Termites | Facts & Information

Termites are a group of social insects, included in the order Isoptera. Quite widespread are in the southern part of Europe, in Asia and Southern Africa. Very numerous are in Australia, South America and the southern part of North America. They are present on all continents except Antarctica.

Termite constructions in the tropical region also have a basement, which is 4 to 5 meters deep. In other regions of the world they Group their homes, forming real cities, provided with streets and underground crossings. These cities stretch for tens of kilometers and last for many centuries.

Permanently, inside the termites ' dwelling is maintained a certain temperature, achieved by the construction system itself. Lineu said: Termes utriusque Indiae calamitas summa (meaning: termites are the most powerful god beat in the Indies)

Feeding Termites

Termites eat everything that comes their way, but they particularly like wood. The only wood I can't Chew is tek, which is extremely hard. In regions where they do not have wood at hand, they attack buildings of any kind. In the U.S., termites cause about $ 150,000,000 in damage a year.

Likewise in Burma, Mexico, Argentina, Angola, etc.it is said that in an african village some trucks arrived one evening, and in the morning, these trucks lacked wooden bodies. They had been eaten by termites.

Except for the damage they can do to buildings, termites are useful creatures. They naturally achieve a permanent hygiene of the forests in tropical regions.

They also gnaw fallen trees, rotten wood, broken leaves and grasses.The innumerable galleries and places of passage in their habitations fan the Earth, ventilate it and help to form fertile soils.

In Africa and Indonesia, eating termites is part of people's lifestyle. Termites gather at the beginning of the rainy season, when the other sources of protein are low and are consumed little fried.

What then is the reason why termites invade human settlements? Humans have moved into termite habitats and removed most of the plant resources used by them. To live, termites need to eat, and they usually feed on dead plants. If taken from them, termites feed on man-made wooden constructions, such as houses and barns.

Features Termites

Termites divide into workers, soldiers and fertile individuals. The body of the workers is white, 10 mm long. Eyes are reduced or missing. Individuals that participate in reproduction have a brown body and two pairs of wings.

They drill their galleries under the ground, in the dark, to the walls of houses or storerooms, from here they go straight down to beyond the foundations, then they pass under the foundations, and then they go up straight in through the floors.

From there,they took possession of the place. Some pounce on the wood of the building, furniture and supplies of any kind; others gnaw and drill constantly forward; attack the ceilings and floors above, until they reach the roof to gnaw that one too.

But he works with great care, not to give the light somehow, and respects with the greatest care the surface of the attacked objects, content to gaunosize them. If the place seems good to them, they are left there still quite spoiled, they bring the plumed plaster of ground powder or rubble and their droppings, and they gradually-gradually replace the woody parts they destroy.

They saw, after them, whole wooden poles turned into concrete columns. When they no longer like the place, because they have dried it up, then they no longer bother with the dress; the work of destruction begins with such speed that, in seven or eight weeks, a large European house is baked from the foundation to the top; but a poor village of black Africans, in even less time, is becoming all the dust; no trace of the hut is seen.

It was seen at Rochefort how, in one night, the termites penetrated through the foot of a table, upon which sits the suitcase of an engineer, they hollowed out the foot from the bottom up, went through the table board, then through the bottom of the suitcase inside, where they gnawed everything; so that the next day there was no patch of coat or unclean laundry. And the poor engineer's papers and plans, and the lead wax and everything, had all disappeared without a trace.

The hardest wood can not withstand the attack of termites. On the staircase of the prefectural chancellors, there was a thick beam of Old Oak; a man gliding down the staircase, propped himself up in his hand, and half his arm went in?in that bar like a maracinis. At once the beam was searched and scraped in several parts, and it was seen that there was only a thin sheet of paper on top of the face.

What people haven't tried to get that damn kind of gas !... Finally, after many trials and studies, said the learned Quatrefages, as if he had given them the cure. From his experiences, he had proved that in touch with pure chlor gas, termites fall at the wacky moment; and in an amount of air mixed on the tenth part with that gas, over half an hour they die drowned.[2]

Termites are capable of building the largest structures in the living world, relative to their own size and weight. A group of these insects, each no more than 10 centimeters long, can build a tower, 7.5 meters high and 12 meters in diameter. Such a tower can weigh hundreds of tons, thousands of times the weight of every insect that collaborated on its construction.

But what we see on the surface is only the visible part of the iceberg. The termites ' architectural masterpieces lie underground, sometimes to depths of 70 meters, and spread out in twisty galleries, sometimes of kilometer lengths, difficult to assess.

It looks like some kind of surreal sculpture. The galleries are at the top levels. The "ground floor" is massively built, so that the weight of the construction does not crush it. A principle that we learn in college.

In the Central African Republic, a traditional medicine that has bactericidal properties is prepared from termites. And the Australian Aborigines know the medicinal virtues of these insects. They prepare termite ointments that stop bleeding and scar wounds. It also makes termite liquors that fight infections.[5]

Inside the termithera there is an intricate labyrinth of rooms and tunnels. This bustling metropolis is also equipped with an efficient sewage system, ventilation and even air conditioning. Warm air exits through the top of the thermite with the help of ventilation windows. Fresh air enters through the bottom. Additional cooling is achieved by a simple vaporization system: termites spray the walls with water spitting on them.

As the water evaporates, it cools the air, providing ventilation. Thus, in the termites ' home the pleasant temperature of 30 degrees C is maintained 24 hours out of 24. Some termites host a productive community, or colony, numbering up to five million residents. Far from being chaotic, the colony is an example of efficiency.

Termite Breeding

In the royal chamber, completely immersed in Darkness, Live the reproductives: the king and the Queen. The Queen is huge compared to her tiny partner.

Her egg-filled abdomen is evidence of her extraordinary reproductive ability. It has been estimated that she can lay 30,000 eggs every day. No wonder some have called the Queen"an automatic egg laying machine".

However, the royal couple do not enjoy much privacy as they are served by a team of working termites. They surround the Queen, taking care of her immediate needs and supplying her with food.

As the eggs are laid, the workers carry them between their jaws to the incubator chamber.