What Do Termites Eat? Everything you Need to Know

Termites are small, social insects comprised of over 2,000 species, distributed globally across all continents except Antarctica. They are primarily classified into three main types based on their nesting and feeding habits: dampwood, drywood, and subterranean, with subterranean being the most common and destructive. Termites live in complex colonies with a caste system consisting of a queen, workers, and soldiers, and they feed on cellulose materials. Continue reading to discover everything you need to know about what termites eat.

What Foods Do Termites Eat?

Termites are classified as detritivores, creatures that consume debris. These insects specifically target foods for their cellulose content. Their unique gut bacteria allow them to break down cellulose, a primary component of the termite’s diet. While they all share this core diet, they differ in the type of cellulose they prefer.

While drywood varieties consume dry wood and plant materials, dampwood termites require a moist environment and a higher degree of decay, often invading tree stumps and fallen tree trunks. Subterranean termites require high moisture to survive, often consuming cellulose in wood near or touching soil.

Some of the most common foods that termites eat include:

• Grasses
• Fungi (Termitomyces and Xylaria in particular)
• Mango trees
• Peach trees
• Pine trees
• Mulch
• Sugarcane
• Springwood
• Roots
• Oak trees
• Ash trees
• Termite feces
• Cotton
• Palm trees

ermites feed on plant matter and wood that are decaying, as this makes it easier for them to harvest and digest the food. Some aspects of the termite diet serve a functional purpose. Termites often eat feces to introduce the necessary gut bacteria and enzymes required to digest tough plant matter and fungi. Consuming other termites’ feces helps prepare their digestive systems.

It is believed that termites’ digestive processes result in the release of significant amounts of methane (1- 5 %) into the atmosphere. Even though termite mounds can mitigate 20 to 80% of the methane emissions that they produce, their eating habits could spell trouble of a greater magnitude for humans than half-eaten telephone poles.

How Do Termites Eat Their Food?

Wood, plant matter, and fungi are not exactly easy for insects to eat and digest, but termites manage. Termites have special asymmetrical mandibles that allow them to tear into their food and start consuming it quickly and efficiently.

Using their strong mouthparts, termites can rapidly chew and swallow their food so that their special gut biome can break down the cellulose into usable energy for the termite. Interestingly, not all termites in the caste system are capable of digesting cellulose; they’re tasked with different jobs.

Thus, it falls to the worker caste to feed other termites their meals, a process that is called trophallaxis. The workers will feed the other termites mouth-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth.

Another incredible aspect of termites’ eating habits is their symbiotic relationship with the Termitomyces fungi. Termites essentially grow these fungi in a fungus comb and allow them to mature within their mounds. The insects consume the fungi and use their enzymes to bolster their digestive capabilities, making it easier to break down cellulose.

Basically, termites are farmers for fungi that they use to aid their digestion.  

What Competes with Termites for Food?

Although termites might be the most common insect that eats dying plant matter and wood, they do have some competition for these resources.

Powderpost beetles (order Coleoptera) are a competitor for wood. These beetles bore into wood and lay eggs. Their young hatch and eat their way to the top. Unlike termites, these insects are primarily found indoors, especially in flooring planks and furniture.

Sometimes, the competition is more about limiting the insects’ foraging efforts and less about eating the food source. The black carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus), for example, often burrows into wood to create nests for their offspring.

Both carpenter ants and termites seek rotting wood. When the two meet, the ants will often kill and eat the termites, sometimes wiping out an entire colony.

The Southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) is another insect that consumes wood and thereby competes with termites for food. They can often be found below the bark of trees, eating dry wood.

Some of these competitors are dangerous, like the ants, but others just leave less wood for the termites, even when their ranges do not overlap.

What Do Termites Eat During Winter?

Termites are very determined creatures, but they are also cold-blooded. That means they need to find shelter in the winter, or they will die. Although some termite colonies are killed off by the cold, others continue to dig into the ground in search of roots and decaying plant matter.

When the temperature is warm enough, termites will leave their nests to gather food and bring it back for the soldiers and reproductive castes.

Of course, another option for termites is to find a warm place to overwinter, specifically human dwellings where they consume wood in out-of-the-way areas like basements.

Termites eat much of the same foods in winter as they do year-round, including decaying plant matter, wood, and fungi they have stored in their mounds.  

What Predators Hunt Termites?

Although termites are numerous and capable of digesting cellulose, they don’t have many defenses.

Termite predators include:

• Lomamyia
• Carpenter ants
• Woodpeckers
• Lizards
• Bats
• Foxes
• Crickets
• Dragonflies
• Spiders
• Mice
• Snakes
• Bears
• Chimpanzees
• Humans

Although people do eat termites, particularly in developing regions, most people seek to exterminate them to prevent property damage.