Termite treatment

AS every citizen in the country realises — and which recent events in Gujarat have confirmed — there are giant colonies of termites gnawing at the foundations of this magnificent building we live in. The threat they pose to our lives provoked me into plodding through several manuals on termites and termite control. I now wish to share some of the useful material I came across with readers.

General Biology: Termites are essentially ground-inhabiting social creatures existing generally in subterranean conditions. They, therefore, generally escape detection, although they are known to cause damage worth crores of rupees, apart from destroying general security and social harmony.

There are several varieties of this common pest, but two particularly dangerous sub-species that have surfaced in recent times go by the names of Vishwa Hindu Parishadus and the Bajrang Dalus, both of which are known to proliferate in the warm, moist conditions of sub-tropical climatic zones presided over by friendly political dispensations.

Full-grown workers of these termite families are wingless, totally blind and generally restless with discontent and anger over imagined threats to their social and religious identities. Once fully grown, they are capable of arranging themselves in battle formations, armed with petrol bulbs, matches, swords and pistols, and ravaging large swathes of the surrounding area without let or mercy.

What makes the Vishwa Hindu Parishadus and the Bajrang Dalus quite distinct from other sword wielders and petrol bulb throwers — it must be emphasised that there is no dearth of insects of this kind powered by other belief systems — is the fact that they enjoy the full protection of the state and can therefore swarm around in large mobs with electoral lists in their hands, perpetrating their violence under the benign eye of the police force and the local government.

They can slaughter whole villages, burn down multi-storeyed establishments, knife their way through an entire bazaar and go back to their normal lives, as if nothing happened.

Feeding habits: Subterranean termites feed exclusively on the wooden fibres of bigotry. They can do this without harming their digestive systems because they come equipped with a protozoa in their brain that provides them the necessary enzymes to digest the stuff.

In their early stages, they are fed predigested pap by the chief ideologues or the Queen termites of their respective colonies. In this manner their paranoia over the imagined enemy is carefully fattened.

Although they are soft-bodied creatures, they have hard, saw-toothed jaws that work like shears and are, therefore, able to bite off, chew and digest the most patently toxic substances that come their way.

Communication methods: These termites communicate primarily by secreting a pheromone called communalism, which has a characteristic odour and colour. They may or may not choose to sport saffron bandannas as another symbol of their identity.

Anyone who is not of their persuasion — especially religious persuasion — is instantly recognised and an alarm pheromone is secreted which triggers the workers to attack ruthlessly.

Evidence of infestations: The first evidence of infestation are the distinctive mud tubes attached to the building’s secular foundations.

Based on normal feeding activity, it takes these creatures three to eight years to cause appreciable damage, although in the meantime they can create fear and trauma in limited areas.

What is unfortunate, however, is that the actual damage they wreak is never fully appreciated until they break loose and the full strength of their diabolic potential comes into public view.

Termite treatment: The goal is to establish a continuous insecticide barrier between the termite colony and the vulnerable portions of this building we cherish.

Sometimes there may be secondary termite colonies above the soil, in the roof and other areas. It is therefore vital to carefully scrutinise the vulnerable surfaces of the building. We do not advocate harmful chemical treatment that pollutes the environment.

Instead, once their presence is properly mapped, conditions that help in their general reproduction, division of labour and foraging propensities must be altered through prompt, and effective action and those guilty of wreaking public damage be promptly incinerated in the courts of justice.

But for any of this to happen, we need those who are presently in political charge of this home that keeps us together, to wake up from their benign slumber and consider the handiwork of these pests they have assiduously cultivated as pets.

If they do not do this, we may as well resign ourselves to the possibility of this magnificent structure we call the Indian Republic collapsing about us in the not too distant future.

Earlier Columns