(Describer) Titles: The Bug Chicks, and Solpugid Productions, in association with Texas A and M University. Insects and Human Society. About to bite a log...

[growls] aah! Kristie, what are you doing?

Well, this is an episode on termites, so I figured I'd try it. But you can't digest wood. Oh...right.

(Describer) Different insects are shown: including a small green one with wings, hundreds of tiny ones swarming a worm, one with transparent wings climbing a tree, a thin green one looking around, two with translucent white wings, and one crawling on a green leaf before flying off. Titles: The Insect Orders.

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(Describer) Order Isoptera : Termites. Taxonomy. In a forest...

Isoptera. "Iso" means even, and "ptera" means winged, so these insects are the even winged. All four wings of this animal are similar in size, shape, and venation. And you might be confused by this because not a lot of people think about termites as having wings, but at certain stages of their lives, some termites do.

(Describer) One crawls on a log. Title: Morphology.

Workers and soldier bodies are pale with darker, sclerotized heads. "Sclerotized" means hardened exoskeleton. Soldiers are usually much larger than workers and have giant mandibles they use to protect the colony.

(describer) With a photo of Kristie with her finger bleeding--

(Describer) With a photo of Kristie with her finger bleeding, title: Don't mess with soldiers.

Title: Don't mess with soldiers...

(Jessica) These soldiers in the genus Nasute have heads that end in a nozzle, and they squirt a sticky chemical substance from their frontal projections. Reproductive adult males and females are alate, or winged, and their bodies are usually darker. Queens are not commonly seen, but their bodies are distended with thousands of eggs.

(Describer) Title: Biodiversity and Distribution.

Subterranean tropical species build huge mounds out of earth. These mounds can be taller than us. Here's a picture of Kristie trying to reach the top of a mound we found in Kenya. The arboreal species live in trees and create huge nests out of regurgitated cellulose. We found these arboreal nests all over the mangroves when we were in Guatemala. You can even see the termite highways on the trees.

(Describer) Title: Biology and Life History.

Termites are eusocial insects that evolved from wood-eating roaches. Eusociality is defined by three characteristics: one, shared brood care. This is where multiple individuals help care for offspring. Two, multigenerational colonies. This is when you have many different stages of development living together at the same time to ensure longevity of the colony. Three, division of labor. This is when you get the caste system of a queen and reproductive males, workers, and soldiers. Some interesting facts: Queen termites are some of the longest-lived insects and live up to 50 years. Queens of some African species can grow up to 14 centimeters long and produce up to 30,000 eggs a day. It's crazy. Termites invented air conditioning. Their mounds are specifically built to vent warm air out of the top and pull cool air in through the bottom. They keep the inside of the mounds at an almost constant temperature. Some species build mounds with the narrower sides facing east-west to minimize heat absorption from the sun.

(Describer) Title: Metamorphosis.

Termites go through simple gradual metamorphosis, which means the immatures look a lot like adults and get bigger with each molt until sexual maturity. But wait. If only the reproductive kings and queens get to mate, do the workers and soldiers ever reach sexual maturity? Nope. They're sterile.

[both cry] hmm

(Describer) They pout. Title: Human Impact.

Drywood, dampwood, and subterranean termite species cause a lot of damage to human dwellings and structures. It's estimated that in the U.S., native termite species cause billions of dollars a year in damage. And there's an introduced very aggressive species from China called the Formosan termite that is wreaking havoc in southern states. They have larger colonies than native termites, sometimes up to 3.5 million individuals. There's no doubt that termites are a huge problem pest. That being said, not all termite species are bad. In fact, without some termites, we would be in a lot of trouble. Take termites in rainforest ecosystems. They're incredibly important nutrient recyclers. They bring up nutrient-rich soil from hundreds of feet below the surface to help grow those massive trees. And we all know what kind of trouble we'd be in without rainforests. They're responsible for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.

(Describer) Title: Collecting.

Break up decomposing logs in forests, or contact a local pest control operator and see if you can tag along. Also, if you find termite damage, it's evidence that they've been around. So, if you collect them at your house, make sure you tell someone.

(Describer) Title: Mythology and Culture.

Termites have played an important role in human culture for centuries. In fact, people all over the world eat them during their emergence swarms as a quick protein-rich meal. The first insect I ever ate was a live termite. I was studying in Kenya, and my friend was from the Kamba tribe; and during the emergence, he ran into the classroom, and he said, "Come outside! It's the termites." And so we all trooped outside, and we ripped their wings off and threw them live down into our mouths. It was intense. It was awesome. And you remember how we talked about termites and air conditioning? Well, we got to interview Mick Pearce. He's an architect who built an amazing shopping center in Zimbabwe, and its structure is based off of termite mounds.

(Describer) On Skype, Pearce: Subtitles: "The structure is specially designed to, and this is a tip we took from the termites, to absorb the air temperature... and so we've got, sort of, teeth in the voids under the floors of each level which are festooned with concrete teeth, and the air at night turbulates around the teeth and transmits them. It cools them down.

(Pearce) The structure is specially designed to-- and this is a tip we took from the termites-- it's to absorb the air temperature. And so we've got, sort of, teeth in voids under the floors of each level which are festooned with concrete teeth, and the air at night turbulates around the teeth and transmits-- it cools them down. And then, the next day, the air is passed

(Describer) "And then the next day, the air is passed through the same way, but a bit slower, and then the air is cooled by the teeth before it gets into the building."

through the same way but a bit slower, and the air is then cooled by the teeth before it gets into the building.

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(Describer) Titles: Written and Produced by Kristie Reddick, Jessica Honaker Videographers: Kristie Reddick, Jessica Honaker Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.