But instead of inviting me in to have a cup of tea, they enlisted me to help move every stick of furniture to the shed outside their house.
The reason for this strange request was the discovery of piles of wood shavings at the base of each of the wooden beams in their house. That’s right: termites. My friends needed to fumigate without delay. A colony of 60,000 termite workers can consume one foot of a 2”x4” in a single day.
A termite colony starts with a pair of winged termites, known as alates, who set off on their nuptial flight. When they find a suitable nesting spot, they shed their wings. The queen lays eggs, which hatch into nymphs, who then divide into workers, soldiers or reproductive termites.
The growing colony needs wood to eat and lots of it. But how do termites — or any insects — manage to consume wood? Cellulose, which gives wood its durable structure, is extremely difficult to break down, and termites themselves don’t have the capacity to do so.
They can only live off cellulose because they harbor protozoa in their stomachs. It is those microorganisms that are able to produce a special enzyme that breaks down cellulose into sugars that the termites can digest. And the termite gut provides the microbes with a stable environment.
And termites aren’t all bad for forests. Since termites prefer soft wood, which often means wood that is already starting to decay, they contribute to the nutrient cycle, helping to keep forests productive and healthy.
Thankfully, my friends were able to save their house before the termites consumed it. And that interaction reminded me that trees, whether living in the forest or serving as our shelter, foster complex interactions at every level, whether that be human, termite or the microscopic.
