Termites

Termite Facts (for eastern subterranean termites or Formosan termites)

• Termites are one of the few animals able to utilize wood/cellulose as a food source.
• Termites have symbiotic protozoa and other microbes in their gut that digest cellulose.
• Eastern subterranean termites are native termites that occur throughout the eastern United States.
• Eastern subterranean termites occur in all 82 counties of Mississippi.
• Mature eastern subterranean termite colonies contain around 50,000 to 200,000+ termites.
• Formosan termites are non-native termites, first detected in Mississippi in 1984.
• Formosan termites are currently known to occur in 25 counties in Mississippi.
• Formosan termite colonies can contain more than one million termites, but are usually smaller.
• Unlike ants and bees, termite workers may be either male or female.
• Male reproductive termites are known as kings.
• Unlike ants and bees, king termites live inside the colony with the queen.
• Primary termite queens and kings may live 10 to 15 years or longer.
• An established termite queen may lay more than 1000 eggs per day.
• Older termite colonies may also contain secondary and tertiary reproductive termites.
• Total egg production of secondary and tertiary reproductives may exceed that of the queen.
• Eastern subterranean termites are beneficial to southern forests, helping decompose dead trees.
• Termite workers do not have eyes; they are sightless.
• Termites reproduce by producing winged reproductive termites, known as swarmers.
• Swarmers leave the parent colony, find a mate, and attempt to start a new colony elsewhere.
• Swarmers shed their wings shortly after swarming.
• It takes a termite colony around five years or more to grow large enough to produce swarmers.
• Fire ants readily prey on termite swarmers attempting to found new colonies.
• Termites forage primarily in the top six to twelve inches of soil.
• Termites forage randomly by tunneling through soil and over stone until they encounter wood.
• Once they encounter a food source, workers recruit others to the source and begin feeding.
• Older termite colonies do not have a single, central nest.
• A mature termite colony will have many different “nest sites” (places where eggs are laid).
• An average suburban landscape will contain several different termite colonies (up to 25/acre).
• Finding eastern subterranean termite swarmers indoors is a sure sign the building is infested.
• Buildings that are not properly protected from termites will become infested by termites.

Dr. Blake Layton, Extension Entomology Specialist
Department of Entomology, Mississippi State University             
Phone: 662-325-2960
Email: blake.layton@msstate.edu