Identifying Formosan termites

Formosan termites swarm around a streetlight in Metairie,
LA on May 22, 2013. (Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The
Times-Picayune)

Late May, around Mother's Day is traditionally when Formosan termites tend to swarm in both Texas and Louisiana.  I was reminded of this when someone sent me a link to last night's New Orleans Times Picayune report of readers' images of the "swarms" (these amateur photographers catch some pretty dramatic images--check them out).

While I know of no Texas community that experiences Formosan termites to the same degree as New Orleans, these termites are established in many locations in Texas.  So all Texas PMPs should be familiar with what to look for.

Coptotermes alates (swarmers) are yellowish to orange in
color and larger than Reticulitermes species.

Here are the basics for Formosan termite, Coptotermes formosanus, identification and how to distinguish them from other subterranean and drywood termites:

• Look for termites that swarm at night rather than in the day.  Our native subterranean termites, the Reticulitermes species, are daytime swarmers; Coptotermes and some of our native drywood termites (Incisitermes) swarm at night.
• Coptotermes termites are larger (body 6-8 mm) than Reticulitermes (body 3-5 mm) and are a pale yellow to orange color. Both Reticulitermes and Incisitermes can have dark (reddish brown to black) bodies. 
• Coptotermes wings are distinctive.  They have two strong veins along the leading edge of the forewing, similar to Reticulitermes. But where Reticulitermes wings are hairless, Coptotermes wings are covered with many hairs.  Incisitermes have four major veins at the base of the forewing, and multiple branches between the leading veins in the forewing.

If you are in Texas and suspect you have found Formosan termites, you can send specimens to my office, following directions posted here.  I am especially interested in knowing about Formosan-infested locations in north Texas.  For more information about Formosan termites, see Extension publication E-367.

Coptotermes wings have two very prominent veins along the
leading edge of the forewing. The entire wing is covered with
very fine hairs visible under 12X to 25X magnification.

Reticulitermes wings have two stronger veins along the
leading edge of the forewing. Other wing veins, however, are
also prominent and there are no noticeable hairs on the wing
membrane.

Incisitermes forewings have four branching veins at the base.
The forth vein has multiple branches along its length. Some
species have dark wings.

Formosan termite swarming season

'Tis the season to be on the lookout for Formosan termite swarmers.  Over four seasons of monitoring Formosan termites in the Dallas area suggests that the north Texas swarming season ranges from mid-May to mid-June. Since 1999 my lab has documented Formosan termites from approximately 20 sites in north Texas.  Most of these sites seem to be associated with the transport and use of railroad cross-ties as landscaping timbers.

I am always glad to receive reports of suspected Formosan termites, but this year I am especially interested.   Our office, in cooperation with Dr. Roger Gold's lab in College Station, is contracting this summer with the Texas Department of Agriculture to map out active Formosan termites sites throughout Texas. To do this, we are returning to sites where we have previously collected this termite and placing out both light traps and ground monitoring stations. We want to do a better job of identifying infested areas, and (we hope) determine whether they have spread.

We need your help. If you know of any old or new sites (through specimens), would you consider calling us? Collection information we need includes: specific address, owner, owner’s phone and/or email, and dates and circumstances of collection (including whether the termites were collected indoors or outdoors). If you or your technician do find a new site, we would be very interested to know whether railroad crossties are located on or near the property, or whether the infestation can be traced to some other source.

Formosan termite swarmers (right) are larger and lighter in color than eastern subterranean termites (left). Winged reproductives can be distinguished from drywood termite swarmers by the 2 (instead of 3 or more) thickened veins in the leading edge of the forewings. Formosans fly at night, instead of during the day, like Reticulitermes. If you are in north Texas and see anything remotely like one of these termites, please let us know by calling 972-231-5362 and asking for me or Dr. Charlie Helpert. Any sightings from central, south, or coastal areas of the state should be reported to the Center for Urban and Industrial Entomology in College Station at 979-845-5855.  Any specimens collected should be placed in ethyl or rubbing alcohol as soon as possible.

