How many termites live in a colony

The winged termites shed their wings shortly after landing and spend the rest of their lives without flight. The male and female termite couple look for a nesting site near moist soil.

As the colony increases in size, the queen may allow more non-swarming reproductives to help produce enough workers to feed the colony. Mature termite colonies typically contain 60, to 1 million termites. If you see winged termites or other evidence of termites inside or near your house, you probably have a termite colony nearby. Termites differ from many other insects in that they live in organized social colonies.

A termite colony can vary in size from only two termites a king and queen to a million or more. The sooner you can deal with the infestation, the better.

Termite infestations can happen anywhere, at any time. It doesn't mean you're neglecting your house or that there's something inherently wrong in your property. But it does mean you'll want to take care of the problem as quickly as possible.

Contact Terminix to schedule a free termite inspection and let our termite control professionals create a treatment plan for your home. Whether you're dealing with an active infestation or simply want to keep termites from becoming a problem in the first place, our team can help. Getting to Know Solder Termites. How Worker Termites Work. Know the Enemy: Termite Queens. Termite Monitoring Stations. By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies to analyze website traffic and improve your experience on our website.

Learn more about the types of cookies we use by reviewing our updated Privacy Policy. Back to previous page. How termite colonies are formed Like many nesting insects, termites are social creatures. The workers In termite colonies, workers are wingless and soft-bodied. The soldiers Soldiers are the protectors of a colony. The reproductives Reproductives are the termites that procreate.

The queen The queen is largest in physical size, attaining mass several times that of workers. The king The termite king is the other half of the reproductive equation.

The new branch Subterranean termite colonies establish a new colony by swarming. Roused, masses of termites fill their mouths with dirt and head toward the source of the problem.

The commotion attracts more termites with more dirt, and within an hour or so the hole is patched. The only way to get a glimpse of the termite super-organism in action is to rip the side off a mound. And so one morning Turner, along with entomologist Eugene Marais of the National Museum of Namibia, takes a backhoe to the test fields. With a single swoop, the backhoe removes the top of a mound and then precisely dismantles the rest, like pulling the walls off a dollhouse.

The termites are not happy that their walls have suddenly disappeared, and they swarm frantically around the exposed structure. Marais dislodges a chunk of dense soil about the size of a squashed soccer ball—the queen's chamber.

After repeated blows of a hand pick, the capsule breaks open suddenly, revealing a saucer about five inches almost 13 centimeters across containing the queen. Her sweating body is swollen to the size of a human finger. A coterie of workers carries the eggs she produces—at the staggering rate of one every three seconds—to nearby nurseries, while others feed and clean her. The queen herself, once a relatively normal size, retains her original legs, but they are now nearly useless.

Her pale body pulsates, the caramel-colored fats and liquids inside swirling under her skin. The title "queen" leads people to imagine that she is in charge of the mound, but this is a misconception. She is a captive ovary, producing hundreds of millions of eggs over her life span of up to 15 years to populate the mound. Below the queen's chamber lies the super-organism's largest organ: the fungus garden.

In a symbiotic relationship dating back millions of years, the termites exit the mound through long foraging tunnels and return with their "intestines full of chewed grass and wood, which they defecate upon their return, and other workers assemble these 'pseudo-feces' into several mazelike fungus combs," Turner explains. The termites then seed the comb with spores of fungus, which sprout and dissolve the tough cellulose into a high-energy mixture of partially digested wood and grass.

For the termites, the fungus functions as a sort of external stomach, but the fungus gets the better deal. Ensconced in elaborate termite-built combs and constantly tended, the fungus receives multiple benefits, including food, water, shelter, and protection.

In fact, the deal is so lopsided that it calls into question just who's in charge of the relationship.

Collectively, the colony's fungus accounts for nearly 85 percent of the total metabolism inside the mound, and Turner speculates that the fungus may send chemical signals to the termites that influence—control? Which brings us to the most extraordinary organ: the mound itself.

Contrary to common notions, termite mounds are not high-rise residence halls. Rather, they are "accessory organs of gas exchange," in Turner's words, designed to serve the respiratory needs of the subterranean colony located several feet a meter or two below the mound. For many years, researchers looked at termite mounds and supposed that the spires worked like chimneys, drawing hot air up and out. But Turner discovered that mounds function more like lungs, inhaling and exhaling through walls that appear impenetrable but are actually quite porous.

They use pheromones to help other workers follow trails from the nest to a food source or to warn them of enemies. Workers are the ones that cause structural damage around the globe and cost homeowners billions of dollars each year. However, your chance of meeting a soldier is slim. Like workers, soldier termites may be male or female and are not fully developed physically or reproductively, but they have a different job to do.

As you might expect, soldiers are in charge of defending the colony and protecting workers and reproductives from raiding ants and other intruders. They may also try different tactics to ward off invaders, such as biting their enemies or plugging entrance holes with their heads. Soldiers rely on workers to feed them regurgitated food as they are unable to feed themselves. Reproductive termites are sexually mature adults. Colonies produce swarmers when they get too full or lack food. Once two swarmers mate and successfully start a new colony, they become the king and queen.

The king and queen are known as the primary reproductives of a colony, and they are the main ones responsible for mating and laying eggs. Since reproductives are the only termites that leave their safe underground environment to find mates, they are the only ones exposed to sunlight.

This causes them to develop pigmentation and eyes. Reproductives shed their wings after they find a mate and prepare to start a new colony. The termite life cycle begins when reproductives fly around and look for mates. Those that survive will start a new colony. Flights usually happen in the spring, though this can vary depending on the species and location.

For example, the eastern subterranean termite usually swarms from February through April , while the Formosan subterranean termite swarms from April through July. This is when the new colony begins.

A termite queen lays 6 to 12 eggs within a few days or weeks after mating. In the United States, most subterranean species lay fewer than eggs during the first year. Egg-laying increases with time. Eventually, a queen may lay thousands of eggs in a day.

The king and queen take care of their first batch of eggs together. Termite larvae are the termites that just hatched and are small, soft and lack color. Termites feed on the cellulose in wood and wood by-products, such as paper. There are more than 2, known termite species in the world, with at least 50 species occurring in the U. Termites are typically classified into three groups based on the location of the colony — subterranean , drywood and dampwood.

A colony is made up of workers, soldiers and swarmers. Workers maintain the colony, construct or repair the nest, and forage for food for the colony. Soldiers are sterile, and their main role is to protect the colony. Neither workers nor soldiers have wings. Swarmers, also known as reproductives, have two pair of wings, which lie flat over the abdomen when not in use. In the springtime, after the last freeze — usually when temperatures reach about 70 degrees — the young adult male and female swarmers emerge from their nests in large groups.

Once the male locates an alluring female, they break off their wings, symbolizing that they are a couple. The new couple then select a nest location, mate, and become king and queen of a new colony.