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Subterranean termites, the most common kind, live in the soil. There are distinct castes within each colony- the largest group being the workers, blind and wingless they bore galleries in wood.

Forage for food and care for other members of the colony. It is the workers , along with newly-hatched nymphs that do the damage to the structure.

Soldier termites protect the colony from attack by invaders such as ants. In its final growth stage, the soldier termites acquires a long armored head and large strong jaws.

Each colony has one queen or more, whose mission is to lay eggs. These develop into new colony members.

There is only one primary queen , but when she dies, secondary queens are often produced.

Once a year new members of the winged reproductive caste develops, A single colony may produce several hundreds of these.

When environmental conditions are ideal, these new Reproductive members leave the colony in a swarm to seek mates and start new colonies. After flying a short distance, the swarm fall to the ground and break off their wings, locate mates and then seek a small space beneath a rock or wood in direct contact with the soil to begin a new colony.