You may be surprised to realize just how much damage termites can do. But you have to bear in mind that while a single termite might be only eight millimetres (a third of an inch) in length, a colony or nest can contain between several hundred and several million termites.
Most of this number will be workers and their job is to go out and get enough food for all the inhabitants of the colony. In general, they search for cellulose material, but in practice that could be your house, especially if it is constructed primarily of wood. Not that they will not gnaw their way through other materials too.
Plastic, soft metals like lead, and even concrete are no real barrier to thousands of single-minded termites. But they prefer wood. Some varieties prefer dry timber and others prefer damp or rotting timber. However, do not think that you will necessarily see termite damage at a glance. Often termites will eat their way into the end grain of a piece of wood and then work their way up through the centre of it.
This section of the timber is the newest growth and, presumably, the most succulent to a termite. Anyway, they will eat into the centre of, say, a floor joist, and make a walk-way or gallery through it to the next piece of timber. So you might not realize that you have termites until they have so undermined your floor that you drop into the basement one day.
This is why, if you live in an region where termites are known to be vigorous, you should have your house inspected or sprayed at least once a year. Just because you have not observed a termite or any termite damage, does not mean that you have not got termites. Not by a long chalk.
There are three major types of termite: the damp wood termite, the dry wood termite and the subterranean termite. As you can see, no matter what state the timber in your house is in, there is a termite that will eat it. By far the nastiest of these is the subterranean termite and by far the nastiest of those is the Formosan termite. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are safe from the Formosan termite because you do not live in China. They are all over Asia and in the USA as well.
Subterranean termites, living underground, are obviously much more difficult to see. Not only that, they are either very smart or very shy, because they build walk-ways or tubes of earth from the exits from their underground nests to the nearest bit of timber. This helps them go unobserved, unless you know what you are looking for, and then, when they have reached timber, they will burrow into the end grain and they are off, eating their way into the very fabric of your house.
Within no time at all all the timber support beams, purlins, rafters and joists could be hollow shells of timber. One serious gust of wind or a heavy snowfall and that might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on lots of subjects, but is at present concerned with pictures of termites. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for further details.
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