Evaluation of uncrushed feed substrates
This study envisaged to find out how termites respond to different plant
substrates as food. Could Avocado attract termites differently thanG. robusta , Eucalyptus, Cypress, Neem, Mango, Maize, Sugarcane,
Bamboo, Blue citronella grass? and what would be the effect of having no
substrate? Termites attraction to the various feed substrates were
highly significant p<0.05. Luanda sub-County has many tree
species among them G. robusta , Cypress, Eucalyptus, Neem, Mango,
Avocado. A mixture of all the plant species gave the highest termite
attraction (Mean ±SE, 676.500± 41.7 a) followed by sugarcane
(552.500±33.7b), while the blue Citronela grass had the lowest
attraction (18.500±0.26g) table 2 . Termites visited the feed
traps at night. Variation in wood chemistry is known to affect termite
feeding and substrate preference. In his study Evans et al., (2005)
recorded that termites prefer small blocks of wood to large blocks. In
this study, the selected plants were chopped into small pieces and put
in the termite traps. Among the tree species used in this study,G. robusta had the highest attraction followed by Eucalyptus and
Cypress respectively. Fajar et al., (2021), reported that termites
foraged on Eucalyptus. Nakabonge & Matovu, (2021) reported that
Eucalyptus species are highly susceptible to termites.
The worker termites were found in large numbers than soldiers,table 5 . The workers feed while the soldiers keep guard. Worker
termites produce a loud noise when chewing. This loud chewing generates
acoustic emissions that attract more workers to feed in the dark, as
elucidated by Wang et al., (2019).