‘Giant’ termites put Florida in a panic

Press, 19 December 1984, Page 53

‘Giant’ termites put Florida in a panic

NZPA-Reuter Gainesville, Florida A ferocious Formosan is Florida’s new insect enemy. The state legislature this year created a special coordinating council to study ways of fighting the Formosan termite, which can eat through wood six times as fast as ordinary termites. Formosan termites were identified in Asia in 1909 and are believed to have reached the United States in the early 19705. Since then colonies have been spotted in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. Officials fear that the year-round warmth will help them spread quickly through the southern part of Florida. The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences plans to hire two scientists who had experience fighting the pest in Hawaii. The Formosan termite is twice the size of the normal termite. By reputation, it is even larger than life, according to the institute’s Professor of entomology, Daniel Shankland. “They can’t eat their way through bricks, concrete or steel as some people have

claimed,” Professor Shankland said. But if there are small cracks in the concrete foundation or exterior masonry of a building, hungry Formosans will use them as avenues to get at the structural timber they crave. Like their smaller cousins, the Formosans also secreted fluids which helped them chomp through plaster, Professor Shankland said. Because they form underground colonies, not only houses but the soil round them must be fumigated to kill them. In Hawaii, Professor Shankland said, Formosan termite colonies had been measured up to 300 metres across. “Even if you treat the area immediately around a building, a large colony can still have plenty of reserves to reinfest the building,” he said. He said that scientists were trying to find out if dogs could be used in the battle. “Dogs have already been trained to detect ordinary termites — a scientist in California has trained beagles to do this. Now we need to find out if they can do the same with Formosans,”

he said. Another University of Florida entomologist, Catherine Thompson, has pounded hundreds of wooden stakes into nearly 3000 square metres of soil around a house where the insects swarmed recently. The stakes will be checked periodically for termite damage and electronic stethoscopes are attached to find out if the insects can be heard underground. Professor Shankland hopes insect pathogens — diseases — may eventually be found which can destroy huge colonies of Formosan termites. “There may be certain fungi, bacteria, or viruses that could be used to innoculate a colony,” he said. “If we could infest a colony with such a pathogen it could be lethal to a colony. “The problem is none are available yet. We might try to engineer lethality into existing pathogens, possibly by gene splicing or some other technique,” he said. In the meantime, Floridians would have to learn to live with their unwelcome visitors, Professor Shankland said. “If you can reduce the use of wood in buildings, you should do that,” he said.