TERMITES 



a dead stump or a log, you are more than likely to find 

 it tunneled all through with small tubular galleries running 

 with the grain of the wood, but everywhere connected 

 crosswise by small openings or short passages. Within 

 the exposed galleries there will be seen numerous small, 

 pale, wingless insects running here and there in an effort 

 to conceal themselves. These insects are termites. 

 They are the miners or the descendants of miners that 

 have excavated the tunnels in which they live. Not all 

 of the galleries in the nest are open runways, many of 

 them being packed solidly with small pellets of refuse. 



If the termites confined themselves to useless wood, 

 they would be known only as interesting insects; but 

 since they often extend their operations into fence posts, 

 telegraph poles, the woodwork of houses, and even into 

 furniture, they have placed themselves among the de- 

 structive insects and have acquired an important place 

 in the pages of economic entomology. Stored papers, 

 books, cloth, and leather are not exempt from their at- 

 tack. In the United States it not infrequently happens 

 that the flooring or other wooden parts of buildings must 

 be replaced, owing to the unsuspected work of termites; 

 and piled lumber is especially liable to invasion by these 

 insidious insects. But in tropical countries the termites 

 are far more numerous than in temperate regions, and 

 are vastly more destructive than they are with us. Their 

 seclusive habits make the termites a particularly vexa- 

 tious pest, because they have usually accomplished an 

 irreparable amount of damage before their presence is 

 known or suspected. The economic entomologist study- 

 ing termites gives most of his attention, therefore, to 

 devising methods of preventing the access of the insects 

 to all wooden structures that they might destroy. 



The work of termites and the ways and means that 

 have been contrived to prevent their ravages have been 

 described in many agricultural publications, and the 

 reader whose tastes are purely practical is referred to 



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