National Future Farmer

RECENTLY
a truck rumbled into
a Los Angeles gas station and
rolled up to the pumps located
under a portico. Suddenly, the sta-
tion's wooden columns melted to the
ground, the roof collapsed, and the
whole structure was literally reduced
to shambles.
Those insidious '"borers from within"
—termites—had been at work, honeycombing
the inside of the beams until
the building became a paper-thin skele-
ton. Invariably these wood-eating insects
stop feasting just before a beam
has been weakened enough to crash
and betray them. In this case, however,
the vibrations created by the truck
triggered the crumbling of the en-
feebled building.
Harmless as they appear, the ter-
mites are one of the most destructive
forces on this planet. Ranging in the
same general sizes as ants, they silently
and invisibly sabotage the works and
crops of man. Their powerful jaws
chomp at woodwork, beams, pier
pilings, telephone poles, and flooring, as
well as clocks, pianos, boats, shoes,
baseball bats, and railroad cars. In
their wake, houses crumble away, fur-
niture disintegrates, and clothing is reduced
to dust. It is estimated that in
the United States alone termites cause
an annual $100 million worth of de-
struction.
In general, these blind, quarter-of-
an-inch long, soft-bodied creatures lead
a highly-organized community life. The
caste system is a definite reality in the
termite scheme of things. Each colony
is composed of three adult groups: the
soldiers, the workers, and the royalty,
each group having its own specialized
duties. To round out the population,
there are the young, or nymphs, which
may develop into any of the three adult
groups.
The soldiers play a purely protective
role in this society. One type has
pincer-like jaws, or mandibles, with
which to crush the enemy. Another
44
Those Terrible Termites
They sal)otage the works of man while living a highly organized
connnnnity life which includes soldiers, workers, and royalty.
species is equipped with an eflfective
weapon in the form of a sticky fluid
which it carries in a gland in its head.
The soldier ejects the fluid through a
snout-like prolongation. When ejected,
this material forms a sticky semiliquid,
acid substance which covers
attacking ants, or other enemies, and
renders them helpless. Still other ter-
mites have spurs on their thorax as
supplementary armament.
"When a soldier termite senses danger,
possibly by noticing a strange odor, it
thumps its head on the floor—a seemingly
crude method for sending an SOS.
Yet, this system gets results, for other
soldiers rush out to meet the danger.
Often, the soldiers plug holes in the
walls of their colony with their heads.
This forms an almost impenetrable
barrier.
The industrious termite workers perform
all of the community's labor.
They gather the food and feed it to
the queen and to other termites. Even
the soldiers must be fed because their
huge jaws, so useful for defense, are
of no help in providing food. Most
of the damage caused by termites is
performed by the workers with their
By Frank L. Remington
saw-toothed jaws as they chew wood.
The little creatures thrive on the cellulose
in the wood.
In their food-providing duties, the
workers care for their domesticated
insects, which are milked for their
secretions, just as we keep cows for
milking. These domesticated insects
are beetles and flies, and over 500
species have been identified in various
termite colonies. Another source of
food for termites is their fungus gar-
dens. The workers tend these gardens,
cultivate them, harvest them, and dis-
tribute the crops.
In addition to their ""breadw inning"
duties, the workers must care for the
young and enlarge and extend the nest.
Termites make their nests either in
subterranean chambers in the soil, in
wood, or in elaborate nest mounds.
In the latter, the mounds sometimes
rise above the ground and stretch for
many yards under the soil by means of
subterranean passages. Frequently they
link up with other colonies to form
cities, kingdoms, and even empires.
Above the ground, the mounds arc
frequently 25 feet high and 40 feet
wide at the base.
The picture below shows what termites have done to the baseboard of a room.
They are a highly organized insect; even grow crops and keep "cows" for milk.
The National FUTURE FARMER