Subterranean Termite Biology

  In nature, termites have an important role, they eat dead trees, with the help of bacteria in their digestive systems, they digest the wood and return the nutrients to the soil. Unfortunately the don’t know the difference between dead trees in a forest man made wooden structures.

Subterranean termites live in the soil as they are in constant threat of drying out. Soil has the capacity to hold water for a long period of time and keep the colony moist. When termites forage above ground, they must maintain their connection to the soil so that the workers and soldiers can return periodically to replenish their body moisture. The mud tubes provide the termites with this soil connection. However, on some occasions subterranean termite colonies do become established above ground. These above ground infestations are almost exclusively found in structures with chronic moisture problems.

Although subterranean termites can chew through and damage many materials, they can only obtain nutrition from cellulose. However, subterranean termites cannot digest cellulose on their own. In order to digest wood, subterranean termites have large numbers of microorganisms in their gut that convert the wood fiber into usable nutrients. If there were no microorganisms in the gut, the termite could eat constantly but still die of starvation. In the colony most food is shared mouth to mouth. Foraging worker termites feed directly on wood or other cellulose material then store the food in their gut. They then return to the nest and feed the immature termites, soldiers, and reproductive's.