Insects Devour Wood Six Times Faster Than Other Species : Florida Battles Pesky Formosan Termite

GAINESVILLE, Fla. —  A ferocious Formosan is Florida’s new insect enemy number one.

The state legislature this year created a special coordinating council to study ways of fighting the Formosan termite, which can eat through wood six times as fast as ordinary termites.

Formosan termites were first identified in Asia in 1909 and are believed to have reached the mainland United States in the early 1970s.

Found in Five States Since then, colonies of the pests have been spotted in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

Officials fear the year-round warmth will help them spread quickly through the southern part of Florida.

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) plans to hire two scientists from Hawaii to apply lessons learned in fighting the pest there to the Florida scene.

Physically, the Formosan termite is twice the size of the regular variety. By reputation, it is even larger than life, according to IFAS entomology professor Daniel Shankland.

“They can’t eat their way through bricks, concrete or steel as some people have claimed,” Shankland said.

Crave Structural Timber But if there are small cracks in the concrete foundation or exterior masonry of a building, hungry Formosans will use them as avenues to get at the structural timber they crave.

Like their smaller cousins, the Formosans also secrete fluids which can help them chomp through plaster, Shankland said.

And since they form underground colonies, not only houses but also the soil around them have to be fumigated to kill them.

In Hawaii, Shankland said, Formosan termite colonies have been measured up to 300 yards across.

“Even if you treat the area immediately around a building, a large colony can still have plenty of reserves to re-infest the building,” he said.

He added that scientists were trying to find out if dogs can be thrown into the anti-Formosan battle.

“Dogs have already been trained to detect ordinary termites; a scientist in California has trained beagles to do this. Now, we need to find out if they can do the same with Formosans,” he said.

Another University of Florida entomologist, Catherine Thompson, has pounded hundreds of wooden stakes into the soil throughout a 32,000-square feet area around a house where the insects swarmed recently.

The stakes will be checked periodically for termite damage and electronic stethoscopes are attached to stakes to find out if the insects can be heard underground.

Shankland hopes insect pathogens--diseases--may eventually be found which can destroy even huge colonies of Formosan termites.

Stakes Surround House “There may be certain fungi, bacteria or viruses that could be used to inoculate a colony,” he said. “If we could infest a colony with such a pathogen, it could be lethal to a colony.

“The problem is, none are available yet. We might try to engineer lethality into existing pathogens, possibly by gene splicing or some other technique.”

In the meantime, Floridians will have to learn to live with their unwelcome visitors, Shankland said. “If you can reduce the use of wood in buildings, you should do that.”