Termites

 

Anyone who has ever lived in the sub-tropics or tropics knows them: termites. Small, industrious creatures with shiny heads and pale bodies. They are often mistaken for ants, but they are not even related to those. They make beautiful castles of sand and earth, where the colony -in an ingeniously created microclimate- works and lives in an intricate society.

But they are not only found in those beautiful termite mounds.

I have a small vegetable garden. There, I grow tomatoes, which are tied up on canes. Those canes get shorter and shorter. Because they get eaten at the bottom, the part that sits into the earth. Hungry termites in action.

In big concrete boxes, I also have strawberries, or at least, I try to grow strawberries there. But there are many competitors around. Snails love the unripe fruit. After they have made their move, fruit flies finish their work. Then, when a fruit does escape those predators and shines red between the green leaves, a mouse bird will come and steal it. What wood pigeons do in Belgium, mousebirds do here. So I put small frames of wood on the boxes, over which I draped nets.

Only, now those wooden slats are collapsing. Closer inspection shows that most of the slats are enveloped by earth. It is as if someone has applied clay around the slats. That is the work of termites. It allows them to feast on the wood in the coolness they prefer. Exit protection from the mouse birds….

Not all of termites stay outdoors. Recently, I found the same clay-like construction on the top of a partition in my wardrobe. As long as they don't start eating my bed, it's fine.