Isoptera
- Insect with chitinous carapace
- Flying, crawling
- Material pest
Termites are one of the most important material pests in tropical and subtropical regions. They cause great damage worldwide, mainly to buildings.
Termites are not disease vectors.
More data
Class: Insects
Size: 2 to 18mm
Weight: Variable
Age: 2 to 10 years (queen)
Appearance: White to pale yellow, six-legged
Sexual dimorphism: Yes
Food: Wood, grass, humus or fungi (depending on species)
Distribution: Worldwide (except Antarctica), more than 2'900 species
Original location: Unknown
Sleep-wake rhythm: Nocturnal
Habitat: Prefers warm climates
Natural enemies: Ants, anteaters, echidnas, chimpanzees, various insectivorous birds, etc.
Sexual maturity: Only in kings and queens
Mating season: Possible all year round (taking temperature into account)
Social behaviour: State-forming insect
Threatened with extinction: No
- Termites or Isoptera describes an order of insects that includes almost three thousand species worldwide and is divided into more than two hundred genera.
- Most species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa and the Americas, but termites are also found in Europe and North America.
- The destructive power of termites is enormous: termites cause great damage to buildings and plants every year in warm and dry areas. Homeowners spend billions of dollars each year to control termites and to repair the damage they cause.
- What all termite species have in common is that they live in huge colonies with up to three million insects.
- In tropical rainforests or savannas, their columnar or pyramidal termite mounds can grow several metres high, characteristic of many landscapes.
- In Africa, termite-built mounds can grow up to 7 metres high and have a base diameter of more than 20 metres.
- These above-ground structures are a mixture of soil, termite saliva, wood and excrement. A state usually consists of several mounds connected underground.
- The termite mound consists of hundreds of rooms, passages and cells. These are used for various purposes, from storage to rearing larvae.
- Thanks to the unique ventilation system, the same temperature conditions are always maintained in the termite mound, no matter how the climate changes. Humidity and fresh air supply always remain unchanged.
- Other termite species build underground structures or nests on trees.
- Termites are closely related to cockroaches and grasshoppers.
- The colour of termites is white, yellow or light brown, depending on the species, and they can grow up to 15mm long.
- They are very different from ants because their body consists of one continuous piece and is not divided into chest and abdomen. The body is surrounded by a soft chitinous carapace.
- King and queen, soldiers and workers (male, female) all live in a termite colony.
- King and queen remove their wings after the mating flight and spend the rest of their lives in the nuptial chamber. There, the queen, up to 14cm long, regularly mates with the king and lays an egg every few seconds.
- Brood care, food procurement, expansion of the burrow and care of the king pair are the workers' tasks.
- The soldiers with their huge mouthparts defend the termite colony against ants and other enemies. If the defence does not work by biting the enemy, they blow themselves up, spraying a poisonous secretion from their salivary glands at the enemy.
- Termites feed mainly on wood, plants or humus. There are also species that cultivate fungi in special fermentation chambers.
- Depending on their preferred food, termites can be divided into humus-, wood- or omnivorous species. Like other herbivores, they have a fermentation chamber (intestinal sack) in their intestines, where symbiotic protozoa (multicellular flagellates) live, which are necessary for the conversion of cellulose into glucose.
- Large amounts of the greenhouse gases CO2 and methane are produced by the termites during digestion. There is also an unusual amount of naphtaline in their nests, which is probably used as a chemical signal during communication or defence. Scientists are currently trying to determine the exact sources, environmental impact or amounts of naphtaline in the tropical rainforest.
In which area does the pest occur?
The area of application determines which products are recommended to control this pest.
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