Most people know that termites are a terrible thing for your home to become infested with. It is pretty common knowledge that they feast on the wood in your house and damage its structural integrity. However, these little silent pests are incredibly complex, and there are a lot of things about termites that the general public doesn’t know. Below are some incredible facts about these silent destroyers:
- Termites inflict more than 5 billion dollars worth of damage to property on an annual basis.
- The total weight of all the termites in the world is greater than the weight of all the humans in the world.
- Termites don’t take days off or even pause to sleep. Termite colonies feast on wood 24 hours a day, seven days a week during all 365 days of the year.
- Some termites can fly! They have wings but shed them once they find a good place to build a colony.
- Over 2,700 termite species have been discovered.
- Scientists believe that the first termites lived over 250 million years ago.
- People have found productive uses for termites. In some countries they are eaten as a protein rich snack. In others, the smoke of burning termites is inhaled as a treatment for respiratory ailments.
- Some termite queens can live between 30 and 50 years, giving them the longest lifespan of any insect on the planet.
- Wood isn’t the only thing they eat. Some termites have been known to ingest fabrics, plastics and even wallpaper.
- They use vibrations to communicate with one another. If a soldier termite senses a threat, it will bang its head against the tunnel wall causing vibrations to reverberate to the other members of the colony.
- Termites are extremely hygienic creatures and spend lots of time cleaning and grooming one another to prevent the introduction of disease into the colony.
- Termite queens can lay between 15 – 25 eggs per minute and up to 40,000 eggs in a single day.
Hopefully these facts have shed a bit of light on these fascinating creatures. Perhaps some of these facts have endeared this insect to you and inspired you to create a safe haven for them within your walls. Or not. More likely, these facts have shocked you and been quite disturbing.
If you don’t want these fast-breeding, long-living, non-stop wood-ingesting creatures infesting your home, contact https://www.optimumpestcontrol.com/ immediately. Termite eradication takes proper skill, equipment and know how. Don’t hesitate for even a single day to make that call. After all, now you know just how much a termite colony can accomplish in just twenty-four hours.