Home  /  TermiteTalkTM Blog 

Sep. 21, 2009 11:33 AM

Life in the termite colony moves at a slow pace in general, certainly for the first two years. The queen is just beginning her seven to ten years of peak egg production, and the number of individuals in the colony is very low. Colonies that were started this spring with a pair of adults (queen and king) contain less than a dozen nymphs - and maybe one soldier.

By this time next year, there may be about 400 individuals (the range can be 51 to 984), and there may be as many as eight soldiers. This percentage (usually two percent) of soldiers in a colony remains in mature colonies.

The body size of the nymphs and soldiers in young colonies is significantly smaller than those in mature colonies. It seems what a young colony needs is numbers of individuals; they may be small, but they get the job done.