Termites Explained
Briefly…Termite nests are made up of a QUEEN, ADULT REPRODCUTIVES, SOLDIERS and WORKERS. This is very similar to an ant colony, but in recent years, they are in fact now classed as part of the cockroach family. The termites that you could possibly see in your home would be the adult reproductives and the workers.
The adult reproductive termites are often mistaken for flying ants with their wings. However, this termite is thin, about a centimetre long, black or brown in colour, with wings that are longer than the body. When they exit a door frame or a hole in the wall, they automatically head for the light of a window or patio door, where they normally lose their wings and die.
Their idea is to find an old log or damp area to mate and lay eggs to start a new colony.
In a modern home, this of course is impossible and they die very quickly.
The real danger is in the jaws of the generally unseen worker termites that are eating away at the wood of your door frames, beams and sometimes the plaster on the walls. These workers are at it 24 hours a day, stripping the wood and plaster of the cellulose, which is their staple diet, and taking it back to feed the queen and other termites in the nest.
They can reduce a perfectly good door frame to looking like a Cadbury´s flake in a matter of 6 months or less!
These workers are creamy white in colour,blind but light sensitive. This explains the sandy, brown colour tubes that are sometimes seen, on the edges of door architraves and exiting a hole in the wall plaster.
The worker termites make these tubes with a mixture of excrement and devoured wood so that they are not exposed to the light whilst seeking new sources of cellulose to devour.
The most important thing to remember is that they will not go away by themselves !! Once one door frame has been devoured, then they will move on to the next one and so on…….
They will leave the door frame weak ,with normally only a thin layer of paint or varnish left in place, which they cannot digest, and the chance then of the frame collapsing or the door falling off its hinges
Unfortunately, we have seen many times, well meaning carpenters replacing a door frame without any kind of treatment apart from a spray with a supermarket insect aerosol and think they have killed the termites for good….wrong !! New wood without a termicide treatment just means fresh food to a termite. Six months down the line and its back to square one again and eaten door frames requiring replacing again !!
