Termites: The Inner Sanctum Page #2

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he has his full load,

and then he's off.

The harvesters and

transportation workers

suddenly know it's time

to be getting back,

unless they get side-tracked.

The crinkly white paste

on the pitcher plant's rim

is termite caviar,

enough to distract them

from an entire lichen tree.

But the rim and the

inside of the pitcher

are super slippery.

A single plant with several pitchers

can fill up with thousands of termites,

that it slowly digests.

The termites bring home half a kilo

of raw plant material

to feed a million termites

for about ten days.

Perfect organization

without any organizer.

But being out in the open is risky,

and the biggest risk is dehydration.

That means sunny spots must be crossed

as fast as possible.

Gaps in the canopy are a problem.

Logging is a disaster.

Termites have softer

exoskeletons than ants.

Keep 'em in the sun too long,

and they boil.

When the sun comes out,

they huddle in the shadows,

or they put on a burst of

speed to get home fast.

These termites prefer to exit

in the morning or afternoon,

when the sun is warming up

or cooling down.

Their thin skins also can't cope

with cold fog and rain.

The rain clouds pass,

the march goes on.

This expedition has gone well,

with no predator attacks.

The losses to the carnivorous plants

will go unnoticed.

Once back at base, the colony

will stay underground for 10 days,

processing the harvest,

tending to the brood.

Back in America,

the war on termites continues.

You can poison them,

gas them,

or zap them.

But there's only one problem.

However efficiently a

building is cleansed,

right next door, in the back yard,

a new generation of

termites may be emerging,

primed to re-invade.

In this war,

termites outnumber humans.

In east Africa, the same is true,

but here, termites aren't seen as pests.

This gigantic, single-vent termite mound

says it all.

Termites dominate life here.

On a human scale, this tower

would be 1,700 meters high.

They have to build high

in order to get the ventilation system

to work efficiently.

So basically, the denser

and higher the trees,

the taller the mounds get.

But it's quite impressive, isn't it?

To see a colony building a new vent,

Jo and Reinhard have to

put in a night shift.

This mound is still a construction site.

They need a gentle light source

to see the termites

without disturbing them.

An infrared camera will let Reinhard

record the colony's activity.

Tens of thousands of builders bring up

clay and water from deep underground.

In the short run, these termites

are mining building materials.

In the long run, the minerals

they fetch from the deep

enrich the top soil.

They mix the clay in their jaws

with water they carry in their bodies.

To find it, these

termites may dig shafts

all the way down to the groundwater,

60 meters or more below the surface.

The work is hectic, but it's orderly,

and it never stops.

The mound is living, eating,

and breathing like one huge animal.

The comparison with an

animal is a good one.

The breath of a termite colony

is nearly as warm as a mammal's.

It's also super-saturated with moisture,

reflecting the internal

climate of the nest.

When a rare shower cools the air,

you can see the vent steaming.

By first light, this vent has grown

by half a meter.

It's not finished yet.

Later, all the gaps will be filled.

The termites regulate the flow of gases

so the queen's chamber stays

at 30 degrees centigrade,

and close to 100% humidity.

This mound

is alive

and breathing.

But not all mounds

breathe in the same way,

as Jo Darlington discovers.

The difference is mostly

in the ventilation systems.

The different species have chosen

to use different ways of

ventilating the mound.

This one's smoking very actively,

and that one and that one,

and this one's coming up too.

What counts here is the difference

between the top holes

and the bottom holes,

because the wind is stronger

the further above the ground you get,

so that the high holes suck air

into the low holes, and it

passes through the mound.

To live in this dry, hot climate,

termites need air conditioning.

But these vents don't just

keep a termite mound cool.

They also expel waste gases,

carbon dioxide and methane.

Not break it.

Yeah.

Mounds with a single vent

are especially valuable

to Joanna and Reinhard.

They can use them to measure

how much gas is released,

and that helps them estimate the number

of termites living in a single mound.

You have to be careful when

dismantling a heavy vent.

This was built to last.

Multiply the figures from one mound

by the number of mounds in the savanna,

and you could theoretically work out

how much greenhouse

gas, especially methane,

Africa's termites release

into the atmosphere.

Get it right,

and you know the contribution

termites make to global warming.

But it isn't an exact science yet.

We can't make any meaningful estimate

of the biomass of termites.

We have figures for which termites

produce how much methane,

but we just don't know

how big their population,

how big their biomass, is.

So yes, they are a contributor,

but we don't know how big.

It's easier with something like cattle.

Cattle contribute in the same way.

It's the intestines, in both cases,

which produce methane

as a metabolic waste product.

But whereas with cows

it's relatively easy

to count the heads and work

out how many there are,

and so how much methane they produce,

with termites, we don't know.

We think there are lots of them,

but we don't what their biomass is.

We need to know more about them.

Hacking into the base of the mound

reveals the passages of

the subterranean city.

Stragglers from a termite nursery

are the last to scurry to safety.

Once again, entomologists

become archaeologists

as their live objects of interest

disappear before their eyes.

While Jo and Reinhard

investigate their Kenya colony,

another termite colony is receiving

a lot less attention.

It takes a child's sensitive ears

to pick it up at all.

What is that tapping sound?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Want some orange juice?

- Yes.

- Here.

Some more.

I heard like, this noise last night

in the wall.

Really?

What kinda noise was it?

I dunno, it was like a,.

It was probably just the Boogey Man.

You sure you weren't dreaming?

Yeah, I'm sure.

Danny wasn't dreaming,

but this is a nightmare.

Bye, Rose.

Bye.

Bye, Rose!

Finding someone as thorough

as Rose these days is rare.

But all she's doing here

is clearing up the evidence.

Drywood termites have an old saying,

"My home is my dinner."

No excursions to distant food sources,

no exposure to hostile eyes,

working from home is so efficient,

you can be truly relentless.

So relentless, in fact,

that termites cause more damage

to homes across the world

than hurricanes, fires,

and floods combined,

more than $20,000,000,000 a year.

Here, the next generation

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