TERMITE PEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 14

TERMITE PEST.

"WHITE ANT" DANGER

THREAT TO WOOD DWELLINGS

There is an Australian in New Zca--1 '. wlio is directly responsible for the worried look ne may see on the faccs of Auckland and Taranaki house-owners. He is the misnamed "white ant"—really the subterranean termite—who has the distinctive name of Coptotermes. . The depredations lie is causing arc a source of grave worry, for if there is anything lie likes it is a nice meal of wood cellulose. A tasty cottage or bungalow is nectar to him. Though these termites have been callfc l "white ants," their nearest relatives appear to be the .cockroach family, and true ants are really their enemies. They form their colonies in the ground or in timber in direct contact with the ground. At some time or other in their development these termites have learned to use wood cellulose—ordinarily indigestible—as a l'ood, and it has been found that they have infusoria in them that break the cellulose down into srgar. Must Have Moisture. They have probably been called white ants became of their greyish white colour and the general shape of the body. They live in complicated and s etimes very large colonies, but there is one fundamental difference between them ..ml drv-wood termites and that is their essential need for moisture. In order to live they must have a moist atmosphere, and to obtain this essential condition they form their nests in the ground. These nests may be entirely below the surface, or in some cases they may protrude above the ground, forming a termite mound.

These niouiKls are a common feature of the Australian landscape, and have been found underneath houses in New Zealand. Made of a clay-like substance, they arc hard and brittle, and contain numerous galleries. The colonies arc established in the usual way by the royal pair, and since the most desired food is wood, foraging parties are sent out from the nest to obtain this substance. Those parties proceed to tunnel underground, such tunnels being formed at a depth of as much as from 2ft to 3ft under the soil.

A supply of wood being found, it is destroyed and the food carried back to the nest, and if, in this search for food, the insects have to come above ground, they form small mud tubes or tunnels on the surface of the material which they have to cross, these tunnels being carried up to the timber which the insects enter. The interior of the wood attacked is also lined with mud, the object being, of course, to ensure the retention of moisti.i2. Pampered Queen. When the royal pair create the new colony the queen commences to lay her eggs and the "nymphs" are hatched, the king and queen doing the housework until the youngsters grow up, when the q .cen becomes an automatic egg-laving nn .-hine, monstrous and swollen, with legs that are useless. She is built into a royal chamber, fed, groomed and attended, her eggs being taken to the breeding cells by the workers.

It must be explained that from the lirst stage—the ''nymphs'*—are created three castes. The worker caste is tlie most numerous and does the greater part of the damage to houses. ° Then there is the soldier caste, armed with two large pineer-like mandibles. These soldiers have another weapon of defence or offence in that they can emit a milkJike fluid from the head, which is toxic to the enemy—usually the true ant. They guard the terinitarium and the runways, though they are not numerous. The third branch are the winged reproductivts, who ay destined tobe the kings and queens of the future. In the nvmphal stage the skin is sloughed seven times—similar to the crustacean family—until each member of the family emerges in the form for v hicli he is fated. The winged reproductives have their wings all ready made and have, in addition, compound es. The workers and the soldiers arc totally blind and remain so all their lives.

When in the course of time, the winged reproductives have to form their own colonies, their workers make special apertures from which they leave. There are usually about 50,000 potential kings and queens in a colony of 1,000,000 termites and when they leave on their flight, which does not exceed a half-mile and is usually less, their approach to the aperture is guarded by the soldiers. Fate of Cannibals. A tremendous amount of damage has been done to houses by these insects. They hollow out the wood often in very wide longitudinal tunnels, the centre, of the timber being eaten away, though no damage is visible on the surface "until some person kicks what is apparently sound wood.

But there is one way of netting rid of the pest, though it must be done liv experta. The termites groom each others bodies, apparently cnjoyiii" a substance which they exude. Thev like it so much that they will CV en go to the extent of absent-mindedlv eatiii"each other, being cannibalistic to the greatest degree. Those who know their termites open one of the runways and blow an arsenical preparation " down. When the workers conic along to do repairs the poison is taken up on their bodies and those who groom them receive the poison and die. The cannibal colony eats all its dead, and the result is that a email amount of poison will wipe out a whole colony.

The other cure for the pest is to place termite stops under the house. Made from lion-corrosive metal and turned down at an angle of 4.> degrees, these prevent the termites from travelling from the ground up to the house, as it i* impossible for them to build their tunnel around the sharp edge—and thev must work under the cover of u runway. Another damaging pest, native to" New Zealand, is the dry-wood termite. Though it is to be feared, its destructiveness does not proceed so ouicklv. In the Auckland area and particularly on the West Coast the termite pest is spreading, and the time bais come when the matter will have to be taken up seriously. Just how the Government views the question is revealed by the fact that the Termites Bill is on the programme to be dealt with before the session ends.