[Annual Termite Issue] More Questions Than Answers

They spend 75 percent of their time doing absolutely nothing. Fifteen percent of their remaining time is spent eating — but only 5 percent of that is eating food they’ve gathered themselves. And at least part of the little time left is spent grooming one another.

No, they’re not Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. These creatures of leisure are termites.

At PestWorld 2006, Brian Forschler, Ph.D., the principal investigator for the University of Georgia’s household and structural entomology program, offered this surprising description of a day in the life of a termite. His presentation, "A New View of Termite Biology Explains Treatment Mysteries," illustrated how little we know about these "cryptic creatures" and how learning more about their biology is key to successful management.

RESEARCH VS. REAL WORLD. Forschler’s 14 years of research has focused on determining how termites survived and thrived over millions of years of changing habitat, and how those patterns affect modern approaches to termite management. He notes that termites living millennia ago along America’s East Coast vied for a limited supply of resources in a competitive environment where fungi and more than 140 types of beetles also fed on dead wood.

"Competition has shaped how termites’ biology developed," Forschler says. "The East Coast, where I’ve focused my research, is a landmass that is 10 to 20 million years old and was once an open savanna dominated by fire. Termites lived in a grassland habitat with open spaces and only a few dead trees. They have a flexible, opportunistic, dynamic life history and are prepared for many eventualities."

One of the primary difficulties in studying termites involves the research environment itself. When placed in a laboratory, termites may not act like they do in "the wild." However, Forschler’s work seeks to observe termites where they really live and has led to the understanding that termites typically use several feeding sites connected by galleries and tunnels. The termites’ movement patterns and construction techniques are important in determining how termiticides are transferred from soil to insects.

Yet various studies have come to different conclusions on the point of transferable toxins. Forschler says that termites eat by gathering food themselves, eating fecal cellulose from other termites or sharing partially chewed food. He adds that they seem to prefer chewed or digested food. Thus, it seems logical that termites would meet their demise by transferring toxins among the population instead of individually ingesting termiticide. However, other research found termites that perish from termiticide are likely to ingest it while tunneling, thus preventing the completion of the tunnel and depriving other termites of a potential food source.

Tunnel building also provides clues regarding behaviors that lead to contact with chemical treatments. The first intriguing point to consider is that not all termites are builders. However, a termite that stays off the job one day may be busy building tunnels the next. This behavioral variability confounds scientists who try to classify termite behavior into predictable patterns.

Despite their unpredictable work schedule, it is known that termites build their tunnels using their mouthparts as tools. Forschler describes a process in which termites "make little pills, or balls, of whatever it is they have to chew through and then deposit those bullets elsewhere."

Further complicating the tunnel-building picture is the propensity for researchers to study termites in the laboratory using sand as a building medium. "They hate sand," Forschler says. "They have to use a different system when they’re trying to build with grains of sand."

Hence, Forschler studies termites where they live — in the dirt. He uses a variety of techniques to study his subjects, hoping that there will be consistent findings across research modalities, resulting in more complete and compatible data. "Using just one research technique only gives you part of the picture," he explains.

In fact, Forschler cites this logic to support his theory that spot checking property for termite activity does not yield an accurate conclusion. Termites are known to be highly mobile species, and evidence of termites in a backyard does not mean that the insects will attack the house or that they’ll even remain in the same spot for a given period of time. Conversely, the absence of termites in one location doesn’t mean they’re not chewing on wood nearby. It seems that the more researchers look for consistent behaviors among termites, the more variations they find instead.

For instance, Forschler says that when it comes to the size of a termite population "the data is all over the map." Different researchers using different methods have drawn different conclusions. Even Forschler has noted differing results in his own research program. "What we can say is that these insects have a dynamic social organization," he says. "They’re always joining forces and then breaking their unions."

HANDS-ON ADVICE. So what does all this mean to pest control professionals, other than the fact that termites are unpredictable little critters? Forschler’s knowledge has led him to form some instructive recommendations.

When it comes to plastic bait stations, Forschler advises against making blanket statements about the demise of a termite colony and the protection of a structure based on bait placement followed by a three-month activity check. As mentioned previously, termites come and go in an unpredictable pattern, so while they may be away from a bait station when the technician inspects it, that doesn’t mean they won’t be back soon.

Another set of data reveals it takes more termiticide to deliver a lethal dose in a soil-based medium as opposed to sand. "We’ve got to look at termiticides as a way to protect a structure rather than as a way to wipe out a population," Forschler says. "Whatever is on the other side of the toxin is likely to be protected. But it’s the technician’s responsibility to explain that you can’t stick this stuff in the ground every few feet and definitely protect the house. And it’s the property owner’s responsibility to control moisture and landscaping near the house in order to help prevent termite infestation."

The most likely places to find termites gnawing on a structure are where two construction points come together. A crack or seam between boards or other materials provide termites with a path of least resistance. Therefore, technicians should always inspect these areas of a structure.

Forschler’s bottom line on termite programs, based on his research, is to recommend spot treatments and thorough annual inspections. "It’s easy for me to say — I’m not out in the field," he notes. "But anytime you put a food source and moisture together, termites have the potential to reproduce and become one big, happy termite family.

"I really don’t know what the future of termite management holds," he continues. "We’re going to have to innovate, move away from the old mentality of a one-time treatment, and switch to a service mentality paired with a good inspection program."

The author is owner of Compelling Communications and is a frequent contributor to PCT magazine. She can be reached at jvanklavern@giemedia.com.