Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Termites
Hey look, Tampa Bay made another top 10 list! Termites are the great equalizer. They don’t care if you’re a good person or how well you take care of your home. Sure, termites may be nature’s recycling system, breaking down fallen trees and dead wood into nutrient-rich soil that helps other plants grow, but other than that they’re basically jerks.
Over 4,000 species of termites can be found in the world. Little known fact, all 4,000 of them live in Tampa. Okay, not really—kids, don’t put that in your book report. Tampa is only home to a mere 20 species of termite.
Termites have lived on this planet for 250 million years, maybe more. You can only hope to contain them.
A queen is capable of laying 86,400 eggs a day. Umm, that's 31.5 million a year x every queen in existence.
In the pest kingdom, termites are most closely related to wood-eating cockroaches. Good luck sleeping tonight.
Termite antennae look like tiny little pearls on a string. Awww, cute.
A single colony can forage across a third of an acre. They can and will travel the length of a football field away from their nest. In a single-family neighborhood in South Tampa, that's 3-5 houses down the block.
Termites work 24 hours a day. They literally never sleep.
When a colony gets too big, some of the individuals magically* turn into winged reproducers that then swarm to establish new colonies. *Not actual magic.
Termites allegedly swarm between March and May, but swarms are commonly reported in Florida every month except December.
Termites can chomp down 1,000 pounds of wood a year. For perspective, here are 3 things that weigh 1,000 pounds: 4 refrigerators, 20 sheets of drywall, 2 Andre the Giants.
