Desert Termite Facts & Information
Protect your home or business from desert termites by learning techniques for identification and control.
Treatment
How do I get rid of desert termites?
What Orkin Does
If needed, your pest management or lawn professional is the best person to identify desert termites to ensure the termites on your property are not one of the serious, wood-damaging subterranean termite species. Correct identification is critical since desert termites are likely to benefit, rather than harm, rangelands, crops or turf.
In addition, desert termites rarely damage structures on the homeowner’s property. Therefore, desert termite control in turf grass is not recommended. Instead, practice normal lawn care by using sufficient amounts of water and fertilizer, which usually overcomes any turf-related problems caused by desert termite feeding.
Since every home or business is different, the Orkin Pro will design a unique treatment program for your situation.
Behavior, Diet & Habits
Understanding Desert Termites
Appearance
Similar to most other termites, the desert termite has three castes (stages) in their colony – the workers, soldiers and male/ female reproductives, often called the kings and queen. Worker termites are the most abundant and provide food and colony maintenance. The soldier caste is armed with large teeth-like mouthparts, and their role is to protect the colony from predators. The reproductives are about ½-inch long with a light-brown body and wings, and they are the reproducers within the colony.
Behavior & Diet
Desert termites are very susceptible to losing moisture and drying out, so they build moisture-retaining tubes or sheets that are made of carton – a mixture of moist soil and feces that is glued together with the termite’s saliva – to overcome this obstacle and survive. Desert termites tunnel in or on the soil, and their tunneling makes the soil more porous, a soil characteristic that improves the infiltration of rainfall and can improve plant growth in arid areas. Desert termites feed on living, dead or decom¬posed plant material and prefer a habitat of living and dead grasses, plus under livestock manure.
Reproduction
Females of all reproductive forms can lay eggs to produce offspring. New desert termite colonies are formed by winged reproductives called swarmers that leave the established colony, find locations for new colonies and become kings and queens of the new colony. The insects are known to swarm before sunset following summer rainstorms.
Signs of Infestation
Signs of desert termites include the presence of workers, soldiers or swarmers and the presence of their protective tubes on and in the soil.
Distribution
Desert termites are most likely to be found in west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Termite Control
How do you know if you have termites?
Learn the signs to look for to determine if you might have a termite infestation.
Termites cost Americans more than $5 billion in damage each year and most insurance plans don’t cover the damage.