As always, your help is greatly appreciated.

Also
If you don't have a copy of the PCT Field Guide for the Management of Structure-infesting Ants, now's a good time to get one.  The third edition just came out and at $9.95 it's a bargain.  I can't imagine being in pest control and not having a copy of this guide.  Check it out.

"If Kudzu wasn't bad enough"...and other thoughts on exotic pests

Dr. Dan Suiter and Lisa Ames with the University of Georgia just sent out a pest alert on an insect called the "bean plataspid". I had never heard of a plataspid (pla TASS pid) before, so I looked in my well-worn copy of "How to Know the True Bugs" by James Alexander Slater--a very useful book for relatives of the box elder bugs--but with no luck. A quick check of the Internet revealed that Plataspids are Old World insects--hence not covered by my U.S. field guide.

Suiter and Ames recently received numerous samples of these insects swarming around homes in Georgia. Homeowners there are being repelled by not only the numbers, but also by a foul smell associated with the bugs. Turns out that this was the first known collection of these insects, known scientifically as Megacopta cribraria in the U.S. It is native to India and China, where it feeds on kudzu.

At this point many Southerners can be heard shouting "Glory be! A bug that eats kudzu! An answer to our prayers!" If you are not from the South, or are unfamiliar with kudzu, it is an invasive plant nightmare. Originally introduced in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a Japanese government display garden. Planted widely as an ornamental vine for its abundant vegetation and sweet-smelling flowers, it was promoted as a forage plant by the Soil Conservation Service in the 1920s and 30s for erosion control. Bad idea. Kudzu smother trees and other plants under a solid blanket of leaves, by girdling woody stems and tree trunks, and by breaking branches or uprooting entire trees and shrubs through the sheer force of its weight. It grows at a rate of up to a foot a day.

Unfortunately for us, the bean plataspid does not appear to be a good solution to kudzu. Besides being a household pest on the order of the box elder bug or the Asian mulicolored lady beetle, the bean plataspid is a pest of numerous legume crops, including soybeans. The University of Georgia, Georgia Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Agriculture consider it a potential agricultural pest and are partnering to take some regulatory action.

This appears to be the latest assault against the native fauna in our country. It's bad enough to have a new structural pest stinking up our homes, but when a foreign insect crosses the border into the U.S. it's generally forever. The fire ant landed on the sandy bay shores of Mobile, Alabama about 80 years ago and forever altered the ecology of the southern pine forest to the Texas prairies. We still don't know the full impact of fire ants on native wildlife and plant life, not to mention the American economy.

Last week I attended a conference on invasive pests, put on by the Texas Invasive Plant and Pest Council, in San Antonio. If there was ever a more discouraging subject for a biologist, I don't know what it is. In one of the talks, a botanist talked about his efforts to catalog and classify all the invasive foreign plants in Texas. He proposed classifying certain plants as some pests as "super watch" plants. "Super watch" plants are those which might possibly be removed from the Texas landscape before they become impossible to control.

I think the concept is a useful one for insects. By classifying certain insects as "Potentially Eradicable" pests, or putting them on some sort of "Super Watch" list, we accept responsibility for going after these pests. It seems to me that under our current system we have little incentive to go after new pests before they can get established.

Take the Formosan termite. We continue to watch helplessly as this pest becomes established in new sites around the South and in Texas. The potential economic impact of the Formosan termite is staggering, as it is at least twice as destructive as our native subterranean termite on homes, and an eater of live trees as well.

Ironically this is one pest that, in my opinion, could be controlled in isolated infestations before it becomes firmly established. We have dozens of sites in Texas where the Formosan termite is established on one or a few home properties. A determined effort to eradicate colonies with termite baits has, in my opinion, a good chance of succeeding in nipping many of these mini-invasions in the bud.

