For us humans, termites are undeniably sociable creatures as they act in destroying structures as a colony. However, while several of us might complain about our children making a mess in our house, these little creatures literary could do this and even destroy our house without mercy.
You may observe termites dwelling in colonies of numbers from approximately about hundreds of thousands to many millions which is all part of one big family. They all work hand in hand in an unbelievably organized manner to search and gather food in the form of cellulose where in several cases come from wood structure of buildings in order that the colony to achieve growth and thus further expand. This terrific teamwork is referred to as swarm intelligence and is the purpose why termites are so triumphant when it comes to survival. Nonetheless, as you would expect in any organization termites seem to have ranks that are kind of like the armed forces where in particular termites specialize in specific tasks.
The largest group and generally having the lowest rank are the worker termites. They continuously search for food using the tunnels they have built which go from the colony nest through the soil and into the wood that could easily be the frame of your house. They do this all throughout the day and night as well as take good care of the queen, her young as well as other termites. This is due to the reason that only worker termites could digest the cellulose matter therefore they have to bring it to the colony to feed other termites that are there. You would almost definitely never catch any of these worker termites away from the underground passages as well as the nest. How would you know that one is a worker termite? Well, they are light in color and have soft bodies that usually measure up to 10mm in length. They usually appear similar to the size of a grain of rice.
Meanwhile, soldier termites have heads that are longer as well as extremely powerful jaws. As the name implies “soldier”, these termites are in charge of the ensuring the security of the whole colony. They act on defending the nest from the enemy most usually ants that try to attack and invade.
On the other hand, there are termites that are responsible for breeding as well as the introduction of new colonies. Both of the females and males grow wings and flee their home colony in a gigantic swarm to start the whole life cycle process in a new area. The queen perceived as the most essential of the termites and the largest usually reaching around 10 cm in length and by herself she is unable to move and transfer. In order to move the queen, it requires quite some hundreds of termites to push her. This is the termite that has the responsibility for multiplication of the colony and could lay eggs every fifteen seconds? When she dies, she is substituted quickly by another reproductive termite.
The opportunities of you ever observing any of these termite groups in motion in the premises of your property is so much limited unless you observe a swarm leaving the nest but even with this occurrence, it is almost impossible whether it is termites or not. Nevertheless, signs of termites would become perceivable when they start to attack the wood structure of your property even outdoor structure such as a shed garden.