deBugged

I have written about ants some time back, and keep being amazed by these critters. Some of them are common and annoying pests, but some, well some are simply amazing. So, here are more fun facts about ants.

White Ants =  Termites and Ants = Wasps. Any Questions?

First of all, did you ever hear the term “white ants” for termites? We do get a lot of calls for white ant problems. Here comes an interesting common misunderstanding: White ants are termites. But then again, termites are more closely related to cockroaches than to ants. Ants on the other hand have originated from wasps, which explains why some species have a nasty sting.

We talk to communicate – Ants smell

Even though rather silent, ants have a highly developed communication; they use pheromones. You might have heard of ant tracks to food sources. Ants leave a scent track when walking back from a food source, encouraging other ants to follow the same track, thus fortifying the signal. Once the food is finished, they stop marking the trail and the signal wears off. But that is not all, ants also have specific alert pheromones; if an ant gets crushed, it emits a pheromone alerting its colony mates. There even are some ant species that use special “propaganda pheromones” in order to confuse their enemies and cause them to attack each other. Furthermore, ant colonies have their own smell which distinguishes them from other colonies. Even within a colony the certain task groups have a different smell, so that they can distinguish between the food foragers, nest workers and others.

Surviving against all odds

Did you know that there is an ant species that lives in underwater nests? They swim and breathe in air pockets in the submerged nests. Furthermore, there are several species, where the worker ants hold onto each other in case of floods and form a floating raft. They are suspected to colonize new territories this way, for example islands. Sounds a bit like Columbus making a move for America?

There is a bamboo-nesting ant species, Cataulacus muticus, which lives in Malaysia. At times it rains a lot and their nest is under the threat of drowning. What would be our solution to this problem? Right, take a bucket and get to work scooping the water out. Ever thought of drinking the water and then relieve yourself outside? That’s exactly what these ants do: Cooperative peeing to save the colony!

Suicidal tendencies anyone? Turn it into a social activity! The so-called Exploding Ants (Camponotus cylindricus) have workers with specialized anatomies that allow them to “pull a trigger” when under threat and the explode. With the explosion, they release a chemical cocktail that will affect and immobilize smaller insect attackers. Now that is some dedication to the colony. It would also make our pest control job much easier if other ants would be like this. Just disturb them and watch the show, hahaha.

Cattle farmers and gardeners

The Leafcutter ants of South America cut pieces out of leaves, but only a few people know that they are not actually then eating the leaves. They rather use them as a cultivation medium for a fungus, grown in the so-called fungus garden. They will only eat their own farm produce.

A large number of ant species have developed a close relationship with aphids, andthe caterpillars of some smaller butterflies (such as hairstreaks, coppers and blues). The relationship is straightforward: Ants milk their “cattle” for the so-called honey-dew and offer protection from natural predators in return for the favour. Sometimes ants even house the cattle inside their nests and transport them to feeding places during the day time (too bad if it is your expensive new garden plants), and take them back to the nest in the evening.

Slave Traders and Amazons

There are innumerous ways of one ant species taking advantage of another, the following two are somewhat outstanding examples:

Ravoux’s Slavemaker Ant, has a somewhat ingenious way of taking over entire colonies. The queen fakes death and thus attracts other ants to drag her to their nest, where she miraculously resurrects, kills the nest’s original queen and aquires her smell (in order to trick the other ants into believing nothing has changed) and then starts laying eggs and taking over the colony. I think this is an extreme case of changing the system from within.

Amazon ants, on the other hand, have evolved to such a state where living without slaves would mean sure death. They are not able to feed themselves and require captured workers to survive. They commonly raid other ant colonies (but seemingly in a non-bloody way, the raided ants are simply stunned by the huge number of slave makers entering their nest, and prefer to flee). They steal the victim’s pupae and hatch them in their own nest (which again has to be done by slaves). Once the new ants are hatched they acquire the smell of the colony, and hence become a part of the loyal workforce. Incredible? It gets better, the slave species are quietly revolting: They kill the female pupas of the Amazon ants (those who do the raids) and leave only males, slowly weakening their ruling class. I think if you replace ants with humans in this case, you would have the story line for the next Hollywood blockbuster, hahah.

Operation? Anybody?

One last note, did you know that even though some ants are pests in hospitals (such as the Pharaoh’s Ant), others are used as surgical sutures. Army ants are allowed to bite in a cut wound, connecting both sides of the cut. Then, their body is torn off, and the mandibles will remain locked allowing the wound to heal. Should you ever happen to get stuck in a South American rain forest and have a major cut, you might consider this option. (Maybe an interesting idea for “I am a celebrity, get me out of here“)

Again, I have mostly concentrated on the amazing aspects of ants. Next time I will deal with negative effects of invasive pest ant species, ants in the home and their sometimes negative effects on our health and property.

As I was sweeping my patio at home this past weekend, I noticed a number of pavement ant mounds between the bricks, which reminded me it was time to call my friendly pest control technician who protects my home from a (potential) annual ant invasion.

But it also got me thinking though about how selfless pests are and how they really get the idea behind this whole team thing.

