Termites exist in different colors, it is said that their closest relatives are cockroaches. At least 50 different kinds live in North America alone. The most common are Dampwood termites, Drywood termites, and Subterranean termites.
Termites are social insects that basically feed on wood. They distinctively differentiated into two groups; The soil turnelling termites and the wood inhabiting termites. The soil turnelling termites are considered to be more advance in stature and lifestyle. Their soldiers poccess poisonous defensive secretions on their head, they have larger colonies, and they do have true workers. The wood inhabiting termites however have biting soldiers with no poisonous secretions, false workers, smaller colonies and they are generally primitive. They do inhabit dead branches or log of woods, once the dead wood has been consumed by these termites, the colonies will be starved to death.
The working class found among the wood inhabiting termites are old and fragile nymphs that have undergone regressive molts. Their soldiers have toothed jaws with no poisonous secretion to fight off ants and other enemies. Matured alates from the Termite colonies do grow wings and fly away from their colonies to establish new colonies else where.
Most termites are subterranean which can burrow through the soil. This ability to penetrate the soil helps these termites to locate wood and feed on them, their colonies ranges from several thousands to millions of termites and they have bigger stature than wood inhabiting Termites. These Termites have true workers that can develop into soldiers or reproductive termites known as Ergatoids. The queens are always carrying their eggs around while the soldiers are much more deadlier than the wood inhabiting termites. These soldiers have jaws that are modified in several ways. They also secret poisonous fontanelle on their heads to fight off their enemies.
The subterranean termites are serious threats to woods user in house construction, they build mud shelter tubes on house walls instead of fecal pellets produced by Drywood Termites and Dampwood Termites. Rangelands and Tropical forests can also be vulnerable places for soil penetrating Termites. Termites are not always destructive, they have some beneficial effects in that they decompose wood thereby enriching the soil fertility. This ensures more food production for sustenance of life for man.
Termites have a high reproductive rate and when all favorable conditions such as high humidity, very low temperatures, wood, and water are available, the queen can lay several hundreds of eggs within weeks. Most of these eggs hatch to become young termites. The survival rate of termites is very high as 8 out of every 10 young ones grow enough to either become a soldier, worker or reproductives. They are hardworking and can even survive on less than 25% of their required moisture and water content. Termites have an excellent social interractiveness, each member of a colony works for the benefit of the entire colony, works are shared for individual termite and no one can be found lazying around until its tasks has been completed. The workers are the most hardworking group among colonies of termites. They search for food, build new houses and take care of the new born termites. The soldiers basically protect the king and the queen as well as the entire colony. The reproductives basically lay eggs and nurture the young ones.