So what does all this have to do with pest management professionals? Knowing where a pest is found and how fast it is spreading is important for decision makers to know whether and how an invasive pest might be eradicated. Suiter and Ames are requesting PMPs in Georgia to report any sightings of the bean plataspid there. Here in Texas we are requesting PMPs to report new sightings of the rasberry crazy ant and the Formosan termite. These reports are very important to us and often form the basis for research dollars to work on solutions for these pests.

I will be working with Drs. Roger Gold and Robert Puckett this year attempting to delineate precisely where Formosan termites are present in the state of Texas. The research is being funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture and USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. More information about the project will be forthcoming, but if you know of any suspected Formosan termite infestations we definitely want to know.

If only the Formosan termite could be coaxed into preferring kudzu.

Mother's Day Termites

Historically in many parts of Texas and the South, Mother's Day marks the beginning of swarm season for Coptotermes formosanus, known in this country as the Formosan termite. And right on schedule I had my first Formosan termite report of the year yesterday, the day after Mother's day. In the process of working with the PMP who submitted the sample, I learned something that I believe is worth passing on.

When termites swarmers are reported from inside a home, the traditional diagnosis says that the house is infested and needs treatment by a termite control professional. When Wendell Daniel, of All Pest Solutions, brought in yesterday's sample it consisted of wingless Formosan termite swarmers. My diagnosis was that the home in question was likely infested and needed professional treatment, quick.

The problem was that this home had been treated before, in 2006; and a few Formosan swarmers had been found at the home annually since then. What made this especially puzzling was that only a few swarmers were found each year, and they were always de-alated (wingless-making diagnosis more difficult). The neighborhood where the home was located has a known population of Formosan termites. The homeowner has never seen any damage, and Mr. Daniels has never been able to detect any sign of activity at the home apart from a few indoor swarmers each year since 2006.

Puzzled, I called Dr. Rudi Scheffran at the University of Florida Research Center in Ft. Lauderdale--the termite capitol of the U.S. Besides being one of the leading termite experts in the country, Rudi is always willing to help and just one of the nicest guys to work with. After confirming with him that the termites I had were indeed Formosans, Rudi told me that even a first year colony in a home will typically launch a couple of hundred swarmers. Putting two and two together, we finally concluded that the termites being found indoors likely entered the home (accidentally) from outdoors, something that would rarely if ever be expected to happen with Reticulitermes, our native subterranean termites.

The reason an accidental indoor collection of Formosan termites is a more probable occurrence than for our local species is that Coptotermes are nocturnal. Being nocturnal they are highly attracted to outdoor lights. In our problem house the homeowner had gone in and out of the front door the night before, a streetlight (the only one on the street) is outside this home. The fact that the same pattern had occurred for four years in a row with no increase in swarmer number helped convince us that this home may not have been infested after all.

My lesson, at least with Formosan termites, is that I shouldn't jump to conclusions about an indoor infestation when one or a small number of swarmers are found indoors. As I thought about it, the very first record I have of Formosan termites in our area in 1999 came from a sharp-eyed homeowner who noted these large, suspicious looking winged insects on her kitchen window screen. These are not your ordinary termites, and the old rules don't all apply. It is not unusual for a nearby colony in a tree or railroad tie or other site to put out large numbers of termites. For several years we monitored swarms outside a north Texas home. It was not unusual for us to collect several gallons of termites in a week during swarming season.

Any termite swarming reports over these next few weeks should be checked out very carefully. Although Formosan termites are not common in Texas away from the upper Gulf coast, they have been reported from scattered sites throughout central, east and north Texas. If you find a suspicious or confirmed case of Formosan termites, please let me know. I do maintain a database of all known sites of Formosan infestation. As Dr. Scheffran so gloomily predicted yesterday, "in 50 years they will probably be all over". But in the meantime I'd like to know where they are, in case our state ever wakes up and determine to something about this very important new pest.