Termites are a type of small insect generally found all across the world except Antarctica. Like ants and bees, the Termites colony is also divided into four-part Workers, soldiers, Queen, and male king termites. Termites live in a big colony and attack together. You can often find them in the woods. You can easily recognize by a thin plate of sand on the surface of wood or often a large sand structure. There are more than 1000 species are recognized all across the world. Termites are usually small, measuring between 4 to 15 millimeters.
Here are some unknown facts about Termites or most asked questions about termites.
Do termites drink water?
We all know water is one of the most important factors to staying alive. We, humans, need to drink a lot of water to fulfill the need for water but question is that do termites need water? Yes! Of course, like us, they also need an amount of water to stay alive but again question is that Do termites drink water? and how do they get water? One sweet and simple answer is they don’t drink water because they spend most of their time in the colony and their colony is so busy and they don’t have time to go for a search of water and there is also some danger from water so they don’t drink water.
But how do termites fulfill their water need? We all know that termites’ favorite food is wood and every type of wood has a little amount of water in the form of moisture. When termites eat the wood they fulfill their water need from the moisture of wood and this amount of water is enough for their little body’s need.
How bad are termites in a home?
Termites can destroy your house. Our house has many types of wooden things and wood is the favorite of termites. In a week termites can spread on the whole house and destroy half of your house. Our house has many wooden furniture like tables, chairs, windows, doors, and many more. Wood is one of the best sources of moisture for termites and they don’t hesitate to destroy wooden materials even books and papers.
If you leave your house with termites in a week they can ruin your house in a few days because they work day – night. Also, they don’t leave plants and trees. If you’re a gardening lover termites can destroy your garden if you don’t take any decision. Termites can destroy our important papers, diaries, and books too. Because of these reasons termites are dangerous for our house.
Is there any wood that is harder to eat for Termites?
Till now, there isn’t any wood which is harder to eat by termites. Termites not only use their mouth to destroy and eat wood also use some kind of chemicals that destroys the wood so there isn’t any harder wood discovered. There are many kinds of wood that termites don’t like so they don’t attract toward them and this type of wood is called termite resist wood.
How do termites benefit the ecosystem?
Termites also do damage to human property and most people don’t like termites in their house even near the house but still, termites are somehow important for the ecosystem. Do termites only destroy things than how they are beneficial for the ecosystem? The destroying nature of termites is helpful for the ecosystem because they help the ecosystem to recycle dead woods means destroying dead wood and cleanup space.
Suicide bomber termites
When a worker termite becomes older inside two pouches a blue liquid starts collecting. This type of pouches is also found in youngers too but the amount of blue liquid is lower. Suicide bombing in termites has been seen in Neocapritermes Taracua. Scientists believe that this blue liquid contains copper-containing enzymes. When worked termites become older they decide to protect the colony from enemies by suicide bombing this type of behavior of termites is called altruism. When any enemy like ant attacks this suicide bomber termite a type of hydroquinone-containing chemical is released inside the termite’s body and when it mixes with blue liquid it explodes and this mixed chemical is so toxic for enemies so enemy mostly decides to run away. In this suicide bombers protects their colony by suicide bombing method.
Reference –
1. https://youtu.be/DhZPKRuHThs Retrieved 2 November 2021
