《TAIPEI TIMES》 ‘Citizen scientists’ help urban termite study achieve research breakthrough

By Su Chin-feng and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The termites that cause the most serious damage to buildings in Taiwan are of the Formosan and Asian subterranean species, a National Chung Hsing University study has found.

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The research was led by Li Hou-feng （李後鋒）, a professor in the university’s Department of Entomology, and published in the Journal of Economic Entomology in October.

Given the impracticality of entering private homes to find the pests, the research team launched a citizen science project in 2015 to request public assistance in collecting termite samples.

The team set up a Web site called the Taiwan Termite Identification Service, on which people could record the time and location they collected a termite sample before sending it to the university’s laboratory.

It also created a Facebook group called the Termite Forum to promote the project and encourage people to collect and send samples to the lab.

With the help of more than 200 members of the public and pest management professionals, the team collected 3,024 samples from 2015 to 2020.

The researchers found that the Formosan termite, which is endemic to Taiwan, comprised 45 percent of the samples identified, mostly in northern Taiwan.

The Asian subterranean termite, which is an invasive species, accounted for 50 percent of the samples, mostly in southern Taiwan, the study found.

The data showed that the Asian subterranean termite has been slowly expanding northward.

The beginning of dispersal flight events, when termites leave their original colony in search of a new one for reproduction, varies between species.

The samples gathered showed that the Asian subterranean termite’s dispersal flight event begins about 40 days earlier than the Formosan termite, and peaks in the middle of April.

If a large number of flying termites are spotted in a home, people should contact termite control professionals immediately, Li said yesterday.

Minimizing the use of lights indoors or using yellow lights can help reduce the number of termites finding their way indoors, he added.

The Eastern subterranean termite, the Formosan subterranean termite and the domestic drywood termite have also been found in Taiwan, but they cause little damage, he said.

The team also found a species of Schedorhinotermes that has never been recorded in Taiwan, which Li said is likely an invasive species from Southeast Asia.

The study is “the most successful survey of urban termites ever undertaken worldwide,” Li said.

The results can assist with organizing basic information about household insects in Taiwan, and can be used to study the evolution of urban pest distribution, he added.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES