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Termite Facts

Scary Facts About Termites:

  • Termites work 24 hours 7 Days a week
  • They Never Sleep
  • Like Vampires, Termites hate sunlight
  • Termites have been around since the Dinosaur times and in fact they have been alive for over 250 Million Years
  • Termite queens can live between 15 to 25 years
  • There are more termites on earth than Humans
  • Termite queen can lay 30,000 eggs per day
  • Some termite nests can contain up to 2 million termites
  • Termites not only eat homes and dead wood, they also eat live trees
  • Termites are social insects, related to cockroaches
  • The termite swarm will hit 1 in 30 homes
  • Termites pass more wind than humans and create Methane gas

Methane Gas And Termites:

Each termite produces, on average, about half a microgram of methane per day, a seemingly insignificant amount. However, when this is multiplied up by the world population of termites, global methane emission from this source is estimated to be about 20 million tonnes each year, making them the second largest natural source of methane emissions.

There are more than 2000 different species of termites and the amounts of methane produced varies considerably between species, with some producing no methane at all. Methane is produced in termite guts, by symbiotic bacteria and protozoa, during food digestion.

Termite methane does not always end up going straight into the atmopshere, many species are subterranean or live in above ground earth mounds where much of the methane can be used up by soil methanotrophs before it gets out into the atmosphere.

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