Let’s take the ant as a simple example.  The goal of any ant colony is simple — protect the colony at all costs.  Everything they do is designed to support the colony — to feed it, protect it and especially protect the queen.   Everyone has a clearly defined job in the colony — swarmers reproduce; workers forage for food, etc.  Ants are prepared to die for the colony.   In fact, in some ant species, an ant that is ill or hurt will actually leave to die alone and protect that of their colony mates.  Others will literally use their bodies to fill potholes to make travel easier for its colony mates.

While the specific examples are different, the same type of “all for one and one for all” mentality can clearly be found in termite colonies and stinging insect nests as well

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting we go to the extreme lengths that pests do, but I think there’s a lesson or two we could learn from them in our own day to day lives. Do you remember the Frank Sinatra “High Hopes” song, “Just what made that little old ant think he could move that rubber tree plant?”  The singer answers:  “cause he’s got high hopes…” I propose that we change the answer to: “He’s got lots of good friends who are always there for him…” Ok, might be pushing it a tad.  What do you think?

THE SUPER TERMITE

Imagine an enemy that can weigh more than 77 pounds (35 kilograms), can burrow as deep as 300 feet (100 meters) and can severely damage an entire building almost undetected in around three months. Now imagine this enemy is not so much one creature, as 10 million tiny creatures working in perfect harmony to destroy whatever they come across. That enemy is the Formosan subterranean termite, (one termite species of an estimated 4000), and once a population has been established in an area, it’s proven very very very difficult to erradicate.

The Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) probably originated in China, though it was discovered in and named after Taiwan, then Formosa. Probably the most widespread and economically damaging termite species, it is now found in Japan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and across the southern part of the United States. But those living above 35° north latitude find themselves in an enviable position, as the termites’ eggs won’t hatch below about 68°F (20°C).

Social structure

The Formosan termite’s social structure is similar to other termites’, just with much larger numbers. It has three castes: the reproductives, the workers and the soldiers.

The Reproductives

The reproductive termites include the king, the queen and the alates. Alates are winged termites capable of swarming, reproducing and establishing new colonies. Formosan alates are yellowish-brown and around 0.5 to 0.6 inches (12-15mm) long. They have small hairs on their wings, which easily distinguishes a Formosan alate from other species.

The king and queen are a mating pair of alates who have founded a new colony. Though the king and queen will mate for life, they are not monogamous, and it is not uncommon to have several reproductive pairings in a colony.

The queen leads the colony and is the colony’s primary reproducing female. She can live up to 15 years and produce up to 2000 eggs a day, growing larger with each successive moult to the point of becoming practically immobile. She must then be cared for and assisted by the workers.

The Workers

Formosan workers can live three to five years, and they make up the largest proportion of the population, outnumbering the soldiers 9 to 1. They do not look particularly unique, having the same whitish colouring and being only slightly larger than other termites.

The workers are responsible for finding and storing food, taking care of the nymphs and maintaining the nest. They are the termites usually found in wood, gathering cellulose to feed to other colony members. They digest the cellulose and feed the digested material to the other colony members either from the mouth or the anus. This feeding process, called trophallaxis, helps the colony grow quickly by removing the responsibility of feeding younger generations from the alates, allowing them to spend all their time and energy reproducing.

When building a nest, the workers use wood and soil, cemented with saliva and feces, to build the nests, or cartons. The cartons obviously provide a protected living space for the colony, but they also have chambers that collect water through condensation, highways that allow for optimal movement through the nest and tunnels that regulate the temperature and CO₂ levels of the nest.

The Soldiers

The soliders, as the name suggests, protect the nest from invaders. Like the alates, they have a distinctive appearance – their red heads and whitish bodies make them easy to identify – and like the workers, the soldiers can live up to five years.

Each solider can release defensive secretions from a fontanel in its head. This secretion is one of the few natural occurances of naphthalene, a chemical found in mothballs, which is probably used to repel ants, poisonous fungi and nematode worms.

The soldiers are critical to the species’ success in the United States. The Formosan subterranean termite colony has many times more soldiers than indigenous termite colonies. Up to 15% of the Formosan colony is made up of soldiers, whereas only about 2% of native colonies are made up of soldiers. This superior protective force means the Formosan termite has been able to in some cases replace native termite colonies almost completely.

Building a new colony

When it grows large enough, a single colony may produce up to 70,000 alates. These alates will then swarm away to form new colonies. The females fly off first, immediately searching for nesting sites, with males following shortly thereafter.

The dispersal flights occur at dusk on calm, humid evenings in the spring and summer, from April to July. After a short flight, the alates shed their wings – that is, they physically break them off. Once they form a mating pair, the new king and queen find a crevice in damp ground or wood and hollow out the royal chamber, where the queen lays 15 to 30 eggs.

When the eggs hatch two to four weeks later, they are nursed by the king and queen. The king and queen continue to care for this first generation until that generation’s third instar [how many instar are there before maturity] .  One or two months after that, the queen lays the second batch of eggs, which the first generation of termites will nurse.

It can take between three and five years for a colony to reach the size where it can cause severe damage and produce alates.

