RAJMOHINI DEVI COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

AND RESEARCH STATION,AMBIKAPUR

COURSE-AENT-5312 (PEST OF CROPS AND

MANAGEMENT AND STORE GRAIN AND THEIR
MANAGEMENT)

TOPIC-TERMITES

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY
DR. P.K. BHAGAT SIR ANSITA TIWARI
STUDENT ID-20200522
THIRD YEAR
 INTRODUCTION
Scientific name - Odontotermes obesus and Microtermes obesi
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class:
Insecta
Order : Isoptera
Family : Termitidae
Distribution: Mainly in the northern and central India, but also in some pockets of peninsular India.
Host plants: wheat, barley, sugarcane, pea, sorghum, pearl millet, maize, groundnut.
 MARK OF IDENTIFICATION
•Egg: Dull, kidney shaped and hatches in 30-90 days
•Nymphs: Moult 8-9 times and are full grown in 6-12
months.
•Adult: Creamy coloured tiny insects resembling
ants with dark coloured head.
 LIFE CYCLE
 The life cycle of the termite begins with a mating flight,
wherein swarming winged reproductive males and females
leave
established colonies and procreate.
 After fertilization, winged termites land and shed their wings,
going on to form
new colonies.
 These insects then become the king or queen termites of
their newly established
colonies.
 The queen and king termites are at the center of the termite
life cycle and are
responsible for reproduction.
Eggs
 After the fertilized queen lays her eggs, they hatch into
pale white larvae.
 Eggs hatch into larvae and molt to develop into workers,
soldiers, and primary
or secondary reproductive.
Nymphs
 A nymph is a young termite that is going through molts, a
process of shedding
its exoskeleton, to become a reproductive.
First, a termite develops a soft exoskeleton under its
current, hard exoskeleton.
 Then, once the termite has reached maturity, its
outermost skeleton splits open,
and the new exoskeleton enlarges and hardens.
 This molting process continues throughout a termite’s life
cycle based on the colony’s needs.
Larvae
 Over the course of several molts, these
larvae grow to assume a role in one of the
three termite colony castes: workers,
soldiers, and reproductive termites, also
known as alates.
 NATURE OF DAMAGE
1.Termites damage the crop soon after sowing and sometimes near maturity.
2.They feed on roots, stem of growing plants, even dead tissues of plant feeding on cellulose.
3.The damaged plants dry up completely and are easily pulled out.
4.The plants damaged at later stages give rise to white ears. Infestation is heavy under unirrigated conditions and in the fields where
un-decomposed farm yard manure is applied before sowing.
 MANAGEMENT
Cultural method:
•Flood irrigation at the time of planting because it stops
termite attack due to excess moisture and the optimum
moisture level will revive.
•Fill the gaps in the field to compensate the population
Physical method:
•Locate and destroy the termite colony.
•Collect and destroy the termite affected setts from the field.
Chemical method:
•Dip the setts in imidacloprid 70WS 0.1% or chlopyriphos 20
EC 0.04% for 5min.
•Treat the soil with lindane 1.6 D @ 50 kg / ha