Formosan Termite Danger
Formosan termites are 10 times as destructive
The University of Florida website explains “10 times as destructive”
Individual Formosan termites eat no more wood than native American species.
The reason for “10 times more destructive” is colony size. Our native termites live in colonies of several hundred thousand.
Formosan termites live in colonies of several million. There are 10 times as many.
Louisiana State University entomologists reported a colony of 70 million in Algiers LA
An illustration of “10 times as many”:
Below is a link to a satellite view of a cloud over New Orleans.
Only it’s not a cloud. It is a swarm of Formosan termites, so many that they are seen from space.
Formosan queens live for 15 years:
The Formosan queen spends her life-giving birth 24/7.
30,000babies/day | 10,950,000babies/year |
164,000,000babies over her lifetime |
Formosan are on the mainland and coming north from the Gulf:
Climate change helps Formosans to move north
Formosans thrive in warm and wet climates.
Climate change is bringing warmer and wetter conditions to the mainland US, which creates increasingly favourable climate for new infestations, allowing Formosans to move north from the Gulf Coast.
Climate change oulook