U. S. D. A., B. E. Bui. 94, Part II. F. 1. 1., February 17, 191.* 
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 
BIOLOGY OF THE TERMITES OF THE EASTERN UNITED 
STATES, WITH PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEAS- 
URES. 
By Thomas E. Snyder, M. F., 
Entomological Assistant. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The following notes on the biology of the common termites, a or 
" white ants/' of the eastern United States were, for the most part, 
made while conducting investigations to determine the character 
and extent of damage by termites and other forest insects to various 
classes of crude and finished forest products and to devise methods 
of preventing the injury. During 1910 and 1911 special investiga- 
tions were conducted by the writer as to the character and extent 
of damage to telephone and telegraph poles and mine props by wood- 
boring insects. This contribution is thus based, largely, on these 
investigations, as well as on additional experiments conducted dur- 
ing the past three years by the writer in the branch of Forest Insect 
Investigations and on some of the unpublished notes of the late 
H. G. Hubbard and those of Rev. F. L. Odenbach. 
" White ants" are among the most destructive insects of North 
America to both crude and finished forest products, among which may 
be listed construction timbers in bridges, wells, and silos, timbers 
of wharves, telephone and telegraph poles, bean and hop poles, mine 
props, wooden cable conduits, fence posts, lumber piled on the 
ground, railroad ties, and the foundations and woodwork of buildings, 
etc. The sudden crumbling of bridges and wharves, caving in of 
mines, and settling of floors in buildings are sometimes directly due 
to the hidden borings of termites. The use of untreated wood-pulp 
products such as the various " composition boards" used as sub- 
stitutes for lath, etc., is restricted in the Tropics and portions of the 
southern United States because of the ravages of termites. In the 
cities of Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, Cleveland, and New 
York, and throughout the Southern States damage by termites to 
« Order Platyptera, Packard (1886), suborder Isoptera, Brulle (1832), family Meso- 
termitidx, Holmgren, genus Leucotermes Silvestri. 
13 
