass through seven instars before reaching adulthood; sexual forms eventually swarm to form new colony.
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Other Information:
| Cause serious damage to structures, often long before they are discovered; piles of sawdust-like pellets are a distinct sign of infestation; not as widespread as subterranean termite; colonies may contain up to 2,700 members.
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SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES |
Appearance:
| Four "castes" of a termite colony:
Worker: approximately one-fourth of an inch long, light colored,
wingless;
Soldier: elongated head with mandibles;
Supplementary Reproductives: wingless or very short, non-functional
wings; light colored;
Primary Reproductives: winged, and darker than other members; caste most often seen by homeowners.
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Habits:
| Live in colonies underground, from which they build tunnels in search of food; able to reach food above the level of the ground by building mud tubes; dependent on moisture for survival.
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Diet:
| Wood and other cellulose material.
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Reproduction:
| Different rates of growth from egg stage to adult depend on individual species; one queen per colony, which can lay tens of thousands of eggs in her lifetime, but most eggs are laid by supplementary reproductives in an established colony.
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Other Information:
| Cause more damage to homes in U.S. than storms and fire combined; colonies can contain up to 1,000,000 members.
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TERMITE FACTS
| The nests of some termite species, such as the West African Macrotermes bellicosus may house up to five million - many more termites than the entire population of New Zealand. |
| In a really big nest, a queen and king may live for 15 years, and, for much of her life, the queen will lay one egg every 15 seconds. |
| Termites will sometimes eat away the wooden structure of a house from within the timbers, leaving the painted surface undamaged. |
| Termites rarely expose themselves to light. |
| After mating, termite pairs shed their wings and disperse to start new colonies. |
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