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How Do Termites Communicate?

Termites are social insects that, like ants and bees, have highly organized colonies headed by a queen. They are remarkable engineers, building elaborate chambers and tunnels for specialized tasks (such as egg storage and fungus farming), and communication is essential to such an industrious society.

Termite communication is accomplished chiefly through tactile, environmental and chemical channels. As a classic example of a superorganism, termites are sensitive to any changes in vibration or pheromones among their population, and these changes can make all the difference in a termite colony's success.

Function
- The main form of termite communication appears to be chemical. The termite queen deposits a chemical trace, which informs worker termites where she is and what form of physical structure they should work on, such as a royal chamber or an egg chamber. As with fractal patterning, this simple first step becomes more complex as termites react to each other's presence, their distance from the queen and the diffusion of pheromone into the colony.
Features
- Termites share food and fluids throughout the colony. This is known as trophallaxis, and it is a form of recycling accomplished through either mouth-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth contact. As a result, any chemical signature the queen produces is quickly diffused throughout the colony, and commands are relayed in this way.
  Any changes at all in a colony are communicated by way of chemistry.
  
  Using this method, messages spread quickly through a termite colony. If termite soldiers or workers are lost, this news is chemically reported to the queen. She will then produce extra numbers of the diminished stock to replace the deceased.
Alarms
- Vibrations travel far and wide in termite society.
  
  Chemical trails and deposits, no mater how elaborate, are not the quickest way termites relate messages. If the colony is in danger--if a foraging animal breaches their home's walls, for instance, the termites nearest to the danger bang their heads into the walls. This vibration and pattern send an instant relay, to which other termites react. The method allows termite soldiers to mobilize against invading insects or other intruders.
Vibroacoustics
- Termites judge food through vibration.
  
  Research from 2004 suggested that termites have the ability to measure the mass and quality of wood through vibration, or vibroacoustics. Because termites are notoriously loud chewers, the vibration they produce forms a distinctive background noise in a termite colony. Studies investigate whether or not termites can gauge the amount of food required by the quality of this chewing vibration; if it sounds as if food is abundant, then termites will not bring back every source of wood they find.
Applications
- Aside from the benefits to entomology and gaining a greater understanding of how swarm intelligence is so effective, the study of termite communication gives rise to new types of pest control. Through chemical or vibrational experiments, scientists hope to learn to disrupt termite communications or lure them out of a home simply by telling them that a food source lies elsewhere.

Insects & Science