Pacific dampwood termite
The Pacific dampwood termite is one of the biggest termites in North America. It lives in big families inside wet, rotting logs and stumps. The young ones are creamy white with a dark tummy.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A family can spend its whole life inside the same piece of wood.
To warn the others of danger, termites shake their bodies up and down and bang against the floor and ceiling of the nest.
A termite queen can live for many years. The oldest one known lived for 28 and a half years.
The winged termites are great fliers and can fly up to 350 metres to start a new family.
A new king and queen seal themselves inside a little hole and start their family there.
Most asked questions about Pacific dampwood termite
?What do dampwood termites eat?
They eat wet, rotting wood, mostly from fallen conifer trees.
?Are dampwood termites dangerous?
No, not to people. They can harm damp wood in houses, but they do less damage than drywood termites.
?Where do Pacific dampwood termites live?
Along the damp Pacific coast of North America.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Zootermopsis angusticollis
- Group
- Cockroaches and termites
- Family
- Archotermopsidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Blattodea > Archotermopsidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Rottenwood termite
Where the facts come from
- Zootermopsis angusticollis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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