Termitology

Carton nest of the arboreal termite Nasutitermes aquilinus, located internally on the upper floor of an old church, in Jacareí, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The nest, large and in full growth, has numerous hollow branches, which serve to expand within the cavity in which it grows. Termites transit within these branches. Externally, the growth of the nest takes place without such projections or branches. This growth pattern inside a hidden tree or building cavity, previously unknown, is compared to that of the nest of Coptotermes gestroi and described in 2015, which is done through numerous filamentary, thin and massive projections, in which the termites walk through the external surface.

Chemical barrier is the volume of substrate (usually soil) impregnated with chemical pesticide with long residual power, in order to constitute a continuous and insurmountable barrier to termites. This is a theoretical concept and the article discusses the essential aspects, which are the real need to prescribe such an approach, its durability, and the real limitations of this type of treatment, both in preventive and curative application against infestation. The matter must be seriously considered, especially when there is a risk of destroying the soil's biological barrier, a topic discussed in another paper.

This paper presents the basic precautions to be taken in all termite control operations, to avoid fire.
At the end there is a short chronicle, entitled "a new termite", which reports a curious fact, which occurred in 1990, between the cities of Pederneiras and Jaú, in the state of São Paulo.

Biological barrier is the residual fauna of native termites, diverse and abundant in tropical and subtropical urban soils, as well as in crops, which competes with termite pests, hindering and restricting their action, and, as a result, it protects buildings and the arboretum. Other small soil animals participate, such as ants, beetles, myriapods, isopods, earthworms, slugs and more, but termites predominate in tropical and subtropical soils. The fundamental, for its efficiency, is that the fauna is stabilized, giving harmony to the dynamics of the soil.