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formosan termites

Started by limbrat, September 18, 2009, 06:25:03 PM

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limbrat

I had heard of formosans attacking live, live oak trees, if i remember they start in the heart wood and hollow the tree out. Yesterday in Lake Charles i saw a live oak that had mud tubes coming out of a scar about 3' off they ground and one of them ran up to were a branch had been pruned but had not scared over yet. I opened one of the tubes and they were larger than normal termites so i guess they were formosan.
I was wondering if anyone knows if they attack all trees or just certian species?
ben

jeffreythree

Evidently, they will attack any tree.  I have been watching these bugs since I have a lot of family in the South outside of their range, so far.  I remember watching a This Old House episode from when they first entered New Orleans and they showed a condemned house that had a clean bill of health 6 months before.  The termites had weakened the structure that much that quick.  A little info after a quick search:
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/environment/insects/Termites/formosan_termites/trees/
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1035/
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG064
Trying to get out of DFW, the land of the $30,000 millionaires.  Look it up.

limbrat

Thank you Jefferythree those were good articles.
They are not documented here yet but im sure there just undocumented. Like you said they are very bad bugs. Were a native termite can only go so far into a structure because they live in the ground and cant get to far from there water supply. These things build secondary homes above ground and build there tubes and cartons from wood pulp that can wick up enough moisture to let them go farther into a structure from there entery point.
ben

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