Diet

Like most termites, the Formosan subterranean termite mostly eats cellulose-based materials like paper, wood and cardboard. The workers eat the cellulose material, and they rely on bacteria and flagellates in their guts to aid the digestion of the material. Interestingly, they can produce their own enzymes to digest the material, making their relationship with the single-celled organisms unclear.

However they end up breaking down the food, one study, authored by Juan A. Morales-Ramos and M. Guadalupe Rojas, has shown Formosan termites can derive more nutritional benefit from some woods than others. This has been shown to influence the feeding preferences of the termites. Colonies feeding on pecan and red gum wood, for example, produced more offspring, and those feeding on pecan and American ash had a higher survival rate of offspring.

Though it benefits most from eating certain types of wood, the Formosan termite can chew through a number of other materials, including foam insulation boards, thin lead and copper sheeting, plaster, asphalt and some plastics, to build foraging routes.

This ability to chew through so many materials – as well as the the sheer size of the colonies – make it much more economically destructive than other termites.

Economic damage

The Formosan termite causes damage everywhere it is established, but it costs US consumers $1 billion annually for prevention and repairs. The most destructive insect in Hawaii, it causes $100 million in damage in the state each year. In New Orleans, anywhere from one-third to one-half of the city’s 4000 live oak trees are infected, costing the city $300 million a year.

All of this has happened in the 60-odd years since World War II, when the termites were introduced to the United States, presumably on boats that first travelled to Hawaii and then to the continental US.

Points of entry

The Formosan termite generally enters a building from ground contact: expansion joings, cracks and utility conduits and any wood-to-ground contact make great entry points.

Since the colony-founding alates have wings, it’s not unusual for them to form aerial colonies if they find adequate conditions. This mostly occurs in flat-roofed high rise buildings, where food and standing water are readily available – experts estimate up to 25% of infestations in urban southeastern Florida are aerial.

Treatment

Infestations are usually fought on several fronts. The termites do not attack wood that has been pressure-treated with preservatives, though they can bypass treated wood to find the untreated.

Because the termites look for a combination of water and cellulose, fixing leaky plumbing and limiting air conditioning condensation can discourage them from establishing a nest or can force them to search elsewhere for a more habitable location.

Finally, professional exterminators can apply a soil treatment to repel the termites. The massive size of the colonies keeps this from being a fool-proof method, so it usually is used in conjunction with termite poison.

But the treatments have to be carried out quickly and on an enormous scale. One colony can be large enough to infest several houses, and unless the colony is killed off quickly and completely, the termites could reinfest an area that had been cleared.

Indians are usually tolerant to those “insignificant” bugs that might be crawling around their residential property. Even if the creepy crawlers do elicit some fear, our reaction is rarely more than a mild scream or a mere “shoo”. You usually find that lizards command a higher degree of respect as pests (going by the decibels of shrieks or fear they evoke), rather than cockroaches or flies or ants.

I don’t think many even consider the common household pests as real pests because they just don’t worry us as much. The main concern is not necessarily about destruction of property (which termites do rather well) or spreading disease, but mostly the sight of these wriggling pests.

So, we have been going to schools and residential areas, even office complexes, and talking about the harmful effects of pests. Incidentally, pests too have an interesting story to tell.

• Did you know rats have a weak bladder and urinate freely throughout the house while searching for food?
• Or that pregnant female cockroaches usually stop feeding and go into hiding, making it even more difficult to kill using DIY products?
• And we generally get the audience shrieking (in disgust!) when they find out how flies overcome their problems of eating solid food. First the fly vomits on the food, then stamps on it to make it a liquid, and then sucks it back up. Then after their delightful actions – it’s our turn to eat the same food.

Our aim with this education programme has been to raise awareness on the harmful effects of pests. The real dangers are not always perceived, but can surely be ignored because of a lack of knowledge. The message we leave behind during these awareness programs is:

It actually does make sense to be intolerant to pests.

There’s something about a peaceful lakeside vacation that makes you a bit more reflective about the mundane.  Every day me and my colleagues think about pests in some form or another as part of our jobs – pests in homes, bedbugs in hotels, stinging insects at a picnic, the list goes on and on.  But as I watched my friends and family nurse mosquito bites we had received while fishing at dusk, I really started to think about how pervasive pests are.

Pests are not limited by season.  Sure, here in the Northeast, pests are more visible during the spring and summer.  Ants scurry in endless search of food; termites are busy caring for their colony queen, and millipedes are doing whatever millipedes do. In the early fall, we try to avoid stinging insects and survive October’s boxelder bugs that seem to appear out of nowhere.  Even in the dead of winter, we’re mouse-proofing our homes while others battle the cockroach.

Pests are not limited by location or social class.  They’re in the cleanest of homes and the dirtiest.  They’re in budget motels and the swankiest of restaurants. Pests are not limited by economic health.  In the words of our now-retired CEO, “The bugs don’t k know whether we’re in a recession or not.”  When the economy is good, pests are there.  When the economy is bad, pests are still there.

And pests, as I was reminded this week, are not limited by going on vacation.  Pests are the ultimate worker, always efficient and never on vacation.