TERMITE PROBLEM

Evening Star, Issue 23689, 24 September 1940, Page 3

TERMITE PROBLEM

M PEST IS SPREADING " GOVERNMENT TAKES SERIOUS VIEW There is an Australian in New Zealand who is directly responsible for the worried look one may see on the faces of Auckland and Taranaki house-owners (says the Auckland 'Star'). He is the misnamed " white ant " —really the subterranean termite—who has the distinctive name of Coptotermes. The depredations he is causing are a source of grave worry, for if there is anythiug lie likes it is a nice meal of wood cellulose. A tasty cottage or bungalow :s nectar to him. Though these termites have been called " white ants," their nearest relatives appear to bo 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 food, and it has been found that they have infusoria in them that break the cellulose down into sugar. MUST HAVE MOISTURE. They have probably been called white ants because of their greyish white colour and the general shape of the body. They live in complicated and sometimes very large colonies, but there is one fundamental difference between them and dry-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 bellow the surface, or in some cases they may protrude above the ground, forming a termite mound. These mounds are a common feature of the Australian landscape, and have been found underneath houses in New Zealand. Made of a clay-like substance, they are hard and brittle, and-contain numerous galleries. The colonies are 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 moisture. 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 queen becomes an automatic egg-laying machine, monstrous and swollen, with legs that are useless. Sho 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 first stage—the “ nymphs ” —are created three castes. The worker caste is the most numerous, and does the greater part of the damage to houses. Then there is the soldier caste, armed with two large pincer-like mandibles. These soldiers have another weapon of or offence in that they can emit a milklike fluid from the head, which is toxic to the enemy—usually tlm true ant. They guard the termitarium and the runways, though they are not numerous. The third branch are the winged reproduetives, who are destined to be the kings and queens of the future.

lii the nymphal stage the skin is sloughed seven times—similar to the crustacean family—until each/member of the family emerges in the form for which he is fated. The winged reproductives have their wings all ready made and have, in addition, compound eyes. The workers and the soldiers are 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 50.01)0 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 getting rid of the pest, though it must be done by

experts. The termites groom each other’s bodies, apparently enjoying a substance which they exude. They like it so much that they will even go_ to the extent of absent-mindedly eating 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 come 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 small 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 non-corrosive metal and turned down at .an angle of 4odeg, these prevent the termites from travelling from the ground up to the house, as it is impossible for them to build their tunnel around the sharp edge—and they must work under the cover of a runwav.

Another damaging pest, native to New Zealand, is the dry-wood termite. Though it is to be feared, its destructiveness does not proceed so quickly. In the Auckland area and particularly on the West Coast the termite pest is spreading, and the time has come when the matter will have to be taken up sorionslv. Just how the Government views the question is revealed hv the fact that the Termites BiU is on the programme to be dealt with shortly.