Study On Population Ecology Of Coptotermes And Reticulitermes Termites

The termite is a kind of destructive worldwide pest and its harm involves almost all fields of the national economy. In order to control the harm of termite and protect the environment, termite control workers of China are finding actively the new environmental friendly technologies for termite control. Integrated pest management (IPM) will be the main measure of termite control in near future which has effectively solved the environmental pollution caused by traditional chemical control techniques. However, the IPM core technology-termite monitoring and control technology required us to know more about the ecological knowledge of termite populations, such as the termite’s population size and their living habits, in order to better design and layout of optimal control operation. The main termite species against the housing construction in China is concentrated in some species of Genus Coptotermes and Reticulitermes. By taking Genus Coptotermes and Reticulitermes as research objects, we studied seasonal variation of termite activities both in target area’s Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki and the dominant species of local Reticulitermes, and analyzed the territory of activities, population dynamics and wood consumption of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki.The main findings were as follows:The termite activity changed significantly with the seasons, and the temperature was one of the most important environmental factors influencing termite activities, which had a positive correlation with the amount of termite activity; Termite food intake also showed obvious seasonal changes, and its variation was basically consistent with the degree of the termite activity; Both the roles of termite activities in different areas and different types termite activities changing with the season were existed differences, latitude was the main factors to determine the level of the termite activity; The farthest activities distance of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki was about56m, the maximum activity territory was approximately670m, which were correspondingly changed with the variation of seasonal climate; The maximum of C. formosanus activity in a year turned out in May and September, and the minimum activity occurs in January-February; The population quantity of C. formosanus Shiraki nest tested was about1.3million, and its wood consumption turned out significant change as the season change; The highest wood consumption turned in July, and the lowest was in December; A single nest population wood consumption one year was approximately86kg.