Termites are social insects which live by thousands to millions in large colonies. They use the material of trees and other plants as their home including leaves, buds, bark, and twigs. This process of burying their dead for newborn termites can take up to two years depending on the kind of tree and other materials involved. The worker termites take care of feeding the other termites, ensuring that they grow up healthy and well fed so that they can be able to return to the nest and help take care of the colony. After a termite eats its way through the wood of a house, it lays eggs, called nymphs, which then become the first worker termites who seek the newly hatched termites and begin to eat them.

Dampwood termites live underground in damp wood, damp, or drywood termites prefer wood beneath the earth’s surface, drywood termites live above the earth’s surface, and usually feed on dead organic material. As their name would indicate, drywood termites look like darkish wood and tend to be much smaller than their subterranean cousins. Drywood termites infest houses that are in close proximity to cacti beds, vineyards, and abandoned barns. Subterranean termites have to live near wood because they are strictly survival oriented, and will only move indoors when there is food to eat.

Worker termites take care of looking for food, building the nest, and caring for the colony. The queen termite is responsible for reproductive, and she is the only termite allowed to mate under normal circumstances. When a reproduction is successful, the worker termites leave the colony to find food for the colony’s other termites. All other termites in the colony join in the reproduction process, creating a single mass of termites that are now one huge colony.

If you think you have termites and are in the Phoenix, AZ metro area contact our termite experts at Atomic Pest Control for help