Do Termites Respond To Light?

Do Termites Respond To Light?

Many people do not know that termites cannot see. Well, most termites anyway. The vast majority of termite species, including all species found in North America, do not use the sense of sight in order to navigate their surroundings. There are well over one thousand different termite species in the world, and some species possess radically different features. However, for the most part it could be said that termites are completely blind. This is due to the fact that termites do not possess compound eyes.

Termites are typically active only under obscured conditions. For example, subterranean termites travel below the ground, and drywood termites spend most of their time consuming the inner layers of wood. Subterranean termites do not require sight as they are active within the soil where eyes would be useless. Drywood termites mostly prefer to hollow out wood or wood-made objects, making eyesight unnecessary for these types of termites as well. However, termite alates, or swarming/flying termites do have eyes. These alates will eventually lose their wings as they become queens and kings of new colonies, but they will keep their eyes. All types of termites seem to react to light sources, even blind workers and soldiers.

Alates use their sense of vision in order to find mates and to locate proper regions for starting a colony. Alates take cues from the early morning sunshine. When the sun rises alates will emerge from small holes in soil or wood. Once these alates emerge they begin to swarm. These swarming alates are frantically trying to secure a mate.

Researchers have discovered that subterranean termite workers and soldiers, although blind, still make efforts to avoid areas exposed to light. Researchers found that when moonlight was shone over underground nests, the termites would work together in order to cover holes that allowed light to shine through. It was later hypothesized that these termites worked together in order to avoid light exposure by using pheromones as a social signal. These pheromone signals alerted the colony of a potential threat. Researchers are still very much in the dark about the effect that light has on termite behavior.

Do termites necessarily need to “see” in order to sense light? Do you believe that termites would react to artificial light sources differently than natural light sources?