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What Gases Do Termites Emit?

Termites are fascinating if troublesome creatures. As a eusocial species, a termite colony is best understood as a superorganism: an entity comprising of many individuals which act collectively for the good of the colony as a whole. By acting collectively, termites can achieve impressive feats, building extensive nests or mounds and cropping nearby vegetation as severely as grazing animals. In the process of these activities, termites produce a large volume of gases.

Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor.
- Like all respiring organisms, termites produce carbon dioxide and water vapor when they use oxygen to break down glucose. This is how the process of respiration produces energy. The vast number of termites in the termite nest chamber produce so much of these gases that they would quickly render the space uninhabitable. They produce tall, cathedral like mounds above their living spaces in part because the wind and the heating effect of the sun force the old air out of small holes in the side of the mound, which in turns draws fresh air down into the nest.
Hydrogen
- Termites use a community of microbes in their guts to break down plant matter such as cellulose into a digestible form. In fact, a termite can produce more than 4 pints of hydrogen from a single sheet of paper. Researchers at the Joint Genome Institute hope that by sequencing the genes of these microbes, they might be able to work out an efficient way of converting waste materials such as paper and cardboard into useful fuel in an efficient manner.
Methane
- Another gas produced by the digestive process of termites is methane. Termite methane production is a contributor to global warming, but methane from termites could potentially be harvested as a fuel source and thus provide a more sustainable energy source than fossil fuels. After the breakdown of organic matter by bacteria in wetland areas, termites are the largest natural producers of methane on Earth, producing between 2 and 22 megatons of methane a year.
Pheremones
- An important part of termite communication is through odors. By laying down trails of chemical messages, termites can communicate the direction of food sources and other useful information to other termites in the colony. The gases which cause these odors are made up of airborne chains of proteins. Pest control officers can pick up these odors using special detectors. This allows them to test for termite infestations in a minimally invasive manner and treat the infestations before they get out of control.

Animals & Science