Their habit of remaining concealed often results in their presence being undetected until the timbers are severely damaged and exhibit surface changes. Once termites have entered a building, they do not limit themselves to wood; they also damage paper, cloth, carpets, and other cellulosic materials.

Type of Termites:

• Workers: Worker termites undertake the labors of foraging, food storage, brood, nest maintenance, and some of the defense effort in certain species. 3/8"-5/8", yellow/brownish with one wing. Workers are the main caste in the colony for the digestion of cellulose in food and are the most likely to be found in infested wood.
• Soldiers: The soldier caste has anatomical and behavioral specializations, providing strength and armor which are primarily useful against ant attack. The proportion of soldiers within a colony varies both within and among species.

Precautions:

• Avoid contact of susceptible timber with ground by using termite-resistant concrete, steel, or masonry foundation with appropriate barriers. Even so, termites are able to bridge these with shelter tubes, and it has been known for termites to chew through piping made of soft plastics and even some metals, such as lead, to exploit moisture. In general, new buildings should be constructed with embedded physical termite  barriers so that there are no easy means for termites to gain concealed entry. While barriers of poisoned soil, so called termite pre-treatment, have been in general use since the 1970s, it is preferable that these be used only for existing buildings without effective physical barriers.
• The intent of termite barriers (whether physical, poisoned soil, or some of the new poisoned plastics) is to prevent the termites from gaining unseen access to structures. In most instances, termites attempting to enter a barriered building will be forced into the less favorable approach of building shelter tubes up the outside walls, and thus, they can be clearly visible both to the building occupants and a range of predators.
• Timber treatment. Apart from structural wood preservation  measures, there are a number of different (chemical) preservatives and processes (also known as timber treatment or lumber treatment) that can extend the life of wood, timber, wood structures or engineered wood. These generally increase the durability and resistance from being destroyed by insects or fungus.
• Use of timber that is naturally resistant to termites such as Syncarpia glomulifera (Turpentine Tree), Callitris glaucophylla (White Cypress), or one of the Sequoias. Note that there is no tree species whose every individual tree yields only timbers that are immune to termite damage, so that even with well known termite-resistant timber types, there will occasionally be pieces that are attacked.

Removal:

• When termites have already penetrated a building, the first action is usually to destroy the colony with insecticides¹ before removing the termites' means of access and fixing the problems that encouraged them in the first place. Soil poisons are the least-preferred method of control as this requires much larger doses of toxin and results in uncontrollable release to the environment.

Photos

Resources

• Termite
• Termite pre-treatment
• Wood preservation
• Callitris columellaris
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