What you should know about termites

The sheer ignorance regarding termites is astounding, to say the least. At least that is what I notice on the Internet. This site on termites aims to set the record straight, because the owner DOES know a lot about termites and has been involved with termites for a good many years. So, go ahead and get educated on termites here.

First of all, termites are not ants, but you still see many picture of an ant in the place of termites online. Well, the obvious question on many laypeople’s minds iswhat do termites look like. Termites look a little like ants, and there are some species that look a lot like ants, however most of the time, you don’t have to worry about that. You see the termite species that attack houses are easily recognizable, even from afar.

Termites that attack houses are almost always the subterranean types, which are pale or whitish in color, and give the appearance of being fragile and rather slow moving in habit. The workers which you normally see have round heads and are almost totally white in color, while the soldiers almost always have orange or yellow colored ovoid or rectangular heads, and white bodies.

There is one thing that denotes termites apart from ants, and that is that termites have broad waists. Compare that with ants, which have slim waists and much more clearly defined segmentation in their body parts. For example, ants have a well defined abdomen and thorax, but not so with termites.

Termite identification is made slightly harder by the secretive nature of many species of termites. You see, termites hate light and would prefer to live in darkness most of their lives. That is mainly why you don’t see them much. The only exceptions is when their nests are broken in, and that is when you may see thousands of them scurrying about. Ants are much less bashful and hardy; so you get to see ants pretty much everywhere.

The benefit of being able to recognize termites is so that you are better prepared to take protective measures for your home should you detect termites in your house. In case you didn’t know, most termites eat wood and some species have a fondness for the wood in your house. But like I said earlier, not all termites are destructive, and there are only some that live up to their reputation as pests.