Termite Control Protection & Treatment

The life cycle of the termite begin with a mating flight, wherein established colonies experience winged reproductive males and females leaving, and swarming and then going on to procreate. After fertilization, winged termites land and shed their wings, going on to form new colonies. These insects then become the king or queen termites of their newly-established colonies. The queen and king termites are the center of the termite life cycle and are solely responsible for reproduction.

Termite Eggs
Termite eggs resemble caviar but much smaller: they are small, white, translucent and ovoid in shape. A new queen's first clutch will contain approximately two dozens eggs. Each subsequent laying will contain smaller egg quantities, although termite queens can lay eggs throughout their incredibly long life spans. Termite eggs are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. However, they are laid in sheltered locations such as wall interiors or underground nests and are rarely seen by humans.


Termite Larvae
Termite larvae typically hatch within a few weeks. They are approximately the same size as the eggs from which they hatched and are immediately tended to by worker termites. Unlike insects such as the carpet beetle, termite larvae do not directly cause damage to infested homes. However, they comprise a large part of a termite colony and require constant feeding; worker termites feed on wood in order to feed the colony's larvae. Similar to other insect young, termite larvae go through a series of molts, during which they shed their skins, before developing into mature adults. Typically, termite larvae molt five times before becoming adults. From the larval stage, termite larvae can evolve into members of any of the colony's castes. Larvae are cared for by moving them from location to location in order to avoid intolerable temperatures. The colonies themselves are designed to ensure that delivery of food to larvae and relocation of larvae are possible.

Termite Caste
Over the course of several molts, these larvae grow to assume the role of one of the three termite colony castes: workers, soldiers and reproductive termite, also known as alates. Each caste has a distinctly different physical appearance.

Workers are sexually and developmentally immature insects that are responsible for constructing tunnels and chambers as well as feeding and grooming other termite castes. Their cuticle is unpigmented and not hardened, therefore the animals are confined to a dark and moist environment. Workers build the nest and galleries, they fetch food, care for the brood and feed reproductives and soldiers. The worker’s life span is one to two years.

Soldier termites are yellow-brown in color, with dramatically-enlarged heads and mandibles. These are useful in combat but render warriors incapable of feeding themselves, they have to be fed by workers. Soldiers are like the workers - sterile, wingless and blind males and females with an unpigmented, unsclerotized cuticle. Soldiers defend their colony from intruders by the use of powerful jaws and/or by ejecting a white sticky repellent from an opening on their head. Usually the number of soldiers is much smaller than the number of workers. Soldiers can be mandibulate or nasute, depending on the species. Therefore soldiers can be used for the identification of termite species. The life span of the soldiers is one to two years.

The reproductive possess compound eyes and are more or less brown due to their sclerotized cuticle. Developing reproductives have wing buds, wings or wing stumps. Reproductives can be further divided into:
* Alates, the young winged reproductives of both sexes. From time to time about 100 to 1000 alates leave the colony for a mating and colonising flight. After mating a pair settles down at a suitable site like a rotting scar on a tree in order to establish a new colony.
* De-alates, alates that cast their wings after the colonising flight and successively turn into queens and kings. Initially only a few eggs are laid and brought up by a female de-alate. As the number of individuals in the colony grows, the more workers are available to help the young queen to care for the brood. After three to five years the number of individuals is already so large, that the colony of a pest species can turn into the damaging stage.
* Queen and king, which are the main reproductive individuals in a colony. Once there are many workers to help the queen, her only job is to produce a tremendous number of offspring. A large queen may lay more than 1000 eggs per day. The life span of a queen can be as much as 50 years.
* Neotenics assist the queen in laying eggs, once her productivity decreases. When the queen has died or deteriorated, one of the neotenics takes her place. That is the reason why the removal of a queen from her colony does not necessarily mean the end of the colony.

Although it is not clear how larvae are relegated to a certain caste, some research has indicated that maturity and the overall needs of the colony may dictate caste assignment. In fact, research has indicated that castes in the termite life cycle are not rigidly set, as termites belonging to one caste may develop into another caste if the colony requires it. Soldiers, also referred to as intercastes might turn into workers or even into reproductives, if there is a shortage of individuals of other castes. This process is controlled by pheromones.