Yesterday I had a chance to talk to that knowledgeable pest specialist, Dovid Davis of Baltimore, Maryland. Dovid and I had never talked about termites, so I asked him to tell me about them. And, I was glad I did, because this proved to be the most interesting discussion I have had with Dovid.. David said that we were mostly going to talk about subterranean termites. They naturally live in the ground, like earthworms, and they eat cellular and wood byproducts such as paper. Dovid told me there are basically three stages of termite life, which are identified. One of these is the nymph stage. As a nymph, termites closely resemble a maggot, meaning a small white worm maybe a fifth of an inch or even less in size. They live in colonies. The core or center of which is the queen, whose sole purpose is to create the workers; and, there can be thousands of them in a colony. They are all her children, and while they work, she produces babies. The workers, in turn, feed the queen, and they all live together, below the surface. Here, Dovid told me an amazing fact about termites, if the workers are exposed to open air they die within 20-30 seconds. They can't be exposed to the open air. A moisture level of 15-18% will dry them out. Sounds a bit like man on the moon. The termite workers live and exist within these termite tunnels. When the queen wishes to enlarge her colony, she will then breed out a second type of termite called a swarmer, which is a flying termite with an exoskeleton. This outside shell allows this termite to live above ground. According to Dovid, the swarmers will generally be present in the middle of March and April. They're development is triggered by warm weather. There can be hundreds or thousands in one swarm. up to 5-10 thousand. The swarmers do not eat wood. Their sole purpose is to fly around, find a mate, (the swarmers come in male and female.), and find another underground tunnel where they can start a new colony. And this entire process must take place in less than 20 hours, which is the average life span of the swarmer. And that, Dovid concluded, ends the description of the life cycle of the swarmer. If the underground termites wish to expand their colony without relying on swarmers, they have to do it by enlarging their underground tunnels. They build the tunnels using a mixture of soil plus their own waste, gradually tunneling from point A to point B. Now here's the incredible point. When you go into someone's basement, and see mud tunnels going up and down the walls, this is the termite turnpike for the workers going from the soil up to a wooden beam, and back down the wall again. Like vampires, they must return to the soil every 24 hours or they will die. And this action goes on continually 24 hours a day. Dovid informed me that if you were to go up to one of these tunnels, and poke a hole in it, the workers inside must immediately either repair the hole or seal off the tunnel that is broken and create a new tunnel. And they must do this within a few seconds or they will die. They will use these tunnels to go along cinderblock walls, up through the middle of the brick or even around it. They will go up even 10 feet in the air to eat the studs, enlarging the tunnel as they go. And unbeknown to us, this subterannian life can go on in one locale for 60-90 days, or for as long as 10 years. While we think of them as lowly creatures, their existence is not unlike the life man will have when we colonize the Moon or Mars, and have to live in glass bubbles to survive. Now Dovid addressed the big question. Okay, so we know the termite lifestyle; what do we do to get rid of them. Dovid told me there are two phases of eradication. The first stage of eradication is to prevent termites from entering the house from the outside soil, and the second stage is to kill the ones that have already penetrated the home. Dovid told me there are a variety of approaches to exterminating the termites. However, the most common method is to go on the outside of the house around the perimeter, this is stage one. Dovid's technique is to dig a 6-8 inch trench around the foundation. He then puts a long rod into the soil down to the footers, and injects with the termiticide. This will kill the termites who are trying to get in. As they come in contact with the termiticide, it will kill them. Internal walls are treated by drilling into whatever substrate; the wall is made of and injecting with a termiticide. The treatment is very powerful, and when successful can protect a home for up to 5-10 years. However, this is dependent on the creation of a uniform barrier around the house. According to Dovid, the exterminator has to be careful not to allow his chemical line of defense to be interrupted by a pipe or a tree stump. In fact, according to Dovid, if there is a gap of a single inch in the chemical barrier, the termites will find it and will find their way back into the house. So a typical average house uses between 75 gallons and 125 gallons of termiticide for a single treatment. Now Dovid finished with one more amazing fact. The new generation of termiticides is unique among insecticides. Whereas the old generation of termiticides were repellants, with a smell that drove the termites away, the new generation are attack viruses, which specifically thrive on termites. When the termite crawls through it he will pick up the infection and then bring it back to the queen. It takes 2-3 three weeks to knock out a colony. And the virus doesn't attack humans. Well, that wraps up another episode of "Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist," and I wish you all a pest free day!
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Termites live a dark complex life inside undergorund tunnels and chambers surrounding the central queen termite who is the mother of every worker in the colony. Termites expand their colony via special swarmer termites and by underground exapansion. They are eradicated by extensive application of termiticide.
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