18 BULLETIN 333, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DAMAGE TO FRUIT, NUT, SHADE, AND FOREST TREES. 
Termites occasionally injure a great variety of living trees, bushes, 
and shrubs. In Florida, according to H. G. Hubbard, termites have 
caused considerable damage to newly planted groves of orange trees, 
the bark being eaten away about the collar and root and the tree com- 
pletely girdled. There have been many records since then of injury 
to young orange trees in newly cleared land (Marlatt) . Similar dam- 
age by termites 1 has been recorded to apple, pear, cherry, and plum 
trees in the Southern States and California, 2 the roots being attacked 
or the trees injured near the base. H. S. Smith states 3 that " termites 
were reported to be damaging lemon trees in the vicinity of German- 
town'' (California). On May 17, 1890, a piece of solid pear root 
damaged by termites was sent to the Bureau of Entomology from 
Mineral Park, Mohave County, Ariz. On May 9, 1902, a similarly 
damaged root of apple stock was submitted to the bureau from 
Moran, Okla. 
Such damage is more common in the new soil of recently cleared 
woodland containing old decaying stumps or much humus. Similar 
damage by Leucotermes spp. is recorded to pecan, chestnut, and 
walnut. 
Comstock records damage of the same kind to guava bushes in 
Florida, at or just below the ground. 
In cities shade trees in great variety are injured by termites, the 
insects infesting the roots and the heartwood at the base of injured 
trees. Sometimes the infested trees are plastered with earthlike tubes 
or galleries. 
In the forest termites rapidly 4 render insect, fire, and disease 
killed timber unmerchantable. They also damage the roots and lower 
trunk of injured living trees, especially oak and chestnut, sometimes 
following the attack of large wood-boring beetle larva?. 5 In a letter 
dated October 21, 1915, A. B. Champlain states : " Termites are very 
bad on hickory saplings at Lyme, Conn. They quickly attack the 
infested trees, utilizing the Magdalis galleries, Goes galleries, or any 
other mode of entrance ; in wounds on green trees as well as in trees 
of every stage of decay." TYTiere the heartwood is decayed in living 
trees or in dead standing trees termites will work for considerable 
distances above ground (10 to 50 feet), completely honeycombing 
the interior. (PL IX, fig. 1.) The earthlike tubes, in the form of 
1 Leucotermes sp. 
2 Essig, E. O. Injurious and Beneficial Insects of California. Supplement Mo. Bui. 
State Com. Hort. California, v. 4, no. 4, 541 p. (p. 28-29), 503 figs., 1915. Damage by 
Leucotermes lucifugus to various species of fruit trees ; i. e., apricot, cherry, lemon, 
orange, peach, and pear. 
3 Smith, H. S. In Mo. Bui. State Hort. California, v. 4, no. 1, p. 53, Jan., 1915. 
4 The rapidity of destruction varies with the resistance of the wood of the species of 
tree and the geographical locality. 
5 Prionidse. 
