Termites are the bane of any wooden structure. In a matter of years crucial structural supports can be honeycombed by these pests and if they go undetected for a long time, they can destroy the structural integrity of a home or other structure. To get rid of termites generally requires the application of strong chemicals that are highly toxic.

To help develop more environmentally friendly ways to rid houses, structures, and even trees of these pests, researchers in Illinois and Louisiana are developing a new strategy to eliminate them. What they have done is create a fungus filled foam that can be injected into hard to reach places. The foam contains spores of a fungus that kills termites by feeding and growing inside their bodies.

This fungus Paecilomyces fumosoroseus targets the Formosan subterranean termite which is now prolific in the southern and southwestern United States. This termite is spreading and is unrivaled in the size of the colonies that it develops and in its tunneling and voracious appetite for wood, both in houses and living trees. The fungus, however, poses no danger to humans or non-host insects.

In the not too distant future, this new discovery might move out of the university laboratory and into the commercial sector, helping to eliminate one of the most destructive of the wood boring insects. Losses in New Orleans alone due to these termites, before Hurricane Katrina, had reached $300 million dollars a year.

How it works is that foam with the fungus is injected into places there the termites are boring. The foam then fills up any cavities and tunnels. As the foam dries and collapses, it disperses spores onto the termites or leaves them in the places where the termites travel. The spores then enter into the termite and begin their life cycle as a fungus which destroys the termite from the inside out.