BPC Structrual Pest Control, Ventura, California

Technical Information
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Workers represent the majority of the colony population and are responsible for caring for eggs, constructing and maintaining tunnels, foraging for food and the feeding and grooming of other caste members. They are white and soft bodied.

Soldiers are responsible for defending the colony. They are white, soft bodied with an enlarged, hardened head containing two large jaws, or mandibles, which are used as a weapon against predators.

Winged reproductives produce the offspring in the colony and swarm at certain times of the year. Colonies can have both primary reproductives (one king and one queen), and hundreds of secondary reproductives to assist in egg laying and colony growth.

The king termite assists the queen in creating and attending to the colony during it's initial formation. He will continue to mate throughout his life to help increase the colony size. The queen termite creates the colony by laying eggs and tending to the colony until enough workers and nymphs are produced to care for the colony. She can live for more than ten years and produce hundreds of eggs each year. Colonies can reach several million termites with the help of secondary queens who also produce eggs.

	Drywood Temites	Subterranean Termites
Food	Cellulose (derived from wood and wood based products)	Cellulose (derived from wood and wood based products)
Moisture	No outside moisture needed. Can survive on a small amount of moisture within wood.	Cellulose (derived from wood and wood based products) Require an outside moisture source. This may be from the soil, leaky plumbing, roof tops, etc.
Environment	Colonies live within the wood and do not require contact with the soil.	Normally live and forage in the soil. Can establish a nest above the soil if acceptable moisture is found. Build protective mud tubes that lead from the soil to the home. Can move Colony within soil when environmental conditions require.
Colony Size	Small (few hundred to a thousand termite members).	Large (a well established colony may contain over 7 million termites. ) Some species have numerous smaller Colonies of several thousand termite members.
Evidence of Activity	Sand-like pellets or “droppings”. Kick-out holes in the walls, ceilings or wood. Infestation may take two years before evidence of droppings is present	Mud tubes ascending from the ground to the structure or protruding from walls and/or trim. Heavy termite swarming within the structure. Slits in the wood (flight slits) Uncharacteristic waviness in the wood.

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