General
Termites are a very social group of insects, a little like ants and bees, all of which breed, live, and feed in one colony or community working together for the good of the group. Termites feed mostly on wood or other cellulosic type materials such as other dead plants, soil and feces. Ecologically termites are important for the environment as they help to break down dead plant material and recycle it into the environment where it can supply new plants, animals or insects with nutrition. Along these same lines termites can be very destructive to man made structures constructed of wood or other cellulosic materials.

Termite colonies may be small, initially, but can grow depending on many factors to many millions of termites. A typical colony contains nymphs (immature termites), workers which you would normally see, soldiers to protect the colony and one or more reproducing termites. Termites generally live on the order of 3 to 5 years, though queen termites may live up to 25 years.

Habitat
Termites may live either underground, up to 20 feet, or in a piece of wood that can support their colony. These two locations can supply the colony for many years, but often the colony will reach out to additional resources, such as the wooden (cellulose) timbers of man-erected structure causing substantial damage. If the wood is touching the ground the termites may go directly from the ground into the wood, though often the termites will have to cross an unfavorable barrier, such as concrete. Termites normally do not expose themselves to the elements and therefore build, quite quickly, tubes or tunnels of feces, soil, and plant material to reach the new resource, your house. Housing wood can be protected from termites with a sprayed on deterrent chemical such as XP2000 Orange Oil.

Extermination
People have been trying to exterminate various termite infestations since the early 1900's. Initially the chemicals employed where very toxic to both humans and termites. These chemicals often contained arsenic as the active agent. Great skill was needed to administer the poison as it also caused dementia and death in humans. Modern insecticides are specially formulated usually to inhibit or somehow tamper specifically with some enzyme function of the termites. Insecticides such as diflubenzuron or other phenyl-pyrazole compounds are now commonly used. These compounds are placed where the worker termites will pick them up, ingest them and carry them back to the colony. The insecticide will then slowly kill off the whole colony over the course of a few weeks to months, depending on many factors. At the same time these chemicals are relatively in-active to humans, so handling and exposure concerns are limited. If the termites have permeated the wood of your house the two most currently used chemicals in tenting are sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane) and methyl bromide.

Taxonomy
Swaming Termite vs. Flying Ant Determining if you have in infestation is best determined by a trained inspector. The inspector will look for specific signs and will determine if the insects present are indeed termites. Termites are similar in appearance to winged ants, though have many different features. Wings of a termite are large and of equal size where as a winged ant for instance has smaller un-equal sized wings with the front wing being much larger than the rear wing. In addition termites have antennae that have a smooth arc out from the head where as ants have antennae with an elbow in them. Ants also have a narrow waist or petiole where the abdomen and thorax are joined. A termite is very broad in this area and the body of a termite is almost of equal width for the length of the body.

Termite eggs are a yellowish white and hatch after 50 to 60 days. The worker termites are often creamy white in color, wingless, and blind. The reproductives are dark brown to brownish black and they have two pairs of equal size wings extending well beyond the body.