- Worldwide distribution. In Oceania, recorded from Fiji (Lautoka only), and French Polynesia (Marquesas Islands).
- Damage: destructive, feeding on paper, clothes, living trees (preference) - mango, citrus, coconut, cassava. Mostly, lives underground.
- Colonies are started by king and queen - queen laying 1000 eggs/day; eggs produce blind workers (dig tunnels, collect food, care for brood), and soldiers (large, defend colony, emit toxic substances); colonies up to 1 million.
- Spread: (i) each year swarms of 'reproductive' occur and pairs of kings and queens seek new places to start colonies; (ii) colonies move long distances in e.g., wooden shipping pallets.
- Cultural control: Fiji has eradication plan: surveys, containment, community surveillance (http://baf.com.fj/news/asian-subterranean-termites). Where established, measures needed concerning drainage, ventilation, treatment of timber, treatment of swarms.
- Chemical control: Chemicals for preservation of timber; soil barriers to prevent termite invasions beneath houses; and monitoring baits, need be applied by professional pest control operators.
Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition
Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides
Asian subterranean termite (384)
Asian subterranean termite
Coptotermes gestroi. It was previously known as Coptotermes havilandi.
AUTHOR Graham Jackson
Information from Rudolf H Scheffrahn, Nan-Yao Su (2017) Coptotermes gestroi (=havilandi) (Wasmann). Asian subterranean termite. Featured Creatures, Entomology & Nematology. UF/IFAS. University of Florida. (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/termites/havilandi.htm); and Biosecurity Authority Fiji. Asian subterranean termites. (http://baf.com.fj/news/asian-subterranean-termites); and Coptotermes gestroi. Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptotermes_gestroi); and from Nan-Yao Su, Rudolf H Scheffrahn (2019) Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki. Featured Creatures. Entomology & Nematology. UF/IFAS. University of Florida. (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN27800.pdf). Photos 1-3 Walker K (2011) Asian subterranean termite (Coptotermes gestroi). PaDIL - http://www.padil.gov.au.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project HORT/2016/18: Responding to emerging pest and disease threats to horticulture in the Pacific islands, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Pacific Community.