Termite Explosion! 720p HD Spring Emergence

Every spring, colonies of subterrainian termites grow and release thousands of winged adults on a single day. As if on a tight schedule, massive numbers of these bugs break out of their underground nests and burst into the air in just a few minutes. The sheer numbers of this emergence are intended to overwhelm the hungry, waiting predators. These bugs are on the menu of many creatures, including birds, ants, dragonflies, lizards and many others.

The adults take to the air using their temporary wings, in search of new places to colonize. After a breif flight, they land (or tire and fall to the ground!), shed their wings and search for a mate. The mated pair then begin their own colony.

Changes in ground temperature following spring rains seem to trigger these events - usually a warm, sunny day following a period of wet weather.

Near the end of the video, a colony of Argentine ants has discovered the "instant lunch" and tries to tackle and drag away as many of the termites as possible before they can fly away.

In a few scenes, the white-ish orange worker termites can also be seen, "helping" or perhaps trying to provide some protection to the exiting winged adults.

The music is "The Bass Voice v1", an adlib, one-take piece from the "Solo" CD by Technician (yours truly). Full artist discography, MP3 downloads and CDs are available at the Technician website: HTTP://technician.jcmdi.com

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Category:

Science & Technology

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• explosion
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[snarst]

Those ants are going to to have a fight on their hands if they go in the colony. Tell me if you know how it went with the ant invasion.

[jcmegabyte]

I think the ants were wise to the termite guards and soldiers... they were taking out a LOT of those basically defenseless winged adults at the surface, but weren't going into the ground where they were emerging from. Once themass emerging was over, the ants pretty much vanished, probably taking their haul back to the nest. It happens like that every year... :-)

[EastHolmes]

Feeling itchy right now.

[jcmegabyte]

I know how you feel - I had to get right in the middle of this while filming, and yes I did have some of them crawling all over me! Yikes! :-O

[vicodumb]

Party's over. The ants have shown up.

[jcmegabyte]

Yea - that was definitely a rude party crash! XD

[Torgeytits]

@trymvg

Same here

[trymvg]

I was looking for Termites that actually blows up.. missleading title :(

[supahfly55]

Termite Explosion sounds like the name of a fucked up porno

[GerbilEssences]

@vicodumb OM NOM NOMNOM!