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Articles on Termite

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They might be eating your home, but termites play a vital role in ecosystems. Termite image from www.shutterstock.com

Hidden housemates: the termites that eat our homes

Termite damage costs Australian homes at least a billion dollars each year – but they are absolutely vital for ecosystems.
The common grey silverfish, Ctenolepisma longicaudata, in Sydney. Graeme Smith

Hidden housemates: book-loving silverfish

Silverfish have disappeared from our homes as book-bindings - their favourite food - have improved.
True Australians: hard workers, quiet achievers and generally underappreciated labourers.

Australia: riding on the insect’s back

Insects are largely hidden from view or maligned unfairly, but they make a tremendous contribution to the Australian economy.
A queen bee tended by her workers … but take away her pheromones and they start to act strangely. Flickr/KrisFricke

Smells like queen spirit: royal pheromones in insect colonies

Much like people, insect colonies like to know if her majesty is at home. In the ants, bees, wasps and termites (the “big four” of the social insect world), the queen has long been suspected of using special…

Termite stomach acid to aid biofuel

A study into the role of gut bacteria in termite stomachs has given surprising, but hopeful, results. Researchers at Purdue…

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