These bugs that bother you are actually a group of tragic "cockroaches"

The annual termite carnival has entered people's field of vision again. Whether it is the news that Liu Genghong was busy fighting termites in his live broadcast room a while ago, or the news that Shanghai failed to prevent and control termites in time due to the epidemic, termites have appeared on the hot search again. In fact, this is not a special phenomenon this year. In areas where termites are distributed, May and June are the breeding season for termites. Many people who don’t like insects often feel great pressure during this period.

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So are these little bugs deliberately trying to make things difficult for humans? Is it necessary to kill them all? What should you do if they really get into your home? Let's talk about it in detail today.

01

It's not an ant, it's a cockroach

These guys with wings are actually the reproductive ants of termites. We call the behavior of reproductive ants coming out in groups to have a party "flying apart". To put it bluntly, it is the "blind date meeting" agreed upon by termites. This blind date meeting is often held on rainy nights. They gather on dim street lights. After a night, when people wake up, they find that they have left only their wings all over the ground and their companions who fell into the water. It is because they like to fly apart on rainy days to show their presence in front of people that they are called "water ants".

Whether it is called termites or water ants, this "ant" is not that "ant" - termites are not white ants. Entomologists divide termites and ants into two families. Termites originally had their own family, collectively known as Isoptera, and later they were classified into Blattodea, which is a kind of social "cockroach", while ants are the same as wasps. Just looking at this classification, you can know that the fighting power of termites and ants is not at the same level.

In the wild, this is indeed the case. Like most cockroaches, termites use humus (rotten wood, rotten leaves) as their main food source. In addition to various sweets, the ants' menu also includes various insects, including termites - "termites have n times the protein of beef, slurp~".

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Although both are social insects, the two categories have some differences in their composition. After mating, the male and female termites "return home together" - after mating, the termites will find a suitable place to live together, dig together, have children and raise daughters, and then build a large family of termites. We often call them "ant king" and "ant queen". The queen of the big white meat worm we often see is actually the termite queen who "gets fat after marriage".

After mating, the male ants die, leaving the female ants to dig their nests. Therefore, ants only have queens, not kings. In contrast, the number of termites in a nest is generally greater than the number of ants.

02

Should all termites be killed?

We all hate the fact that termites eat wood, and our attitude towards them is often "destroy them, quickly!"

In the past, when houses were basically made of wood, termites were really annoying. Ancient texts mentioned termites: "city gates collapse on their own, large ships recover on their own", and "newly built houses are eaten up by termites within a few months". This is not an exaggeration.

Wouldn't it be better to get rid of such creatures as soon as possible? Wait a minute, because termites are actually very important members of nature. Their food source is mainly wood and other humus. They can decompose these dead plants into nutrients in the soil at a speed several times faster than other decomposers, accelerating the circulation of substances. Unfortunately, this characteristic conflicts with human interests.

Wood is not easy to digest, so why do termites still eat wood? It turns out that termites also know how to ask for "internal help" - their intestinal symbiotic bacteria can help them digest wood and convert it into the nutrients they need. These symbiotic bacteria are like treasures passed down from generation to generation. Older worker ants will pass on the symbiotic bacteria to younger and immature worker ants through feeding back. The space of rotten wood is limited, which may limit the family of this type of termites from being too large.

However, those termites that fly away and directly "move in" into rotten wood and easily obtain food are the "non-mainstream" termites. It would be biased to hate all species of termites because of them.

It turns out that termites that live in the soil are the main type of termites, such as the common yellow-winged giant termites and black-winged earth termites. These two are the main members of the "termite blind date conference" we see. They live deep underground, and in the documentary I can also see some termites that will develop their nests to the ground and build huge ant chimneys.

03

Termites are actually related to being eaten

Among the "indigenous residents", some species of termites can "live on the land". These termites will use plant residues or their feces to make mushroom culture medium (the main component is cellulose that termites cannot digest), and slowly form a huge spherical fungus bed. They feed on the hyphae grown by fungi, and some species of fungi will grow nutrients specifically for termites to eat, forming a symbiotic relationship.

A worker termite. Note that its jaws are relatively small. | Photo provided by the author

This symbiosis between termites and fungi is crucial for foodies.

Because many of these fungi are rare wild mushrooms, such as the chicken mushroom, chicken mushroom flower, etc. These wild mushrooms grow from the mushroom beds of ant nests and emerge from the soil during the rainy season. If there are no termites in the forest, what should foodies do?

In addition to producing food, termites themselves are also food... Although termites look weird and scary, their status is actually a bit awkward - for many animals, they are just important high-protein nutrients. This is because termites are easier to bully than ants - they do not have hard shells like ants, and they are not easy to mess with. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of a single termite is also very worrying. Insects of the same size as ants can just pick up termites and run away, which is so easy.

In addition, termites can be said to have a miserable fate. Pangolins lick them; various predatory arthropods suck and chew them; various birds peck and swallow them; even some primates have learned to pick up branches and poke them into termite holes to catch them for their snacks (including humans). In short, many animals want to get a piece of the pie.

Of course, even the weakest animals have some means of defense. Termites also have special "guards" - soldier ants. They can't do anything. Even when they eat, they need to be fed by worker ants. They have only one duty - to protect their companions and homes. The most common type of soldier termites is similar to ants. They have a pair of huge and powerful teeth (maxilla) as weapons of attack, which they wave to intimidate natural enemies. In addition, there is a type of termite called elephant termite, which has a "trunk" that can fire toxic chemicals at natural enemies to defend itself.

Soldier ants of the ground termites. Note the large mandibles pointed by the arrows. Photo provided by the author

But in general, the poor termites' main way to fight against the world's malice is still "grow more, grow faster, and it's my bad luck if you eat them all"...

04

Termite invasion, what to do

It seems that these termites have great value to the ecology and they have a pretty bad time in nature. So what should we do if they want to enter our homes?

The answer is naturally: Sorry, die!

Although termites may seem to be numerous, we don’t need to worry too much. It is not difficult to prevent these termites from entering our homes or to eliminate them. Here are some simple methods to help.

Prevention: Most of our houses now have mosquito-proof windows, which are no problem for mosquitoes, and it is not difficult to prevent these big guys. On rainy days, be sure to close the windows to prevent termites from taking advantage.

Early killing: The reproductive ants are phototropic when they fly. As the saying goes, "flying ants fly towards the light", so there is a simple and effective way: set up a light and put a basin of water under the light. When the reproductive ants are tired of flying, they will all fall into the water and die.

Termites are attracted to light | Tuchong Creative

Some termites cannot enter the house, but they can dig holes in the corners of the walls outside the house or in any cracks with soil. The next day, we can find the excavated soil particles in such places. If we dig a little deeper, we can find a pair of "ant men and women" and kill them!

Spraying pesticides: If termites have already moved into your home, you can only spray pesticides. You can find their homes, search your home, and spray pesticides to kill them. You can also sprinkle special termite pesticides at home. Some pesticides take advantage of the habit of termites to feed their companions and carry poison into the entire nest. However, if termites have already formed a large scale in your home, we cannot resist them. If the method is not appropriate, it will often only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. Therefore, it is better to leave it to professional termite control personnel.

In fact, in general, we don’t need to be too afraid of termites. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer wooden houses. The wood used in furniture has also been added with a lot of chemical agents for anti-corrosion. Under reinforced concrete, termites have no way to survive. Most of the termites that fly into our field of vision are from the mountains and forests, causing the lights to lose their direction and enter the city. Most of them die, which can be said to be very tragic.