The termite is the goat of the insect world. Like a goat, termites will try to eat just about anything. Most people assume that termites eat only wood, but termites will dine on fungi, paper, books, cloth, leather, fiber, particle board, lead-sheathed telephone cable, plastic piping and plastic-sheathed cable. Generally speaking, though, when termites get hungry, they think of wood for dinner.
In North America, termites do tremendous damage to fence posts, trees, timbers of wooden buildings, bridges, trestles, the woodwork of houses and furniture. Subterranean termites, the most destructive termites in the United States, do not nest in wood. They feed on wood and then return by way of tunnels to their nests in the ground.
However, there are some termite species that actually live in dead wood. As they eat the wood, they create tunnels, expanding the nest for their ever-increasing families. In other words, to make homes for themselves, these termites will eat our homes for dinner!
Termites are not all bad. In natural settings, they fulfill a vital function in breaking down the forest debris into raw materials that nourish new trees. Termites get into difficulty because they cannot tell the difference between a fallen tree and wood that is being used by humans. In the tropics, termites perform the same function as earthworms do in North America, aerating the soil and supplying channels through which water, with its life-giving minerals, moves.
A word of caution, though: If you have a wooden leg, stay away from a termite nest–or you may not have a leg to stand on.
FAMILY: Rhinotermitidae
GENUS: Reticulitermes
SPECIES: flavipes