Termite Trends Worldwide

I appreciate the opportunity to address the membership of the Canadian Wood Preservation Association at the 27 annual meeting, and discuss current trends in (1) termite biology, (2) termite research, and (3) termite control. This is, in some respects, an update to a paper I delivered at the seventh annual meeting of the CWPA on “The Challenge of Wood Destroying Insects” (Grace 1987). During the past 20 years, we have done much to meet the challenges described in that paper. However, wood destroying insects, particularly termites, are constantly presenting us with new questions and new challenges. For example, our increasingly mobile society has facilitated a rapid increase in the rate of introduction of invasive termites to new regions. Fortunately, scientific tools that were in their infancy 20 years ago, such as DNA fingerprinting, and pest control methods that were dreams in the minds of researchers, such as the use of termite baits (e.g., LaFage 1984), are now available to help us answer these questions and address these challenges.