How long do termites live

Surprisingly, termites can be long lived; queens and kings can have a life span of a decade or more, while individual workers can live for one to several years.

Q. Can termites go away on their own after they have invaded a home or business? A. Yes, they can go away on their own.

There are two main chemicals used to eliminate termites—fipronil and hexaflumuron. Fipronil is the specially designed chemical used as an active ingredient in many different liquid termiticides. In high enough concentrations, it can eliminate termites on contact. Pest control specialists apply it around the perimeter of homes.

Queen of eastern subterranean termites, which are found in the United States, can live up to 30 years, though a 15- to 17-year lifespan is more common. Some African species life up to 50 years. The consensus is that “decades” is a reasonable age, but some scientists believe they can live for up to 100 years.

Locate Termite Colony – Follow the mud tubes.

Look in a dark moist location (the crawl space under your home is a likely candidate). If there is a water leak dripping underneath your home, so much the better for the termites! Look in breaks in your home’s foundation. Look underneath your home’s siding.

Buildings or houses that are made of wood can be unfit to live in if termites have already caused considerable damage to its foundations, beams and other supports of the structure. … This is considered a serious safety issue as once a solid wood structure turns weak and brittle.

The termite life cycle follows three key stages: egg, nymph, and adult. However, while every termite in a colony will be more-or-less identical in the first two stages, their appearance and job within the colony will differ considerably depending on what role they take in adulthood.

Termites take a very short time to spread. Within a few days, they can multiply to what’s considered an infestation. Homeowners need to take every percaussion possible, and be sure to act quickly in order to protect their homes.

New research published this week in Science says that some queen termites can reproduce both sexually and asexually, depending on the kind of baby they’re making (workers or queens).

Control Methods

Termites and ants are natural enemies. Ant and termite colonies often turn hostile upon encountering one another. Ants have been known to raid termite colonies and consume termites as a source of food.

When a termite colony infests a home, it can take around three years for the damage to be noticeable. As mentioned above, the rate of damage depends on the size of the colony. If the colony is big enough, all the wood components in your house can be destroyed within eight years.

For starters, let’s elaborate on that timeline a little bit more: termite swarming season starts in late winter, but lasts all the way through around September or October. So basically, we’re talking about a swarming season that lasts anywhere from 5-6 months.

There are a number of plants rumored to act as termite repellents, but more research is needed for most of them. However, it seems that two plants, catnip and vetiver grass, have shown promise in studies as termite repellents.

Second, Bonobos use a stick to draw back their favorite snack, termites, from their termite mounds. They rely on the insects for a high-protein diet. Most of the day at the zoo you can catch one of these highly-intelligent primates at an authentic termite mound snacking away on termites.

Cinnamon, Other Essential Oils

Other oils effective against termites, either as repellents or pesticides, are tea tree, clove bud, orange, cedarwood and garlic. Clove bud and garlic oils are two of the most effective oils for killing termites, according to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Clemson University scientists reported that ‘Termites hate smells of cedarwood, geranium, and tea tree oil. It has also been found that clove bud, cinnamon, and garlic oils can also repel termites.

One of the common ways is to plant catnip around the infested areas in your property. Another effective way is to apply catnip essential oils onto the affected areas. Mint is another natural pesticide that could repel termites.