Overview of termite species
Termites are primitive and eusocial insects and present on Earth 200 million years ago, living in colonies. They are classified by three species Kalotermitidae (dry-wood termites), Rhinotermitidae (wet-wood termites) and Termitidae (ground termites) in which Coptotermes house termites belonging to the family Rhinotermitidae are the most popular species causing most harms to construction works in Vietnam.
Every year, termites cause considerable financial damages to many nations in the world including Vietnam. Every year, we have to spend a huge amount of money in maintaining and repairing damages caused by termites at construction works.
Termites’ destruction focuses on construction works, materials with Celluloces origin used in dykes, storehouses, libraries and even swimming-pools etc. Besides, termites cause serious damages to industrial trees such as green tea, mango, longan, litchi… and many kinds of bonsai with highly economic value, directly affecting human life.
Construction works are facing implicit threats from termites. Houses, storehouses, trees … are damaged by termites at different level. For houses and storehouses in our country, most serious damages are caused by termites species belong to the family coptotermes (also called wet-wood termites), next are ground termite species mostly belonging to the two families Odontotermes and Macrotermes, at last dry-wood termite species belonging to the family Cryptotermes. coptotermes species make underground nests in work foundations, trees or other work structures. They damage different stories of the work.
Termites are classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera, feeding on food sources containing cellulose. They have the following common characteristics: Workers’ jaws (food foragers) are chewing ones which help them chew hard wood including ironwood or plastic materials. When foraging for food, they often heap up land to create protection barrier around. Some species can dig holes underground.
They mainly cause damages to the following economic objects:
- Destroying wood furniture and components in works.
- Destroying underground cable system and electronic equipment.
- Causing depression to work foundations, documents, books, cartons or materials with Cellulose origin and termites’ favorite food.
- Termites make trees break, collapse and die.
Why are termites called eusocial insects?
In colonies, every individual group carries out specific functions called decentralization. Every colony just exists with full castes. One typical colony consists of the following basic castes:
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Workers account for the most individuals in the colony.Worker termites undertake the labors of foraging and processing food, building best, regulating weather within the nest and forecasting periods of copulating and swarming, taking care of young termites and other members of the colony, communicate information to other individuals.
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Soldiers account for the least individuals in the colony, fighting against enemies to protect the colony..
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Kings and queens havereproductive function. Every colony often has 1 king and 1 queen but some colonies have some kings and some queens.
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Winged castes areprofessional reproductive individuals, leaving the old colony to make a couple to create a new nest independent of the old colony.
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Besides, there are many nymphs inthe colony, which will mature and be classified by caste under control of the colony.
The existence of one colony is based on self-conscious implementation combination of functions by castes. They ensure the balance of nutrition, energy, micro-weather within the nest, fighting against enemies and maintaining the race. These characteristics make them eusocial insects.
Why can you detect termites in your assets?
In general, there are nests and subnests which are rather similar to each other. While one nest consists of all castes, a subnest only contains workers, soldiers, nymphs and mature termites.
Termites’ nest can be classified as follows:
- Nests in wood (mainly dry-wood termites): the whole nest is in the timber, not relating to the ground. The nest structure is simple with small colony. There are small intercommunicating holes which communicate with the outside.
- Nests in wood and ground: nests may be in dry wood, trees and partially in the ground
- Swelling nests: there are mounds higher than the ground and some deeply underground.
- Underground nests: totally underground
There are specific signals and characteristics on wood damaged by termites. In damaged wood structures, land stains or “mud” appear. Areas damaged by termites are very “dirty”. Just soft layers of wood are eaten by termites. There are holes like beehives. Detecting such signals means that your assets are threatened by termites. Let’s deal with such problem immediately!