[Arid_gardener] desert termites

[Linda Drew]

This sounds like our native desert termite:

http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_termites.html

"This species constructs fragile tubes and sheetings around the surfaces of 
herbaceous and woody plants (Fig. 1), litter, dung, fence posts, etc. on 
which it feeds. The termites do not tunnel into wood, but rather remove only 
surface materials. The "carton" tubes and sheetings can cover 6 percent or 
more of the soil surface during May through September on shortgrass 
rangeland in western Texas. "

http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-016.html

I don't think there is any need to treat.

Linda Drew
Master Gardener volunteer

>From: Louikuhn1 at mac.com
>To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
>Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page
>Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 18:49:03 -0700 (MST)
>
>Marion Kuhn
>85383
>Louikuhn1 at mac.com
>
>Have a transplanted native Ironwood. Has had some dead wood. tonight I 
>noticed some of the dead wood has a coating that looks like a cross between 
>sand and mud. It knocks off llike dead bark. wood underneath is hard, pale, 
>and has lots of tiny black dots. Any idea what this is? How do we treat it? 
>Do we need to? Could this be termites?
>
>
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>Arid_gardener mailing list
>Arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu
>http://CALS.arizona.edu/mailman2/listinfo/arid_gardener

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