Termites are Swarming! Here is a very basic look at what to expect.

As I impatiently sat waiting for the traffic light to turn green, I noticed a cloud of swarming subterranean termites “flutter” by and not much longer, the telephones were ringing off the hook with people screaming in panic,” Termites!”

It’s that time off year folks to start checking the window sills for the wings and bodies of subterranean termites. Those nasty little cellulose eaters are out in force.

Things to look for:

Subterranean Termite Swarmers: When the subterranean colonies of termites become large enough, it will contain swarmers. The swarmers are the future kings and queens of the next subterranean termite colony.
 
Once they have left their "homes" they attempt to locate a new place to live. They locate a mate, shed their wings and then "get busy".
 
What you may see is quite a few "fluttering" insects, usually black in color with milky white wings or you just may see the wings in your windowsills. Termites will head for a light source.
 

Mud Tubes: Subterranean termites for many reasons, travel through mud tubes such as the one pictured to the left.
 
If you nudge it alittle, it will easily break open and live subterranean termites will usually spill out.
 
What does a subterranean termite look like? Next picture.....
 
 
 
 

Subterranean Termites: Here is a picture of the subterrameam termite "soldiers", notice the large mandibles on these guys!
The workers are slighty smaller and without those huge chompers.
 
In comparison, they look like grains of rice with legs.
 
Whats the difference between a flying termite and a flying ant?  Next picture...
 
 
 

Termites vs Ants

 

For more information, go to our website at Beucher & Son Termite and Pest Control

 

 

 

 

New Primitive Dinosaur Used Claws to Hunt Termites

Sometime in 2004, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China provided experts with the fossilized remains of a dinosaur that could not be cataloged. At that time, experts who had seen it had proposed that the creature was part of a new species, and their predictions eventually turned out to be true. The animal was named Haplocheirus sollers (“simple, skillful hand”), and its major traits were subject to rigorous analysis. As this was done, experts learned a great deal about this small lizard.

For one, its body was covered in feathers, but its teeth were long and serrated. According to the investigators, it may be that the animals also used their claws to basically hunt termites out of their nests, which would make it one of the first animals ever to do so. The fossil, which endured for more than 160 million years, is believed to have belonged to an individual that was at least 7 feet long (2 meters) and weighed roughly 33 pounds (15 kg). The team investigating these bones also concluded that the creature was a member of the peculiar-looking, feathered dinosaur group Alvarezsauridae.

George Washington University investigator Jonah Choiniere, who was a researcher on the new study, says that the earliest proof that Alvarezsauridae existed came from fossils that were “only” 85 million years old. One of the defining traits for these animals was their short, stubby arms, and also the fact that they only had a single large claw on their hands, flanked by several that were considerably smaller “Haplocheirus is a transitional fossil, because it shows an early evolutionary step in how the bizarre hands of later alvarezsaurs evolved from earlier predatory dinosaurs,” Choiniere explains, quoted by LiveScience.

It is additionally believed that these animals were proficient termite eaters. One of the things that lead scientists to believe that is the shape and size of the animals' teeth, which seem very similar to those of modern anteaters. “When the alvarezsauroids were initially discovered only about 15 years ago the prevailing hypothesis was that they were birds – a lineage within birds that had lost flight ability. And so what Haplocheirus shows is really that alvarezsauroids are not birds, but it pushes them further down the evolutionary tree,” the expert concludes.