Until recently, termites were classified as Isopteran, but are now accepted as part of the epifamily known as Termitoidae, which are part of the cockroach family. Termites mostly feed on dead plant material, including wood, soil, rotting leaves, or animal defecation. Economically, these pests can be a great problem as they can cause serious structural damage to buildings, wide scale damage to forests, and harm to crops. These pests, living in colonies, which may house several hundred, to several million individual insects, survive with self-organized systems of activity. They use swarm intelligence, which exploits food services and environments unavailable to any single insect acting alone. A termite colony contains nymphs, workers, soldiers, and reproductive individuals of both sexes, sometimes containing several egg-laying queens.
Rank and file
A Queen at maturity has a large capacity to lay eggs. These queens can produce more than 2,000 eggs a day as the body expands before mating and reduces her ability to move. The mating begins with her secreting pheromones, which are useful in colony integration and these are spread through shared feeding. A Queen can live up to 45 years. These pests developed greatly over the centuries, and we need ways to prevent them from destroying our homes. The problem with them is that their damages are quite often concealed, so we cannot see the damage that they are doing to our homes and buildings. Once they are inside your home, they don’t limit themselves to wood, but also damage paper, cloth, and carpeting. Through pesticides, humans have caused a drastic population decline in these pests. There are many ways to treat these pests, and such treatments are:
- Termite resistant concrete, steel, or masonry foundations
- Barriers, such as poisoned soil, or poisoned plastics
- Chemically treated woods
- Woods naturally termite resistant
If termites have gotten into your building already, your first means of action is insecticides. Give a professional team like Absolute Pest Management a call. We are your first line of defense, attacking the problem before they overwhelm your home. After that we can assist you with steps on how to greatly decrease the opportunity they have in getting into your home. Give us a call, at 1-877-600-2263. We will gladly get a technician out to your home immediately to begin treatment, and rid your home of this pest problem.