Termite Lifecycle

Understand Termite Life Cycle

Termite Colony is mainly composed of four mainly type of ants: King, Queen, Soldiers and Workers. King and Queen may survive from 15-50 years, while soldiers and workers may life only 2 - 4 years.

King and Queens as primary reproductive responsible to laid eggs , Workers forage and feed their nest mates and soldier defends their colony.

Primary Reproductive

Matured colonies produce large number of Alates that will eventually become King and Queen. These elite ants are dark in coloured and has functional eyes. They will lose their wings after a short flight where they look for mates.

At the beginning, the queen may only produce 500 eggs a year.

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Secondary Reproductive

The colony starts from single pair of reproductive swarmer as king and queen. However, if the king and queen die, other ant may starts to develop functional reproductive organ to replace the king and queen.

Secondary reproductive ants are in light color, larger than worker and never develop wings as Alates. In a mature colony, a secondary reproductive may develop even though the queen is still alive. With second reproductive, the colony can grow at a much faster rate.

Secondary reproductive may build a satellite nest where a group of workers may separate from the parent colony.

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Worker Ant

In a colony, almost 90-98% of them are worker ants. They have the important role of taking care all the labor in the colony. They care for the eggs, nymph, repair the nest, foraging tunnels, locate food source, groom other caste and product food for the colony.

The younger worker perform domestic task like feeding, grooming and caring for the nymphs. While the older take the job of foraging and nest building.

They are in milky white color and have no wings or eyes. Their body is soft but its mouth part is very hard and adapted for chewing wood.

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Soldier Ant

They are the protector of the colony, They gather around the a broken mud tube ready to fight against any invaders. They are similar to worker ants as blind, wingless and soft bodied. However they have an enlarged, hard and yellowish brown head. Their head has a pair of large jaws that are use to kill enemies. However, the large jaws prevent them from feeding themselves. They rely on workers for food.

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Termite Nymphs

For the first two weeks of life, termite larvae are fed regurgitated food, which helps them grow into workers soldiers or more developed nymphs. Most termites will become workers, A small percentage of these workers will develop into soldiers to keep the colony safe from outside threats.

Some termite workers will continue to develop and turn into nymphs. These nymphs eventually grow wings and become swarmers capable of reproduction. Depending on the colony’s needs, the nymphs may evolve into secondary reproductives that can reproduce but do not have fully developed wings. In some cases, tertiary reproductives develop from workers and do not have any wings at all. Secondary and tertiary reproductives can keep a colony alive if something happens to the king or queen.

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Termite Eggs

A termite queen lays 6 to 12 eggs within a few days or weeks after mating. Most subterranean species lay fewer than 100 eggs during the first year. Eventually, a queen may lay thousands of eggs in a day.

The king and queen take care of their first batch of eggs together. Termite larvae are the termites that just hatched and are small, soft and lack color. Once the termite babies grow into nymphal workers, they take over and care for their younger siblings, the new eggs and the king and queen. Workers make sure the eggs are clean and free from bacteria and fungi from the soil.